History Education and the Passport to Social Studies: Historical Thinking and the Creation of a District Curriculum

The Passport to Social Studies is a K-12 curriculum designed and written by New York City educators in collaboration with historians and history educators. Through the implementation of the curriculum, students immerse themselves in historical and social studies topics aligned to the New York State Social Studies Framework. The curriculum emphasizes the integration of content and skills with students with a consideration for depth of investigation with a recognition of the need for coherence and breadth required by survey course and NYSED’s standards. During lessons students explore topics by discussing historical questions, reading and analyzing a rich collection of diverse primary and secondary sources. At the heart of the high school units in the Passport curriculum is an attempt to develop historical thinking through explicit modeling of second order concepts identified through the research of history educators.

During the process of writing the high school Passport units, teacher curriculum writers and members of the district’s content team consulted with several history educators to guide the design principles undergirding each unit. In addition, the district asked historians to help us identify and in some cases write texts so that students could access recent findings and historiographical debates. Throughout the process the curriculum development provided a space for an emerging conversation among teachers, history educators, and historians. This paper will explore the successes and challenges encountered as districts work with both history educators and historians on large-scale curricular projects.