Broadening the Scope and Narrowing the Approach: Reforming Teaching American History Grants to Meet the Needs of K–12 Teachers

This paper argues that while TAH offers K-12 teachers important opportunities for subject-specific professional development, only a transformation in both scope and instructional approach will significantly improve the quality of history instruction.  First, as currently conceived the narrow focus on “traditional American history” excludes world history teachers, a growing portion of the K-12 teaching work force.  Second, the emphasis on lecture delivery of factual historical content too often misses the mark for the American history teachers it does include.  Frequently unfamiliar with the state standards, historians deliver presentations that do not meet teachers’ needs. Presentations are sometimes so general that they provide no new information to teachers. And the very model of delivering content to a passive classroom audience often prevents the feedback that would allow presenters to target their talks more effectively.  Written by a high school history teacher, this paper suggests that TAH would better serve teachers by expanding its content horizon while simultaneously narrowing its instructional approach. First, TAH could broaden the scope of content to incorporate topics that situate American history in international or comparative contexts. This would benefit world history teachers, while remaining within the parameters of the grants.  At the same time, rather than addressing general content that is often familiar to teachers already, historians could focus more narrowly on the contribution they are uniquely positioned to provide: a disciplinary approach to their topic. By addressing disciplinary questions historians can help teachers strengthen instruction by addressing concepts in addition to factual information. Since historiographical debates often hinge on interpretations of concepts that transcend American history, a disciplinary perspective could allow for the inclusion of world history teachers, while simultaneously enriching the understanding of American history teachers.