Teaching Tough History
By Sheldon L. Eakins, Ph.D., Founder of The Leading Equity Center
Explore Part 4 of our series, “Voices in Social Studies” where educators and thought leaders share the latest in social studies teaching and learning. Read part 1, part 2, and part 3.
Historical Context and Background Knowledge
Not too long ago, I had a teacher reach out to me via email and say, “Dr. Eakins, I need some help. I think I messed up when I taught a lesson on the Negro leagues.” So she and I talked on the phone and one of the things she shared with me was how she was really excited to teach about the Negro league, especially relating to the integration of baseball. However, she also wanted to provide historical concepts behind the Negro leagues in the lesson that she implemented in her classroom.
Upon reflecting on that lesson, she noticed that her students — predominantly students of color — were beginning to look a little uncomfortable as the discussion unfolded. As she kept talking, one of the students said, “Why do you keep saying Negro instead of Black?” followed by another student calling her racist.
She then asked me, “Dr. Eakins, what did I do wrong? Because at that moment, things started to go downhill. I’m trying to figure out how to fix this situation, but I feel like I didn’t do something correctly. What should I have done differently?” Initially, she asked me for a checklist. In other words, give me the steps in order to be culturally competent, especially when I’m approaching social studies content.
Here’s the thing: I do not believe in checklists. I don’t believe in a checkbox or a series of checkboxes. I do believe that there are things that you can do, but we’re always on a journey when it comes to providing a culturally responsive approach to our pedagogy.
There is no “you have arrived” when it comes to providing equitable instruction. There is no step one, two, three, four, and five, and now you’re fully culturally responsive.
So this is what I told her. You have to keep in mind the age of the students that are in your classroom. They may not have heard of the word “Negro”. They may not be familiar with the term “colored” or understand how these words were used to refer to Black people. So before you jump right into a history lesson, especially where there are words that are utilized within the text or lesson that we don’t currently use today, you need to provide some historical context. You should have started the lesson off by explaining to your students those terms. Those keywords should be highlighted, right? Negro, colored, segregation, integration. These words should have been included within your lesson so once you start talking about the lesson while utilizing these terms — Negro, for example — your students are already coming into the lesson with an understanding that this is not how we refer to Black people today, but this is how they were referred to during this time.
In order to work towards implementing culturally responsive pedagogy, we must ensure that students have some historical understanding as to why we don’t use these words anymore and how our language has changed over time based on societal factors.
Explore the new 6–12 U.S. and World History programs:
🌏 Inspire students to experience history through multiple lenses and inquiry as they learn to practice civil discourse on their way to becoming future-ready citizens.
Considering Trauma-Informed Practices
Trauma “results from exposure to an incident or series of events that are emotionally disturbing or life-threatening with lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional, and/or spiritual well-being” (Trauma-Informed Care Implementation Resource Center, 2021).
When teaching history, we have to keep in mind some of the events that we’re going to cover — many of which could be traumatic for those involved in the discussions. Within these events could be the use of racial slurs, mistreatment, oppression, prejudice, discrimination, and lynching — to name a few. These topics can impact students of color as well as white students. Students of color might feel embarrassed, while white students could feel a sense of guilt.
Some of the stories provide a traumatic experience to some of our kids, as they’re thinking about what that looks like or what it could have been like during those times. In fact, in some classrooms, we show students videos of these historical events. We provide those images on the screen for our students, and they see these things.
We have to provide trauma-informed care when we’re implementing these historical lessons.
In doing so, we are allowing students to relate to some of these experiences that might’ve happened in the past, as well as relating them to things that are currently impacting their communities during these times.
The Impact of Unconscious Bias
One of the things that Dr. James Banks talks about when he discusses multicultural education and the five dimensions of multicultural education is the importance of prejudice reduction (Banks, 2004). When we teach history that involves discrimination, prejudice, white supremacy, or colonialism, we have to consider the impact of unconscious bias.
Think about discussing these instances in your classroom where people and communities were faced with oppression, where their civilizations were destroyed or colonized or taken over, or where they tried — or are trying — to fight for civil rights. These are lessons that we’re providing to our students, unconsciously, where some of our kids could develop the sense of white supremacy being perpetuated. White dominance might also be perpetuated, and it’s important to reflect on how that could impact our future generations of students, of civilians who might hold public service positions, or who might become CEOs and founders of various companies that could create positive change in our society.
Be Willing to Teach About Race
Anytime you are going to teach about race, you must be willing to teach about race.
If you are a social studies teacher and you are teaching U.S. History, more than likely race is going to come up, because historically there has been dominance, prejudice, racism, and discrimination throughout this nation’s history. From colonization to how our indigenous communities were impacted through today, where again, white supremacy is still prominent.
These conversations can be difficult. They impact a lot of your students. They might impact you. You might have personal experiences yourself. And sometimes these conversations are tough, but if you’re going to teach about race, you must be willing to teach about race. You must be willing to stand in there, not shy away from certain subjects or words because they make you feel uncomfortable. Get in there.
Teach in Solidarity
When you’re teaching historical events, especially events that have impacted various groups who have historically been marginalized — even if you do not personally identify with those groups that you are discussing and that you’re teaching about in your classroom — do not frame it as “their problem.” Teaching in solidarity means that you acknowledge the oppression or mistreatment of individuals throughout history while reflecting on — and having real conversations about society’s role in the perpetuation of that oppression.
Sometimes when we teach history, we pass it off as if it’s “that group’s problem.” We teach it in a way that says, well, you know, I personally didn’t do it. I wasn’t involved, and I’m not willing to get involved either. I’m not willing to take a stance. As an educator, your conscious decision to avoid involving yourself in these issues tells your students that you wouldn’t have spoken against injustices in the past, and you won’t speak up against them now.
Teaching history in solidarity is not always easy. It’s not always a clear-cut path to teaching a lesson. However, we can do it — if we are willing to stand in there and create these opportunities for our students to learn.
Explore the new 6–12 U.S. and World History programs:
🌏 Inspire students to experience history through multiple lenses and inquiry as they learn to practice civil discourse on their way to becoming future-ready citizens.
References
Banks, J. A. (2004). Handbook of research on multicultural education.
Defining Trauma. (2021). In Trauma-Informed Care Implementation Resource Center. Retrieved from https://www.traumainformedcare.chcs.org/what-is-trauma/
Sheldon L. Eakins, Ph.D. is the Founder of the Leading Equity Center and host of the Leading Equity Podcast. With over 11 years in education, he has served as a teacher, principal, and Director of Special Education.
Dr. Eakins has a passion for helping educators accomplish equitable practices in their schools. He has earned a B.S. degree in Social Science Education, an M.S. degree in Educational Leadership, and a Ph.D. in K-12 Education. Follow Dr. Eakins on Twitter: @sheldoneakins | Instagram: @sheldoneakins
