Studying the nineteenth-century educator and civil rights leader Octavius Catto can help students move beyond the simplistic U.S. narrative of racial progress to a more complex understanding of race and resistance in America.   

Examining photographs of women participating in elections around the world can help students make important connections to the Nineteenth Amendment and prompt a fascinating comparative study of women’s voting rights worldwide.

The use of trade books to foster discussion of historical events and major Supreme Court decisions in the elementary classroom can serve as a powerful method through which elementary students can begin to see themselves as active contributors to the communities and worlds in which they live. In this article and the accompanying lesson plan, the authors share ways to teach about Supreme Court decisions —specifically the decisions that have affected marriage equality—with the C3 Framework.

This inquiry, which explores the current debate on what should be done with Confederate monuments, engages students in historical, geographic and civic skills.

Engaging students in an examination of historical segregation in Virginia can ignite an important discussion about the ongoing reality of segregation in the United States today.  

Teaching about LGBTQ+ concepts and history helps counter prejudice and creates a classroom environment that is supportive of all students.

A troubling observation is that—outside of Black History Month in February and Women’s History Month in March, during which students are acquiring some knowledge about noteworthy women and minorities—teachers in every grade level often teach about the same figures rather than expanding their lessons to include less-conventional or less-well-known individuals. To address these gender equity gaps related to social studies instruction, the authors established “Little Leaders,” a group consisting of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten girls.

Using Material Culture to Teach Inclusive U.S. History; Empower Students to be Keepers of their own History Through Artifacts “Archives are the factories and laboratories of the historian. . . they are the warehouses from which we acquire the materials to build the history we write.” But what of the histories not captured in traditional archives? Historian Tiya Miles calls this the “conundrum of the archives–the way that written records have favored those with the means to document their lives. Such archives have skewed toward power, meaning white and male, and have largely…

Toxic civic dialogue? Insurrection? Decline of democracy? America needs quality civic and history education more than ever. NCSS has been a lead supporter and partner in the development of Educating for American Democracy, an initiative that promises a greater emphasis on civic and history education that is powerful, interdisciplinary, and inquiry-based. This virtual Town Hall to hear directly from a distinguished panel that will present the initiative and discuss actions needed to make the promise of Educating for American Democracy a reality for all learners. The Town Hall is moderated by…

Young children’s self-identification and self-identity are essentially a set of conscious and unconscious beliefs built from experiences.2 Students’ self-image, and their understanding of society, can change when they research how women contributed to our nation and to our daily lives. Such lessons can render these historical figures accessible and relevant. We created a lesson based on inquiry activities as described in the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards, introducing students to a compelling question: “Why do we celebrate Women’s History…