Annotated Bibliography: Effects and Analysis of Diverse Representation and Perspectives

Revolving High School History

Alviar-Martin, T., Randall, J. D., Usher, E. L., Engelhard, G. J., (2008). Teaching Civic Topics

in Four Societies: Examining National Context and Teacher Confidence, The Journal of

Educational Research, 101, 177-187.

In this quantitative study the authors examine the confidence in teachers across four

different countries in addressing civic topics with their students. The authors determine

that there is a correlation between the confidence of teachers in their knowledge of civic

topics and their ability to actually teach it in their class. They believe that teachers who

approach their subject matter and their students with a high degree of confidence (a)

display increased levels of professional commitment, (b) find better ways of teaching,

and (c) implement progressive and innovative methods. Researchers have also

determined that teacher self-efficacy is related to student attitudes and motivation and to

student achievement. They addressed this topic in civic classes differed across four

societies: Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, and the United States. The final sample included

1,375 teachers from the United States (n = 98), Hong Kong (n = 430), Germany (n =

368), and Italy (n = 479). The authors used differential item functioning models to

examine responses to items from the Teacher Confidence Scale of the International

Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's Civic Education Study.

Case studies supported quantitative findings. Results revealed that the confidence of

teachers varied when they addressed civic topics. Furthermore, teacher confidence varied

as a function of country of residence. Quantitative results supported theoretical tenets of

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 teacher self-efficacy and political socialization that contend that teachers draw heavily on

their nation's cultural and historical traditions when they form their attitudes and beliefs.

They found that teachers felt most confident addressing topics relating to their nation's

history, and citizens' and human rights. Conversely, teachers felt least confident

addressing economic and international issues. Part of the research I was focusing on was

on the way in which diverse perspectives were included in high school history classes and

the research revealed here shows that in order for different perspectives to be brought up

and analyzed teachers must first feel confident enough in their knowledge of those

perspectives to actually incorporate it in class.

Blevins, B., Salinas, C., Sullivan, C. C. (2012) Critical Historical Thinking: When Official

Narratives Collide with Other Narratives, Multicultural Perspectives, 14, 1, 18-27.

The purpose of this article is to examine the “Student as Historian” project. The “Student

as Historian” project is a Web based historical thinking project designated as a means to

help pre-service teachers explore how the teaching of history can be situated in more

dynamic and critical ways in the classroom. Historical thinking—an examination of a

historical event or figure through the ‘reading’ of primary sources or first-hand

accounts—creates an opportunity to include multiple perspectives and/or challenge

traditional metanarratives. Ultimately the introduction of the other disrupts the official

curricula typical to the teaching of history. For the most part the article introduces and

analyzes the project “Student as Historian.” The Student as Historian project embodies

those various people, events, and institutions that have been excluded, misrepresented,

and/or over generalized in the formal history curriculum and standards. The purpose of

the project is for preservice teachers enrolled in their secondary social studies methods

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 courses (one of two) to view history as a contested terrain—and use historical thinking as

a way to attend to other narratives via the use of digital primary sources and correlating

document-based questions. All three authors have served as either the course instructor

and/or seminar/field facilitator for multiple semesters and have done considerable work in

examining how. The Student as Historian has served to increase the critical

consciousness of both preservice/in service teachers. In order to enact critical notions of

historical teaching, the authors therefore begin by asking teachers to reflect upon the

intersection of their knowledge of educational ends, purposes, and values and their

pedagogical content knowledge with regard to the pedagogical and curricular choices

they make in their classrooms. History teaching is not a chronological accrual of facts

and data punctuated by events deemed significant. It is a field of study in which the

historical narrative is created by students and teachers in collaboration and thus is a

socially constructed and contested territory whereby the study of history has changed

from a search for truth to a search for perspective. They conclude that teachers should

reflect upon their own understandings of the purpose of the teaching of history and what

knowledge is necessary in order to present other narratives that provide a more inclusive

and democratic rendition of history in the classroom. This source builds on the idea that

in order for teachers to bring in different perspectives in the classroom then they have to

be knowledgeable about them themselves. They also suggest using historical thinking –

an examination of a historical event or figure through the ‘reading’ of primary sources or

first-hand accounts – as a way to create more opportunities to bring in different people

and perspectives that aren’t normally included in class.

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Busey C. L. (2017): Más que Esclavos: A BlackCrit examination of the treatment of Afro-

Latinas in U.S. high school world history textbooks, Journal of Latinos and

Education, 1-18.

The purpose of this article is to examine the ways in which Afro-Latinas are

represented in U.S. History textbooks as well as the ways in which those

representations perpetuate a violence against Black bodies by reducing Afro-Latinas

to passive historical agents. Furthermore, Afro-Latina identities are circumscribed to

fit within the neoliberal socio-political narrative of Latin America as a racial

paradise. Though his research originally included eight high school world history

textbooks the repetition of authors and duplicate word-for-word narratives forced

the author to narrow the scope of their analysis to just three editions. The research

questions that guided this investigation were: how are Afro-Latinas represented in

U.S. high school world history textbooks and how is Afro-Latin identity, race, and

anti-Black racism contextualized within broader societal frameworks in colonial and

contemporary Latin American history? The author used this to guide the way he

examined three textbooks. The author read each textbook page by page while

systematically searching for references to Afro-Latinas in passages, images,

captions, chapter synopses, charts, and tables. Based on the findings from their

analysis of three recently published world history textbooks, it is not surprising that

students in the United States complete 12 years of formal schooling and still remain

unaware of Black presence in Latin America. Furthermore, textual references to

Afro-Latinas after 1900 were markedly absent in the three textbooks. High school

world history textbooks in the U.S. ignore the complexity of Afro-Latina citizenship

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 and identity formation while minimizing anti-Black systemic racism. Overall, Afro-

Latinas’ historical influence within Latin American was relegated to paradigms of

slavery, racial stratification, and mestizaje— reductionist narratives. Educators at all

levels can no longer allow for history textbooks and other social studies curricula to

limit representations of Afro-Latinas to race mixing, racial hierarchy, and

enslavement. Afro-Latina experiences and histories are complex and multilayered,

thus warranting extensive treatment in K–12 curricular narratives. This source adds

to the research I wanted to find because it analyzes the way this minority group is

reduced and ignored through high school history classes and as a result the students

go through all four years of high school with little to no idea of who this minority

group is.

Epstein, T. (2000) Adolescents’ perspectives on racial diversity in U.S. history: Case studies

from an urban classroom. American Educational Research Journal, 37, 185-214.

In this qualitative study the author centers her work on analyzing the narratives of the

students on U.S. History. She states that scholars who are interested in reforming K-12

history curriculum have presented competing perspectives on incorporating the historical

experiences of racial groups into traditional narratives of U.S. history. She says that none

of the perspectives, however, have been informed by research on young people's

interpretations of race relations in national history. She is trying to do implement just

that: young people’s interpretations of race relations in national history. The author

identifies herself to be a European American female. She, along with Jamal Cooks, an

African American graduate student, interviewed 5 students each. Epstein interviews 5

European American students and Cooks interview 5 African American students. Epstein

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 analyzes end-of-the-year historical narratives of five African American and five

European American 11th graders in the same U.S. history class. Another participant is

Ms. Hines, the 11th grade U.S. history teacher of the class Epstein would first observe.

The data for the study were collected in May 1995 in an urban Midwestern high school in

a deindustrialized automobile manufacturing community with a 43% African American

and 55% European American student population. Detailed analyses of four representative

student narratives, focusing on the students’ views of racial diversity. It specifically

focuses on their explanation of (1) racial groups’ historical experiences, (2) the role of the

nation or government in shaping racial group’s experiences, and (3) the existences of a

common national history, culture, or identity. The main sources of data used in the study

were field notes and interviews taken of students. The 4 students whose national

narratives are included obtained a 3-0 or higher-grade point average by the end of the

junior year; each also received an A in Ms. Hines' history class at the end of the year. The

author generated descriptions of differences in students' concepts of racial groups'

experiences, governmental roles, and racial group or national identity. From the

descriptions she constructed four general perspectives on racial diversity in U.S. history:

a traditional Eurocentric perspective, constructed by two European American students; a

revisionist Eurocentric perspective, held by three European American students; an

Afrocentric perspective, constructed by three African American students; and a double

historical consciousness perspective, constructed by two African American students.

Epstein concluded by suggesting that teachers need to incorporate into their pedagogy the

logic of representation that students of different races or ethnicities bring to historical

inquiry. This can be done by balancing the coverage of content related to the experiences

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 of European Americans and people of color by considering how the ideologies, actions,

and experiences of privileged and subordinated groups shaped and were shaped by those

of others. This relates to the research I was hoping to find because it states that the

perspective students themselves bring into the classroom is also shaped by what they are

taught in class. The people and ideas they are taught add to their own perspective on the

history they know and that is why it is important for teachers to bring in different

perspectives and representations into the classroom.

Franquiz, M. E., Slinas, C, S. (2011) Newcomers to the U.S.: Developing Historical Thinking

Among Latino Immigrant Students in a Central Texas High School, Bilingual Research

Journal, 34:1, 58-75.

The research project described in this article investigates how a teacher integrated

language and content in a single subject area, social studies, in a high school newcomer

classroom. Three extended lessons were presented to newcomer students in Central Texas

who are native speakers of Spanish. The case study in the newcomer classroom

documented immigrant students’ use of digitized primary resources and document-based

questions pertaining to the social crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957; the civil rights

concerns of the Chicano Movimiento of the 1960s and 1970s; and the U.S. public’s

conflicting responses to immigration, particularly from Mexico, in the 21st century. Each

extended lesson required that the students systematically understand sources; contexts;

historical significance; and notions of agency, empathy, and moral judgment. The authors

decided to use historical thinking as a pedagogical tool to reveal to the students the

historical tensions, contradictions, controversies, and complexity of the North American

historical race/ethnic narrative. Classes across the 3 months of the study at Burleson High

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 School were used for this research. In specific they focused on Ms. Ayala’s 10th grade

world history class since she had late-arrival immigrant students. In the planning of the

three extended lesson/activities, attention to instructional approaches appropriate for

sheltered language instruction was weighed in selecting materials and methods of their

presentation. Primary sources had to provide the students with ample historical clues but

not present second-language learners with abstract concepts or lengthy/convoluted text.

English was encouraged for all responses, but Spanish was respectfully accepted. Though

teacher and researchers were bilingual (Spanish/English), they agreed to serve as English-

speaking role models and used English 95% of the time spent with the newcomer

students. Because Ms. Ayala’s curriculum sought to promote a more inclusive

curriculum, she paid attention to historical context, selecting controversial, meaningful,

and relevant issues for deep study. She also fostered critical problem-solving and

decision-making skills necessary for becoming an informed citizen. Despite the challenge

of specific concepts in the social studies curriculum, findings show that the interactive use

of digitized primary source documents available in English made the subject relevant and

meaningful to the newcomer students. The choice to use (or not) the home language for

oral and written responses played a significant role in the students’ understanding and use

of historical thinking. In this study the authors have shown the role that native language

supports can play in the academic lives of late-arrival immigrant students learning

English in a sheltered social studies classroom. Adolescent newcomers who are provided

instruction in academic language and historical thinking, which is necessary for text

comprehension and writing, do experience school success in social studies. The use of

Web-based technologies serves as a tremendous asset in the development of academic

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 language and historical thinking in social studies because newcomers are immersed in

visually rich environments that engage them in challenging questions with primary

documents. I really enjoyed this study and specifically found interesting the role that

language played as a key tool for the teachers to help students better understand and

connect with the content. This study showed that there is a place for native language in

the classroom. This all connects with the research I want to do because it shows that in

order for new perspectives to be relatable to newcomer students teachers have to be

willing to meet students wherever they are. That is they have to bring in topics that are

relevant and they have to allow them to use them any language necessary in order to

understand and engage with the content.

Heilig, J. V., Brown, K. D., Brown, A. L. (2012) The Illusion of Inclusion: A Critical Race

Theory Textual Analysis of Race and Standards, Harvard Educational Review, 82, 3,

403-424.

This article offers the findings from a close textual analysis of how the Texas social

studies standards address race, racism, and communities of color. The authors uncover

the sometimes-subtle ways that the standards can appear to adequately address race while

at the same time marginalizing it – the “illusion of inclusion.” Their main research

question is: What are the nuanced and subtle ways in which race and racism are

represented in the social studies standards in Texas? The participants were the analyst

and writers of the paper. In this paper they present a careful textual analysis of the second

generation of Texas eleventh-grade U.S. history social studies TEKS adopted by the state

board of education in 2010. (The first generation of TEKS were in use from 1997 to

2010.) They highlight that while there are a modest number of TEKS specifically

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 addressing the history of African Americans and Latinos, Native American and Asian

American histories remain largely invisible. They also concur with the predominant

discussion in the public discourse that the TEKS include a disturbing binary between

standards that are required and optional. The second part of their analysis focuses on how

knowledge is represented in the recently adopted social studies TEKS. Significant to the

findings in this analysis is the subtle manner in which race and racism are simultaneously

acknowledged and obscured. Four key findings that resulted from this work include: (1)

Relative to Whites, a limited treatment of the involvement and role of specific

individuals/groups of color to the U.S. historical narrative—especially Native Americans

and Asian Americans; (2) drawing from the discourse of including and such as, a

demarcation between the knowledge that students must learn and the knowledge that they

can but do not necessarily have to learn as a part of the formal curriculum to be tested on

high-stakes exams; (3) a recognition, yet obscured and distorted, of the existence of race

and racism in U.S. history; and (4) a limited use of the actual terms race and racism in the

TEKS. This goes with the research I was trying to find because I wanted to tap into how

much standards and required texts we are told to implement in class actually mention

about different minority groups. Through this study I learned that race and racism are as a

whole limited and usually excluded not only in the classroom but in those state test that

students have to take. Those topics tend to be ignored. This adds to the fact that students

are not getting a complete and/or well-rounded education regarding relevant and

important history they should be getting.

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Hilburn, J., Journell, W., Brown Buchanan, L. (2016) A Content Analysis of Immigration in

Traditional, New, and Non-Gateway State Standards for U.S. History and Civics, The

High School Journal, 99, 234-251.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to analyze state U.S. History and Civics

standards. The authors compared the treatment of immigration across three types of states

with differing immigration demographics. This is a content analysis which is classified

under quantitative research. The following research question guided their study: What is

the relationship between states’ immigration demographics (i.e., gateway status) and their

respective U.S. History and Civic standards? The three states the authors chose to analyze

were divided into three deferring demographic histories relevant to immigration –

traditional gateways, new gateways and non-gateways. They selected all six traditional

gateway states (New Jersey, New York, California, Illinois, Texas, Florida), and

randomly selected six of the new gateway states (Utah, Nevada, Indiana, Iowa, Georgia,

North Carolina) and non-gateway states (Montana, Ohio, Missouri, Louisiana, South

Dakota, West Virginia). Their sample included secondary standards in 18 states for both

U.S. History and Civics. Quantitative data analysis included frequency counts of all

topics related to immigration and which they then compared across the 18 states to create

data displays. They see a potential relationship between political power of immigration

communities and how this power comes to bear on standards development. and how this

power comes to bear on standards development. The fact that traditional gateway states

included immigration more predominantly than both new and non-gateway states, as well

as the fact that new gateways did not include immigration more than non-gateways

suggests that the political influence wielded by groups in these states could be a

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 potentially more powerful contributor to standards than state demographics. Immigrants

in traditional gateway states, after all, have longer established and more powerful

political bases from which to lobby relative to new gateway. In the comparison of U.S.

History standards and Civics standards we found that regardless of a state's gateway

status, immigration was presented more often as a historical issue rather than as a civic or

political issue. The majority of states Civics' standards mentioned immigration once or

not at all, with half of the states not including immigration at all. I wanted to look into the

ways in which minority groups are represented in standards and required texts as these

are what teachers are ultimately pushed to utilize and implement in class regardless of the

actual demographics surrounding them. This analysis gave a really good example of this.

One thing that I hadn’t considered before but that was mentioned here was that

sometimes outside sources are the ones that determine if standards that teachers are told

to use are actually implemented or not. In this analysis they find that political influences

wielded in some states may be a more powerful influence on standards than state

demographics tend to be.

Jaffee, A. T., (2016) Community, Voice, and Inquiry: Teaching Global History for English

Language Learners, The Social Studies, 107, 3, 1-13.

The purpose of this article is to explore the curricular and instructional design

implemented by a social studies teacher and aims to provide readers with an example of

and insight into how best to meet the needs of ELLs in the social studies classroom.

Various examples of social studies teaching strategies and English language learning

techniques are discussed, including: experiential learning, writing and revision, inquiry-

based learning, discussion, group work, and social studies concept formation. This case

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 study focused on one teacher’s practices and revealed how the course encouraged

newcomer students to enter the classroom knowing their experiences were valued and

utilized to construct the content and pedagogy used. These findings support the concept

of drawing on students’ “funds of knowledge” to develop an active and participatory

classroom. Observations included multiple units of study over a five month period, two or

three times per week, totaling twenty-five observations. The author conducted eleven in-

depth, semi-structured interviews one-on-one with the teacher, roughly once per week,

ranging anywhere from twenty to sixty minutes. The author collected artifacts, including

teacher-created materials, student work, photographs, and school/official documents to

help contextualize the observations and interviews conducted.” In using an in-depth case

study design, the author desired to construct an understanding of the meanings and

actions in the participant teacher’s implemented curriculum by analyzing the data

collected through grounded theory. Mr. Smith embodied the role of a facilitator, rather

than transmitter of knowledge, and supported his newcomer ELL students’ learning of

historical content as well as social issues by creating a community of learners where

students exercised their voice in all classroom experiences. He used students’ cultural and

experiential knowledge to re-conceptualize active and engaged citizenship that was

particular to ELL students’ positionalities in the United States and global society.

Furthermore, re-conceptualizing notions of citizenship to focus on the local experiences

of ELLs (e.g., the classroom, family, and/or community) would develop the foundation

necessary to build on ELLs already possessed civic knowledge and skills. Creating a

space, in the classroom, to reflect on what it means to participate in local, national, and/or

global citizenship activities, and teaching the skills associated with participating in these

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 activities (either through content or methods) would be a great starting point. Using

historical case studies (particularly examples that challenge the dominant narrative) to

showcase how everyday people have taken action on social issues, and uncovering the

skills used to take action, might offer students a clearer understanding of how they might

do this work in their daily lives. Findings reveal that although the teacher faced great

pressures and demands of implementing a high stake, standards-based curriculum, he was

able to enact a curriculum that focused on accessing and building upon ELL students’

cultural, linguistic, and civic assets and experiences. This study gave really good ideas on

how to use students “funds of knowledge” to better build on their knowledge and help

them better understand and engage with content. It goes into what I wanted to research

because it mentions how the different perspectives they bring into the classroom should

be able to shape what the classroom looks like and the topics/perspectives the teachers

bring into the classroom.

King, L. J. (2014). Learning other people’s history: pre-service teachers’ developing African

American historical knowledge, Teaching Education, 25:4, 427-456.

King state that the lack of teaching about race can be explained by pre-service teachers’

limited socio-historical understanding of African-American history. The program she

designs strives to help change. She wanted to examine how African-American history

knowledge and cultural memory changed and developed through critical interpretation of

African-American history. The author contends that a proper implementation of African-

American history can help pre-service teachers develop a socio-historical knowledge that

will help with pedagogical implementation. The author states that since textbooks

continue to be largely Eurocentric it is the teacher’s responsibility as the “curriculum

14 |R i o s
 gatekeeper” to alleviate the limitations of traditional school history resources. The

purpose of this study is to investigate the development of three social studies preservice

teachers’ historical knowledge as they engaged in a rigorous summer reading program

entitled, A Winding River. Using the theoretical framework, cultural memory, this

research examined the historiographical process involved in reading selected text about

African-American history. The paper ends with recommendations for teacher educators

interested in expanding the development of pre-service teachers’ knowledge of African

American history. The research questions used to guide this study were: how do

preservice teachers in this study make sense of African-American history and how is

cultural memory altered based on the reading program, A Winding River? The author

developed the reading program in which the three pre-service teachers participated in.

The pre-service teachers selected for this study were Cynthia, Amelia, and Santiago

(pseudonyms). All three had just completed their student teaching. The findings indicated

that the reading program influenced African American history knowledge both positively

and negatively. The student teachers’ pre-interpretation knowledge about African-

American history did not provide any great detail about the subject. Their cultural

memory insisted that African-American history was steeped in struggle, but they did not

identify or explicitly give the reasoning for these oppressive and tragic acts towards

African-Americans. Learning other people’s history allows for preservice teachers to

question their historical memory because it provides the sociohistorical framework to

analyze social conditions that continue to influence society. Too many social studies

teachers enter the profession without the necessary knowledge to explicitly challenge the

official curriculum and present a nuanced understanding about African-Americans as well

15 |R i o s
 as other historically marginalized groups. This source adds to what I wanted to research

because it mentions that the ways in which African American history is brought into the

classroom is going to directly connect with how comfortable teachers are in their

knowledge about African American history. If teachers want African American

perspectives in the classroom they have to be willing to put themselves in a vulnerable

position of not being the sole sources of information from which students get their

information from. Otherwise the history they bring regarding African Americans will be

brief and will only reach a surface level of detail.

Levy, S. A., (2017) How Students Navigate the Construction of Heritage Narratives, Theory &

Research in Social Education, 45, 2, 157-188.

This article specifically examines how public high school students make sense of

narratives about defining events with which they have specific heritage connections. The

article addresses the following research question: How do students in public school’s

construct narratives of those events with which they have a heritage connection? The

author mentions collective memory and heritage as a way that these students are better

able to understand and connect with an event from the past. The author focuses on three

groups of students. A total of 17 high school students participated in this study – 4

Hmong students, 8 Chinese students, and 5 Jewish students. Within the three primary

cases, each student constituted a case and was bounded by the people (their parent(s) and

teacher) and documents (homework, class assignments, other curricular materials) that

directly contributed to their narrative construction. The three groups of students are as

follows: Hmong students in St. Paul, Minnesota, studying the Vietnam War; Chinese

students in Los Angeles, California, studying Modern China; and Jewish students in

16 |R i o s
 Chicago, Illinois, studying the Holocaust. The author started off by interviewing students

themselves and then interviewing their teachers and the students’ parents. Then after the

author observed the classes where the desired lesson was implemented, and she collected

any handout or homework assignment she needed for the research. Semi-structured

interviews were the primary method of data collection. Each interview was audio

recorded and transcribed verbatim. Each student was interviewed once before and once

after learning about the heritage event in school. Each parent and teacher were

interviewed once at the interviewee’s convenience (see the Appendix for interview

protocols). The author observed each of the classrooms in which the heritage events were

taught for the entirety of each unit. Finally, she collected relevant documents (e.g.,

homework, handouts, student work) from all participants. The participating students

clearly valued the inclusion of their heritage histories in the official history of their high

school classrooms. No matter how the teachers did this, from Ms. Adams’s brief mention

of the Secret War to Ms. Harris’s intentional inclusion of the lesser-known Jewish

partisans, all students found value, meaning, engagement, and knowledge in the

curriculum that was directly linked to their own identities as members of the heritage

groups. While those students whose families shared stories about the events were more

likely to center their historical narratives on those stories, the majority of all students

centered their narratives on their identification as a member of their heritage group. The

students who felt that they had sufficient knowledge about the heritage events learned

new information in their history classes. However, they processed and incorporated this

knowledge into their existing narratives in different ways. The students who had existing

narratives grounded in their families’ experiences did not significantly alter their

17 |R i o s
 narratives. Rather, they used the new information to develop more complex and nuanced

stories. Findings indicate that students appreciate, benefit, and learn from the inclusion of

heritage histories in their high school classrooms; they can engage in complex historical

thinking about subjects that may hold heavy emotional weight; and emotion can facilitate

student engagement with heritage histories. Importantly, including these histories in the

official knowledge of the classroom legitimated the stories and demonstrated to the

students that their own and their families’ pasts are an important part of history. This adds

to the research I wanted to look into because it brings in this idea of heritage connections

as a valid source of information teachers can use in a social studies classroom. Students

can add to the narratives and perspectives that are shown in class because they bring in

their family/community connections not just now but those that have been passed on

before.

Shahzad, F. (2011). The Role of Interpretative Communities in Remembering and Learning.

Canadian Journal of Education, 34(3), 301-316.

This study uses qualitative research methods to investigate how Canadian students

remember and learn about the War on Terror. The author states that apart from textual

resources, remembering and learning involve a collectivity of significant ‘others’ or what

I call interpretative communities. These communities play an influential role in the

consumption and negotiation of knowledge inside and outside the classrooms thus an

understanding of their role may help teachers to enhance their instructional strategies.

The study deals with the narratives of ninety-nine students studying in an urban

University of Ontario. The interviews were conducted on the same university campus

after a month of narrative collection. One participant was a male, Muslim, first-

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 generation immigrant from Palestine; the second was a male, non-Muslim, second-

generation immigrant form Sri-Lanka; the third was a male, atheist Anglophone; and

fourth was a female, Protestant Anglophone whose grandfather was from Turkey. To

some extent, these four interviewees represent the whole group of participants, as it was a

highly diversified group. The following three methods were used to collect data in this

qualitative study: interviews; written narratives; and demographic questionnaires. First,

the author asked his participants to fill out a demographic questionnaire providing him

with information about their religions, ethnic backgrounds, location of their high schools,

age, gender, and the language(s) spoken at their homes. In the second phase of this

project, he conducted four follow-up interviews to collect additional information and to

further expand the themes that emerged in the participants’ narratives. The analysis

consisted mostly of excerpts from students’ interviews. The author was trying to gather

data that helped support his theory that communities shape what students learn about

certain topics and from what sources. The author’s findings suggest that that students’

remembering and learning experiences are also situated in their social relationships,

socio-political positions, cultural meanings, world-views and historical experiences due

to their membership in more than one interpretative community. These communities’

experiences and interpretative frameworks are part of its members’ memories, data

collection, and data analysis strategies. That is why it is important for teachers to

acknowledge and understand the influential role of these communities to enhance their

instructional strategies. Interpretative communities emerge as an important feature of the

landscape of remembering and learning in the narratives of my participants. Any change

in the historical, social, or cultural characteristics of an interpretative community can

19 |R i o s
 affect the communication, inhibition of communication, distortion,

remembering/forgetting, and learning strategies of its members. I found this source

interesting because I enjoyed the idea of having the community have a space within the

classroom in which it helps shape the way that a topic is remembered. The article

mentions interpretive communities and how these communities play an influential role in

the consumption and negotiation of knowledge inside and outside the classrooms.

Shear, S. B., Knowles, R. T., Solden, G. J., and Castro, A. J. (2015) Manifesting Destiny:

Re/presentations of Indigenous Peoples in K-12 U.S. History Standards, Theory &

Research in Social Education, 43: 68–101, 2015.

The purpose of this quantitative study is to investigate how state standards represent

Indigenous histories and cultures. The research questions that guided this study include:

(a) What is the frequency of Indigenous content (histories, cultures, current issues)

covered in state-level U.S. history standards for K–12? (b) What is the difference

between the frequency of inclusion of pre-1900 Indigenous content and post-1900

Indigenous content in U.S. history standards for K–12? (c) How do the standards depict

Indigenous Peoples in U.S. history? U.S. history curriculum standards from all 50 states

and the District of Columbia were analyzed using within-case analysis and quantified to

represent each state’s depiction of Indigenous content. The study was done for every state

in the U.S. Findings reveal that standards overwhelmingly present Indigenous Peoples in

a pre-1900 context and relegate the importance and presence of Indigenous Peoples to the

distant past. The incorporation of Indigenous People’s histories, cultures, and current

issues variedly widely across several states. For example, Florida boasted some 191

content strands related to Indigenous communities, whereas the state of Wyoming did not

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 include a single content strand about Indigenous content. They found that only 13.34% of

the 2,230 coded standards related to Indigenous history, culture, or issues occurring post-

1900. Put another way, 86.66% of the state-level U.S. and state history standards dictate

the teaching of Indigenous Peoples in the context of pre-1900 U.S. history. This finding

demonstrates the systematic confining of curriculum about Indigenous Peoples to pre-

1900 America. They find it troubling to consider the power that standards have in

dictating “relevant” historical content for classrooms across the country and the messages

those standards send on what we value as a nation. This finding speaks to previous

arguments about the power of the Euro-American narrative to confine Indigenous Peoples

to a distant past. This specific source adds to my research because it focuses on the

representation of this minority group in state standards. The article talks about the limited

amount of representation they find about Indigenous People in the standards and how that

relates to what is implemented in the classroom, into what students are being taught

about.

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