Theme: History Education from the Classroom Up: Re-examining Purposes and Values of the Field in Social Studies Research & Practice
History education has had moments of critical reflexivity in times of sociopolitical turmoil, such as the development of the “New Social Studies” in the 1960s (Byford & Russell, 2007) or positioning “historical thinking” as a response to the 1994 national history standards battles (Wineburg, 1999). During these moments, scholars and practitioners alike openly challenge and re-imagine the current structures of the field through interrogation of, as well as innovation with, core practices and disciplinary constructs (i.e. historical consciousness [Duquette, 2021), civic development (Carrasco, 2023), criticality (Santiago & Dozono, 2022), or historical thinking (Smith, Breakstone, & Wineburg, 2018)). This re-imagining is informed by broader sociological contexts and issues, with the aim to re-align the purposes and values of history education in conjunction with changed classroom design and practice.
The current wave of intense partisan focus on history education in the United States started with the 1776 Commission (2021), which argued that “ather than cast aside the serious study of America’s founding principles or breed contempt for America’s heritage, our educational system should aim to teach…a history that is ‘accurate, honest, unifying, inspiring, and ennobling’” (p.34). But normative claims to the purposes and values of history education, whether partisan or scholarly, have a complex relationship with what actually happens in schools (American Historical Association, 2024). Perhaps this is why we rarely see faithful enactments of individual constructs; teachers, sensitive to their complex contexts, often employ hybrid practices informed by multiple constructs (Carretero, & Perez-Manjarrez, 2022; Blevins & Salinas, 2012). These learning experiences are value-laden and bound up with the particulars of what, how, who, and why we teach.
This special issue seeks articles that examine the purposes and values of history education from the broader perspective of teaching and learning in U.S. classrooms. We ask contributors to explore the purposes and values of history education emerging from “messy” classroom realities. Papers will engage innovative theoretical and methodological approaches illuminating teacher and students’ historical practice situated within cultural & socio-political context.
Example questions include:
- How are teachers and students reconciling contradictory narratives of the field’s purposes in their meaning-making?
- How are these reconciliations reflected in their historical practice?
- How do teachers compose their practices among complex mandates and local conditions?
- What purposes and values get enacted through these hybrid approaches?
The editors’ goal is not to explore every core construct of the field; rather, they wish to demonstrate how the design and enactment of constructs-in-practice reflect purposes and values specific to the onto-epistemologies, axiologies, and sociopolitical contexts of the classroom. Engaging empirical explorations of constructs in classroom contexts will illuminate current purposes and values of history education as practiced by teachers and students themselves, opening potential pathways for developing theories responsive to ever-changing socio-political realities of education-in-practice.
Submissions Information
- Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available here: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/journal/ssrp
- Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see here: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/ssrp#jlp_author_guidelines
Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to ““Please select the issue you are submitting to”.
Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 6/1/2026
For more information, see the full call here
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