The purpose of this study was to obtain a realistic portrait of National History Day (NHD)--a secondary school, history related program in which students research and develop presentations on a topic related to an annual theme. My goal was to determine: whether the positive claims for NHD were realistic; why and how the program grew from a local program with 129 students in 1974 to over 500,000 students in 48 states in 1991; and what implications there were for educational processes. For this ethnohistorical case study, which combined ethnographic and historiographic methods, I collected historical data through documentary material and interviews; perspectives of teachers and students through interviews and observations; and supplementary and validating data through interviews with state coordinators and former students. The study participants were the "founding fathers" and Executive and Associate Directors of NHD, 13 students and 4 teachers from 3 schools in different states, and 3 state coordinators and 6 former NHD students from corresponding states and schools. The data support the claims of superior cognitive, affective, and skill development through student participation in NHD. The data also show that the teachers and students in this study participated mainly because NHD provided opportunities for self-determination, self-comparison, close student-teacher relationships, community contribution, receiving recognition, and having fun. Furthermore, results indicate that these motivational dynamics account, at least in part, for the program's phenomenal growth. Additionally, findings suggest that for these participants competition was the driving force behind the level of involvement and calibre of work. While all study participants claimed major benefits and few drawbacks to the competition format, most considered the judging process to be inconsistent and a weakness in the program. Implications for educational practice revolve around how to incorporate the motivational components of the NHD process into the curriculum. The implications for the teaching and learning of history relate to methodology. The participants indicated that through the NHD process students gained a deeper comprehension of historical content and concepts and a greater ability to think critically and to develop their own knowledge than was possible in a traditional, teacher-dominated classroom.

This qualitative, exploratory case study focused on the design and implementation of a human rights curriculum in a fourth grade, public school classroom. Based on a review of the literature on human rights education, a curriculum incorporating a month long unit, democratic classroom practices, and social action projects was designed and carried out with a group of eighteen, White fourth graders. The study examined students' responses in terms of their thinking about human rights, themselves, and others; their peer relations; and their involvement in social action projects. Data collection methods included participant observation, interviews, audiotaping and videotaping classroom events, and document analysis. Feedback from the students, parents, and teachers in the school helped to establish reliability and confirmability. The major finding of the study was that students' personal experiences, developmental levels, and family and cultural backgrounds strongly influenced their ideas, interests, and subsequent learning about human rights. Most students were able to develop a basic understanding of human rights concepts. Effective teaching techniques were simulations, using children's literature, role play, and action projects. Though the students' peer relations did not change appreciably, most of the students developed a greater interest in human rights issues and learning about different others as a result of the human rights curriculum. The democratic classroom practices and the social action projects gave many students opportunities to become empowered in their own learning. The implications of this study are relevant for teaching at the upper elementary level. It is important for teachers to become aware of children's pre-existing knowledge and attitudes and provide them with with meaningful experiences to build upon or change their thinking. In teaching about human rights and other cultural issues, educators need to be aware of their own biases and teach in ways that reduce rather than increase stereotypes and prejudice. An integrated, comprehensive, and developmentally appropriate approach to human rights instruction will maximize students' learning.

Historical empathy is a topic that is decades old in history education research, but has been stunted in it’s implementation due to a lack of conceptual clarity, and a lag in balanced research grounding the term. Also, classroom practices and pedagogy have had some implementation missteps that have encouraged over identification and unrestrained emotional engagement between students of history and historical agents. These missteps run counter to the practice of quality, unbiased historical inquiry. The goal of this research study is to contribute to the field and knowledge in area of historical empathy, and to provide knowledge that help practitioners avoid such missteps. This study intends to help stabilize the term, and to investigate the dual-process (affective and cognitive) nature of historical empathy engagement. Through investigates the different conceptualizations and frameworks, especially in digging deeper into students’ affective process in historical empathy engagement, this study intends to balance the field’s understanding of the affective process in a dual-process model. The findings highlight the areas where current knowledge was echoed, where research may be misunderstood or fall short, and where further research and study is needed.

This qualitative study undertook an exploration into the connections between creativity and change/transformation. Its purpose was to begin to understand how creativity could be used as a tool for empowerment, liberation, and transformation, and how creative techniques could be incorporated into educational efforts. Participants were students who were enrolled in an undergraduate course designed and taught by the researcher, entitled Creativity and Change. Using their coursework and interviews, this research explored how these student/participants perceived of themselves as creative individuals and as persons capable of making change in their lives and in the world, how they connected the two concepts of creativity and change, and how they utilized creative processes in envisioning change strategies. This study broke ground in two areas of creativity research: (1) looking at the effects and benefits of a creativity class from the perspective of the students who were enrolled in it, and (2) expanding on the research on climate for creativity by connecting creativity to personal and social change efforts, again, from the perspective of students. The results of this study are a beginning to better understanding the multiple aspects of creativity--expression, process, products--and their importance ta self-development, empowerment, and liberation in education. The responses of the students who participated in this study were encouraging in supporting the premise that there are multiple connections between creativity and change. They demonstrated the effects of creativity in increasing self-knowledge and self-esteem, making connections between people, envisioning solutions to social problems, expanding perceptions to incorporate different perspectives and viewpoints, breaking boundaries, and taking the risks that transformation demands. These student/participants demonstrated, through the discovery of their own creative, capable selves, a sense of empowerment arising from the knowledge that "I CAN." Being able to think outside of conventional structures and paradigms, challenging dualistic thought, and incorporating holistic teaching and learning strategies are some of the strengths and gifts of creativity. This study has shown that the openness and imagination of creative thought and behavior can become a tool to dismantle the injustices of the world and create new, transformative paradigms.

Gender inequity and inequality in the United States are persistent problems. Schools, as agents of socialization, can serve as mechanisms to reduce inequities. Yet, despite attempts at reform, there is little evidence of change. The high school social studies classroom is an important space because it is a place where students learn cultural norms and develop representations of various groups. Yet, the literature shows a significant underrepresentation of women in the social studies classroom (Crocco, 2008; Noddings, 1992; Schmeichel, 2011). This lack of representation could contribute to the persistence of inequality or, at the very least, maintain the status quo. Thus, understanding how children learn about women in the social studies classroom is important in creating gender equity in the United States. However, there is scant research on the role of the social studies teacher in the gender socialization of students. Gender bias is still a prevalent problem in many American classrooms (Sadker & Sadker, 2010). Evidence suggests that teacher beliefs might play an important role in what students learn (Pajares, 1992). The results of this study provide insight into how feminist teachers’ beliefs about gender inequity might influence their teaching practices, specifically their curriculum and their classroom practices. I studied six high school history teachers who had been identified to promote gender equity in their classrooms. Data from the teachers was collected and analyzed through interviews and observations to determine the relationship between teachers’ beliefs about gender equity and their teaching practices. These teachers had specific commonalities in classroom discourse, curricular modifications, and professional practices. The role of advocacy of teacher advocacy for equity was also examined, along with the current barriers for gender-equitable teaching, as voiced by the participants.

Textbooks, curriculum packages, standards, professional development and pre-service education, and national advocacy groups all utilize orientation terms to identify the pedagogical approaches, though no model for orientations has currently been validated against the lived experience of teachers. The purpose of the dissertation is to research a practitioner-informed orientation model for social studies, utilizing the lived experiences of teachers including their connections to and with technology. As a preliminary investigation to explore and understand the construct of orientations, the initial set of participants was bound to three secondary social studies teachers from an urban, suburban, and rural district, respectively. Data collection was completed through a series of detailed interviews including three modified narrative identity protocols, one elicited response interview, and one observation interview. Phenomenology formed the epistemological lens and the method that utilized various instruments as a pathway into the teachers’ perceived life worlds. Research was conducted from a transcendental or psychological approach to phenomenology with a grounded theory approach to analyzing the data to generate theoretical themes rooted in the narratives. A detailed description of each case narrative along with the phenomenological essence of each teacher is provided individually before cross case analysis is presented. From this combined case data, a constructed model that captures the narratives, trends, and overlaps was created. Evans’ orientation model was utilized as exemplary of the field for comparison. There existed overlaps present with the utilized model yet current models explored failed to encompass all elements of teacher-held orientations and an emergent model is presented that includes the following orientation constructs: social efficiency, a social sciences core, a transformative role, and personal improvement. The findings also included four themes: the role of storytelling as a central concept in practice, the role of film and television representations of history in sustaining engagement, the value of the classroom environment and students in creating a sense of equity, and a close level of uniformity in orientation reporting out of step with current frameworks. Implications for learning environments, particularly in relation to the utilization of technology, are discussed in addition to necessary future research suggestions.

The purpose of this study was to trace the development of the content of the disciplines in the social studies curriculum in the public secondary schools of Utah from 1847 to 1967. The factors considered in dealing with the development of the social studies curriculum were: textbooks, courses of study, and associated teacher materials used by the students in the public secondary schools of the Utah territory and state. The school subjects within the social studies curriculum included: history, geography, civics, economics, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. These school subjects were examined chronologically for the period, 1847-1967, to determine events that reflected major educational changes in the school curriculum of Utah. From the findings of the study, it was concluded that: 1. History as a subject in the public secondary schools of Utah from 1847 to 1967 was characterized by growth and development. This was through the greater availability of textbooks and the appearance of the subject at different grade levels. National committees in the United States have prominently influenced the instructional content of history in Utah through textbooks and courses of study. 2 . Geography was taught as a separate subject of study in the public secondary schools of Utah. As one of the first of the social studies offered it received major emphasis during the territorial period. Efforts in the nineteenth century to improve the geography textbooks in American education brought forth materials that included maps, globes, drawings of the earth's physical features, and study of the pupil's home region, Present-day practices traced to national developments came from the Committee of Ten, 1892, and the 1916 report of the Committee of Social Studies by the National Education Association which exerted influences on geography instruction in the secondary schools of Utah. 3 . Civics and other associated materials in the political science field including law and constitution owe their greatest debt of existence in the Utah territorial schools to the teaching of American history, The first evidence of a separate offering of materials from the study of civics in Utah's public schools was in 1892. On the national level various committee reports since 1892 by the American Political Science Association, American Historical Association, and the National Education Association have materially shaped school courses in Utah in the great task of citizenship training. 4. Economics, formerly known as political economy, never enjoyed a prominent position in the schools of Utah. During the first three decades of the present cenmry the subject of economics gained a foothold in the program of studies of Utah schools, Since the 1960's implementation of economic materials have assisted in promoting greater economic understanding. S. Psychology as a school study was found in other subject-matter textbooks used in Utah secondary schools before psychology became an independent and separate subject in 1921. A very limited number of high school textbooks in psychology on state approved textbook listings, over the years, may be evidence that this subject has not been a strong, separate and independent subject in Utah schools. 6. Sociology prior to 1913 was not an independent subject of study in Utah schools. Since 1913 it has been taught on a limited basis. The emerging in 1930 of the course in present-day problems in American democracy contained then as it presently does, elements of sociology, economics, and political science. 7. Anthropology in Utah schools had been taught from the behavioral content of history, geography, sociology etc., but there has been little effort to identify the anthropological concepts. Anthropology has not yet become firmly established as a separate and independent subject in Utah schools.

Abstract not available

This dissertation accepts that the way that international social and economic development is taught, practised and critiqued condemns its practitioners to co-opt those who engage them in alliances into becoming instruments for the extension of western hegemony. It demonstrates that this analysis and its outcome are inevitable conclusions given the Enlightenment approaches used in the theory and practice and the postdevelopment theory deployed in the critique of development. This dissertation argues that the work of Jacques Lacan provides a foundation for training for, the practice of and the critique of development that escapes these limitations. Initial exploration for dissertation was composed within the work of Michel Foucault. This perspective made it possible to see the effects of the partial use made of Foucault by postdevelopment critics. The gap between this potential and their use justified field research. Research involved an iterative sequence of interviews with development professionals that engaged both their accounts of the relationship between knowledge and action in development and accounts of their own production and reproduction as development professionals. Following the Foucauldian argument that there are a plurality of discourses, the content of these interviews was synthesized into narratives that evinced a variety of relationships between knowledge and action. Actions, however, are necessarily justified on the terms of, and therefore reinforce, the dominant discourse. In addition to discussing the relationship between knowledge and action, subjects were also found to discuss dispositions like naïveté and cynicism. These were not anticipated nor are they well accommodated in Enlightenment or Foucauldian frameworks. This surplus was productively engaged through the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan. Lacan's notions of fantasy and the unconscious are found to provide a terrain within which it is possible to suggest how development practitioners can be engaged as allies in a manner that does not result in the extension of western hegemony. His theory is also found to suggest a framework for the understanding of education that may produce development professionals who are far more fit than those solely educated in the Enlightenment tradition to serve as allies.

Statement of the problem: Teachers of economically disadvantaged students face many pragmatic and problematic considerations, one of which is the motoric learning style of their pupils. A theoretical basis for greater involvement in the psycho-motor domain of learning has been presented in educational literature by Dewey, Piaget, Gagne, et al. Recent curriculum approaches seem to neglect psycho-motor development in favor of more cognitive and affective domains of learning. It is the purpose of this film-study to 1) show the application of manipulative instructional aids in teaching Social Studies to economically disadvantaged seventh grade students; and 2) to depict, through the use of film, actual student participation in the learning activity. This study attempts to answer four questions; 1) Who are the economically disadvantaged? 2) What (in part) is the nature of their present learning problem? 3) What are manipulative instructional aids? 4) How may they be used in the classroom to teach the basic subjects, particularly seventh grade Social Studies?