In the decades after the Civil War, Southerners wrote and published their own history textbooks for secondary schools. These “mint julep textbooks,” as the Southern all-white editions were called by the 1960s, reinforced a Lost Cause narrative of the war for Southern audiences while competing with Northern versions of events. In this study, we employ both historical narrative and content analysis of six textbooks’ portrayals of John Brown, John Wilkes Booth, and Nathan Bedford Forrest. The textbooks that are compared– three (...) Southern and three Northern – were written from the 1870s through the 1910s. While subtle but important differences emerge between the Northern and Southern depiction of these three figures, an even more important trend developed when analyzing change over time. In this article we conclude that, as time progressed, Southern versions of events increasingly impacted Northern textbooks. By the 1930s, the mint julep version of these three figures became the national consensus, as reflected in the work of historian David Saville Muzzey. This consensus around events like the raid at Harpers Ferry, the assassination of Lincoln, and the massacre at Fort Pillow lasted for much of the 20th century. By the early 20th century, Northerners appeased Southern interests in the writing of history textbooks. (shrink)

Social studies teachers are frequently athletic coaches who are often criticized for prioritizing coaching over teaching. The purpose of this study is to investigate the experiences of preservice social studies teachers regarding the relationship between coaching and teaching with respect to hiring in middle and secondary schools. The researchers employed phenomenological research methods to investigate the hiring experiences of social studies teacher candidates. Survey and interview data were collected from social studies teacher candidates at the three largest universities in a (...) southeastern state. Results illuminate a pervasive coaching contingency that many social studies teacher candidates face. Social studies teacher candidates perceived that willingness to coach a sport is the most important factor, other than teaching, to be hired to teach—particularly at the high school level. (shrink)

Understanding historical empathy is a bourgeoning subfield of social studies education research. Students demonstrate historical empathy by analyzing sources 1) to determine historical context, 2) identify perspectives of historical figures, and 3) make affective connections to historical content. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine primary sources from educational leaders and organizations during the Progressive Era in American public school education in order to trace the origins of historical empathy as an implicit goal in the social studies curriculum. (...) Our guiding research question is “How does the work of Progressive Era organizations and educational leaders impact how Americans viewed historical empathy?” We purposefully selected documents from Progressive Era organizations and certain leaders whose work formed a strong foundation of social studies education history. We conclude with an examination of the importance of historical empathy today in order to demonstrate the importance of historical empathy as a curricular aim of social studies education. (shrink)