Matthew T. Downey

Responding to the Winds of Change in History Education.

SLIGHTLY LESS THAN TWO DECADES AGO the winds of change began to blow once again in the halls of historical academia and in history classrooms throughout the nation. Reformers from both inside and outside the historical profession began to reexamine the role of history in the nations schools. Studies pointed to the dearth of historical knowledge among American students, helping to provide the impetus for the reformers. From the Bradley Commission on History in the Schools to reform efforts in a number of individual states to the National Standards movement, the late 1980s and early 1990s witnessed a renewed burst of activity focused on improving history education. At the same time, Colleges of Education and teacher education programs experienced even more extensive soul searching and even louder calls for reform. Now that the dust is settling, its time to examine how those of us interested in history education have responded to the latest call for reform. The following is an account of how historians at one institution, the University of Northern Colorado, responded. These calls for change focused on three areas, not all of which appear to be compatible at first sight. First, recent reformers in history education have consistently called for teachers to be more thoroughly grounded in the content of the discipline they teach. Such grounding in historical

The Historian as Teacher Trainer: A Progress Report

During the past three years an experimental program has been underway at the University of Colorado to explore ways to involve historians more directly and effectively in the training of history teachers. A cooperative effort of the Department of History and the Boulder Regional Center of the American Historical Associations History Education Project, it rests upon the assumption that historians have a responsibility for the quality of history teaching in the schools and colleges. Behind that assumption, of course, lies a good deal of recent educational history. Historians in many colleges and universities have been active in recent years in NDEA institutes, new social studies projects, local teacher workshops, and in the History Education Project. While the effort at Colorado is part of a more general concern about the historians responsibility for the teaching of history, it has been in some respects unique. When a regional team of the A.H.A. History Education Project was organized at the University of Colorado in 1970, its members decided to