Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Historians Organizations focus on the Next Generation of Teachers

The Organization of American Historians e-mailed this document to all members today: The Next Generation of History Teachers: A Challenge to Departments of History at American Colleges and Universities. The report focuses particularly on the role of historians in nurturing the next generation of K-12 history teachers. According to the e-mail, the document is "the product of a conference attended by historians from a wide array of institutions last summer." It "asks that each department discuss ways it might help prepare future history teachers at its institution." The report is endorsed by the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, National Council for History Education and Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, University of Virginia College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Virginia Center for Digital History.

It will be discussed at the upcoming OAH meeting. Every history department is asked "to devote at least one department meeting in 2007 to discussing this message."