When Shirley Chisholm (in 1972) and then Hillary Clinton (in 2008, and again in 2016) ran for president, there was great excitement. Indeed, electing the “first woman” to the Office of the President would be an important milestone. Yet, ndigenous women have long held positions of leadership, including the position of President, Chairperson, or Chief, among other titles, within their Native nations. In this unit of study, we describe how students in grades 3–5 can learn about and from Indigenous women changemakers and their professions, communities, and Native nations.

In this article, the author considers the use of Asian American digital archives as sources of critical inquiry for the elementary social studies classroom.It includes a brief overview of early South Asian American history, focusing on Punjabi and Bengali migrations, then orients educators to two note-worthy community archives, the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) and the Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive. A sample lesson on Bhagat Singh Thind, a South Asian pioneer who challenged exclusionary citizenship laws in the twentieth century, is provided. 

<p>We live in a time when the question of who is (or is not) depicted in public monuments is a topic of heated discussions across the nation. For example, the removal of Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, resulted in a violent protest in 2017. Such debates concerning the display and preservation of Civil War monuments center around concerns that Confederate monuments romanticize the pro-slavery South and fail to acknowledge the racial oppression that fueled the Civil War. But issues about Civil War monuments are part of a larger discussion about the effect of monuments…

The only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture opens this month in Washington, D.C.

Taking a repeat photograph, or then and now photo, of a site can engage students in the exploration of social, economic, and environmental changes over time.

When teachers create lessons that include historical sources, it’s important to pay attention to source choice and source attribution. 

The following articles have been selected from our three main journals for K-12 teachers: Social Education, Middle Level Learning, and Social Studies and the Young Learner. These articles are grouped by topic for easy reference. Also included are recent current event responses that address racism and call for human rights education. NCSS Current Events Responses (2020)Teaching about Race and Racism in the ClassroomThe African American Struggle for Civil RightsSlavery and Its LegacyRacism and Discrimination against Black, Indigenous, and People of ColorHuman Rights EducationMiddle Level…

The two featured documents can serve as a starting point for a lesson on public service while students debate the amount of pay that public servants should receive.

Focusing on barrier-breaking individuals in teaching about history not only fosters hero-worshipping, but ignores the power of groups in initiating broad social change.

Picture books often address complex topics and can provide a visually arresting approach for teaching secondary as well as special needs students.