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Educational Collaboratives: The AHA--OAH--NCSS History Teaching Alliance
We are pleased to dedicate this issue to the History Teaching Alliance, a joint program of the OAH, AHA and NCSS. Centered at the University of Florida, the Alliance has worked vigorously to encourage collaborative programs between universities and various local constituencies to promote more effective classroom instruc- tion in the discipline. In the first essay, Jane Landers, Director of the HTA, reviews the history and current status of the Alliance. She describes its purpose, model, structure, organization, support, current programs and future directions. HTA has been extremely successful in identifying grant support and has established a solid national network of programs. Moreover, it has achieved one of its most vital goals in bringing historians from many arenas together. John N. Short, head of the department at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, details the inception, execution and results of an exciting Alliance program placing West African history in global perspective. The collaborative effort there demonstrates clearly the roles which may be assumed by a department head to help establish and nurture such programs. Their ambitious collaborative included a study tour of Sierra Leone and has led to significant curriculum reforms in their home area of Southeast Arkansas. Picking up the theme of the department head's leadership in devel- oping HTA programs, John W. Johnson, head of the history department at the University of Northern Iowa, shares his experiences there and at Clemson. He emphasizes the value of Alliances for both college faculty and their secondary teaching colleagues. The chair is important in helping identify an appropriate program, encouraging faculty, publicizing activities, running interference for the program with the university bureaucracy, and aiding in fundraising. The two remaining essays explore diverse HTA programs in Florida and Wisconsin. In the first, Robert A. Hatch discusses a coopera- tive between the University of Florida, its program in the History of Science, Technology & Medicine, and the HTA on the history of science in the secondary schools. Funded by the National Science Foundation, this program brought together science, mathematics and history teachers from the secondary schools and university in a common pursuit of knowledge. By contrast, Lane Earns, Project Director of a HTA program at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, examines his institution's collaborative designed to bring a great- er understanding of Japan to area schoolteachers. His insights into the problems of getting started and the need for persistence are especially enlightening. The activities of the HTA and of our fellow departments suggest many outreach opportunities for each of us. Further information may be obtained from Dr. Landers or from the Editor. The History Teaching Alliance Jane Landers, Director The History Teaching Alliance is a joint program of the nation's three oldest and largest professional associations in history the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the National Council for the Social Studies and is one of a select group of programs sponsored by the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Purpose. In the 1980s, national concerns about student achievement in the United States sparked efforts to reform school curricula and improve the quality of instruction in a variety of disciplines, including history. The creation of the History Teaching Alliance was one response to the perceived crisis. The HTA was established on the premise that the teacher is the key to classroom instruction and student learning, and that barriers separating history professionals need to be broken in order to effect any real reform in history education. The founders further agreed that all practitioners of history, including university faculty, should assume responsibility for the quality of secondary education. The Model. Blending elements from two successful models the collegiality of the language alliances and the rigorous content-based seminars for teachers supported by funders such as the National Endowment for the Humanities the HTA organizes collegially-designed and community-based history collaboratives. These collaboratives begin with a two- to three-week summer graduate-level institute, followed by regular meetings throughout the academic year. They encompass a rigorous academic component, guest presentations by specialists in the chosen field, and discussions among participants about the discipline and the practical applications of the collaborative materials and themes. Alliances draw history professionals from precollegiate and collegiate settings, museums, libraries, archives and other history and civic organizations into sustained and regular contact. A ``community of inquiry'' is thus established which provides its members with a pool of resources and talents on which all can continue to draw after the year-long study concludes. Structure of the HTA. The Alliance is governed by an Oversight Committee composed of the executive officers of the three sponsoring organizations the AHA, OAH, and NCSS and representatives appointed by them. An independent chairperson also serves, and a member of the American Association for State and Local History serves in an advisory position. The Oversight Committee is responsible for reviewing and evaluating policy and administration of the HTA, and each year it meets in Gainesville, Florida to conduct its annual meeting and to vote on projects to support the following year. Organization of the HTA. On the strength of successful pilot projects in Florida and Iowa in 1984, the HTA secured major grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Exxon Education Fund, and the Com- mission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution, to support additional programming. Since its inception, more than 1,100 teachers and hundreds of administrators, public historians, judicial and political figures have participated in sixty-two HTA projects in twenty-two states. Timing (the advent of the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution) and curricular demands meant that many of the original projects focused on Constitutional issues; however, in the past six years, the HTA has funded projects as diverse as ``The Worker Response to Industrialization,'' ``Women in European History,'' and ``The Historical Geography of Minorities in the South.'' The HTA accepts all topics of history, but local needs, available funding, and governmental policies sometimes shape the projects. For example, as legislatures mandate the teaching of state history, local area studies are also being supported by the HTA. The Western Massachusetts Five College/Public School Partnership devel- oped a wonderful cross-disciplinary HTA which addressed the need for more training in local and multicultural history entitled ``Understanding the Native American Experience in the Connecticut River Valley.'' Directed by the noted scholar, Neal Salisbury, teachers worked in seventeenth-century colonial documents in local archives and libraries, visited archaeological laboratories and on-going excavations to learn how important historical evidence is derived from material culture, and studied the expressive traditions of Native Americans of New England in museum collections and in visits to area reservations. The participants shared their experiences and resources with other teachers in after-school seminars and in presentations to local and regional conferences. They are also developing resource materials for distribution to their colleagues which include descriptive listings of print and museum resources in the area, representative primary documents and suggestions for their use, slides and videotapes, and other materials for library development. Other projects have been established as a result of calls for multicultural education or in response to educational needs assessments, or to take advantage of local resources, or simply because the teachers wanted to study a particular theme. The articles which follow will illustrate the richness and variety of some recent HTA programs. Support for the HTA and Its Programs. Within a few years of its founding, the HTA outgrew its offices at the American Historical Association and cast about for an institutional home. Kermit L. Hall, one of the originators of the HTA model, and director of one of the first HTA pilot projects, approached his home institution, and since 1987, the national office of the HTA has been located in the Department of History at the University of Florida. The University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences funds the director's salary as an appointment in the Department of History and the department provides equipped office space and secretarial services. This generous and substantial support underscores the University of Florida's commitment to good teaching, which has blossomed in a number of interesting projects since the arrival of the HTA. Support for continued HTA programming has come from the funders mentioned above, as well as from other corporate and institutional sponsors, and state humanities councils. Because the HTA hopes that its collaboratives will eventually become self-sustaining, it also requires contributions from all participating institutions. Universities have generously provided support such as release time for participating faculty, space and secretarial services, and guest travel and honoraria. Participating school systems have paid substitute teacher costs, provided photocopying and secretarial assistance, or other services. Archives and libraries have given space and the services of trained experts to work with alliance members in their seminars. The Alliance encourages participants to make full use of community resources, and will assist in fundraising for approved projects. As the demand for new programs continues to grow, the HTA is working to secure resources to fund new collaboratives. Last December the HTA received one of only forty-one Challenge Grants awarded nationally by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant of $225,000 will support an endowment and a cash-reserve fund to enable the HTA to expand its network of community-based collaboratives. Over the next three years, the HTA must raise $675,000 in non-federal funds to match the NEH gift. The AHA and the OAH have each pledged annual matchable gifts, and grant proposals are being submitted to major funders. The HTA also hopes that individuals interested in improved history education will assist us in this effort. Contributions must be marked ``In response the NEH Challenge Grant # CX 20067-90'' and may be mailed to HTA headquarters at the Department of History, University of Florida, 4131 Turlington Hall, Gainesville, Florida, 32611. Current Programs. Current HTA programs include: ``The Bill of Rights in United States History,'' directed by John J. Patrick, the Social Studies Development Center, Indiana University; ``Dissent and Reform in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century America,'' directed by Robert Martin, University of Northern Iowa; ``Discovering Historic Arkansas,'' directed by Donald Holley, University of Arkansas at Monticello; ``The Role of Religion in the Teaching of History,'' directed by James Lorence, University of Wisconsin Center-Marathon County Campus; ``Japan and the Outside World,'' directed by Lane Earns, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh; ``Understanding the Constitution: A Program for Precollegiate Teachers,'' directed by Augustus Burns, University of Florida; and ``The History of Science in Secondary Schools,'' directed by Robert Hatch and Frederick Gregory, University of Florida. Participants from these and past Alliances present panels at the annual meetings of the National Council for the Social Studies, the American Historical Association, and the Organization of American Historians. In 1991 the HTA will also present a panel at the meeting of the Southern Historical Association. In addition, the participants frequently present at local and regional history meetings and have the opportunity to publish in journals and newsletters such as this. New Funding. The Bill of Rights Education Collaborative, jointly sponsored by the American Historical Association and the American Political Science Association, and supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts, recently awarded the HTA funding to support ten new collaboratives focused on Constitutional history and issues involving Rights in contemporary society. Each of the new projects will involve a project director, two co-directors, fifteen to twenty teachers, and a variety of guest speakers and resource persons. Seed grants of up to $10,000 will be awarded, to be used for expenses such as stipends for teachers, directors and resource persons, and related project costs. Six of the ten grants will be awarded to collaboratives involving inner-city schools, and all must include, in addition to schools and colleges or universities, community resources such as museums, archives, courts, libraries, historical or cultural organizations or law-related education groups. The deadline for applications is February 1, 1991, and the HTA welcomes inquiries and requests for applications. Interested parties may call (904) 392-8188, or write to the History Teaching Alliance, Department of History, University of Florida, 4131 Turlington Hall, Gainesville, Florida 32611. African History In Global Perspective: The Evolution of An Academic Alliance Project John N. Short An academic alliance in Southeast Arkansas developed before we were even sure of the exact meaning of the term, and the planning for our alliance developed at least in part due to national and state critiques of higher education and the regular institutional planning process. As was the case with other academic departments at the University of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM), the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences reassessed its mission in light of these national and state blue ribbon commissions and special reports, and in direct response to regular ``rolling forward'' of the institution's five year plan. Primarily a regional undergraduate institution, UAM enrolls approximately two thousand undergraduate students, with proposals for two new master's degree programs in education pending before the State Board of Higher Education. The institution offers undergraduate programs in agriculture, forestry, business administration, nursing, and the traditional arts and sciences. With a relatively small faculty, limited library, and meager internal resources for faculty research, the strengths of the institution lie in a professionally involved faculty with a commitment to excellence in undergraduate education, and high research productivity in certain areas. At the same time however, UAM encourages faculty research, service and strong involvement in professional activities. While the Department's reassessment involved changes in curriculum, faculty, and emphasis, one new direction in particular rested with a new commitment to forging a collaborative arrangement with teachers and school districts in Southeast Arkansas. As the only college or university in the southeast corner of the state, we were a logical candidate to take on this new role. Unfortunately our involvement with teachers and the schools had been minimal at best. The attitude and inclination of the faculty had been to rely on the education faculty to take on this task. Higher education and pre-collegiate education were usually viewed as totally separate worlds. Combined with perceived differences in status and a reward structure which failed to recognize such activities, few faculty members were interested in devoting time and effort to projects related to pre-collegiate education. Even though our department formally offered an undergraduate teacher education program in history and social studies, few visits were made to the schools, little or no involvement existed in supervising student teachers, and faculty generally frowned upon establishing any new links with the schools at all. Within this context, it is not difficult to see how local teachers and schools were most often left unserved. As department head, I became committed to a stronger role for history in service and collaborative activities. Since we were recruiting a new historian at the same time, the opportunity to link our recruitment efforts to hiring a person with teacher outreach experience was fortuitous. Recognizing our weaknesses in third-world history, we advertised for an individual with such a specialization and experience in outreach efforts with teachers. As a result of our search, we were able to hire Dr. Richard Corby, an Africanist with over ten years experience living and teaching in sub-Saharan Africa, who has a Ph.D. in African Studies, and experience in outreach projects. Once he joined our faculty, the two of us were enthusiastically committed to developing an academic alliance project. Since good intentions are hardly sufficient to guarantee a well developed and perhaps even highly successful project, we were careful to begin by involving classroom teachers in the design of the project and keeping them active in its continued evolution. We quickly identified an organization and some individuals with the schools to serve as our partner in the collaborative alliance. This task was made somewhat easier in that school districts throughout the state had already been divided into educational cooperatives for purposes of joint purchasing, access to central audio-visual collections, sharing of key personnel such as educa- tional psychologists, and organizing staff development and in-service training. After preliminary discussions with the Director and staff of the Southeast Arkansas Education Service Cooperative, headquartered on our campus, we formed an Advisory Committee composed of a diverse group of classroom teachers, administrators, and staff from the Co-op. The committee was diverse in terms of sex, race, primary assignment, and level (K-12), and its members displayed interest and enthusiasm far beyond our expectations. Since they were mostly from small, rural school districts, teachers expressed the frustrations associated with the difficulty of preparing to teach such a broad range of subjects, having few other professionals with whom to discuss issues related to history and the social sciences, lacking opportunities for their own professional growth and development, and a feeling that history and social studies were the ``stepchildren'' of the schools. After verifying interest on the part of teachers and schools, we decided to collect some systematic information on history and social studies teachers in this part of the state, at least at the secondary level. We conducted a needs assessment survey to get a better idea of the teachers themselves: their background, teaching assignments, interests in participating in an academic alliance, and their suggestions on how best to proceed. Results of the needs analysis demonstrated in a systematic way that teachers were strongly interested in collaborative projects and the development of an academic alliance in history and the social sciences. The responses of the teachers coupled with the background and experience of Dr. Corby led us to the logical choice of African history as the focus for our first alliance project. The choice was even more appropriate since many school districts in Southeast Arkansas have sizable minority populations, with one even 99 percent black. Despite the demographic trends and a state-wide emphasis on multi-cultural and global perspectives, few schools had actually integrated Africa into their curricula. Teachers remarked how their own education and backgrounds lacked any emphasis on African studies; yet, they often listed this area as a high priority for possible alliance projects. One significant problem had yet to be solved: funding. The economic situation of the state of Arkansas meant there was little hope of substantial new funding for programs, and the University could promise only very modest increases to its existing programs. Since administrative officials at the University offered encour- agement but little else at this point, we had no choice but to seek at least modest external support. Building on a small planning grant from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, we developed a proposal that garnered support from the History Teaching Alliance. This led to the development of the only History Teaching Alliance project in the state of Arkansas, while substantially strengthening the University's outreach efforts. From this point, our project proceeded in three stages. The first stage involved initial planning where we dealt with the basic issues of developing an alliance that would be practical and worthwhile to classroom teach- ers while satisfying our interests as well. We established networks, communication links, and initiated the project by offering a two-day workshop for teachers on the topic of ``Teaching About Africa.'' At the workshop we provided discussions of stereotypes, religion, geography, music, and a brief consideration of South Africa (a perennial topic of interest with students and teachers alike). Teachers were also given the opportunity to examine curricular units and other educational materials that could be used to integrate material on Africa in just about any of the courses they taught. The second stage of our project involved a three-week summer institute with follow-up meetings during the next academic year. Our group met from nine in the morning until half-past noon each day for seminars, reserving most afternoons for library research and curriculum development. The seminars were conducted in a collegial way with different participants responsible for leading each session. In addition, we provided several films, guest speakers, and even a traditional West African meal for enrichment. Required texts for all participants included Phyllis Martin and Patrick O'Meara, eds., Africa; Camara Laye, The Dark Child; Mark Mathabane, Kaffir Boy; Basil Davidson, Africa In History; and Louise Crane, ed., Curriculum Materials for Teachers. Feedback from the participants after the institute was generally positive, with the few negative comments directed at (1) the preparation of some of the other teachers in the group and (2) the temperature of the room (too cold) which we were unable to regulate. Our follow-up meetings included a visit from a teacher and graduate student in history who had been teaching a high school course in African history and who provided a commentary with slides on her visits to West Africa, and a visit from a Liberian national who was a Ph.D. candidate in history at Indiana University who also discussed educational and other experiences in West Africa. The other follow-up meetings involved discussions of audio-visual material and demonstrations of the lesson plans and educational materials developed by the teachers themselves. The final phase of the project was certainly the most difficult and ambitious in terms of planning, cost, and overall execution; however, it was the logical conclusion to this alliance: a study/travel program to actually take a group of teachers to West Africa. For more than one year we worked on the proposal, gathering letters of agreement from institutions and individuals in Liberia and Sierra Leone, developing a tentative itinerary, trying to understand the airline business and how to secure the most reasonable fare, planning an orientation, and clearing the proposal with University officials, school districts, and teachers. We submitted our proposal the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program of the U.S. Department of Education, and were notified in February of 1990 that it had been funded. Originally designed as a six-week program with four weeks to be spent in Liberia and two weeks in Sierra Leone, the civil war in Liberia intervened to move the entire stay to Sierra Leone. Despite the late restructuring of the program, we were fortunate to secure an extremely able and dependable in-country coordinator in Sierra Leone resulting in a highly successful six-week experience almost as we had envisioned it. Approximately twenty-five lectures were held as scheduled, giving participants first-hand information and perspectives on West African history, culture, politics, religion, economics, literature, dance, art, and public health. Teachers were able to develop instructional materials, conduct interviews, and take photographs and slides for classroom use. They joined in the culture by eating traditional West African food, visiting people in their homes, worshiping together in churches, and bargaining in the markets. They adjusted to the sporadic availability of electricity and running water, and they quickly came to understand the meaning of the term ``rainy season.'' In addition, teachers were able to have traditional West African clothes made while they were there, and they were able to bring back artifacts including carvings, cloth, musical instruments, and other items for use in their classrooms. The last task for this alliance will be our final evaluation meeting where we will share slides, curriculum units, and other teaching ideas, and will involve compiling materials into a booklet that can be used by all of the participants and shared with others in the state. Through the use of this booklet and the experiences of the participating teachers, we expect to achieve an important impact on the classroom experience in Arkansas. Many of the participants have already spoken to their churches, civic organizations, and just about anyone who will listen. The booklet of curriculum materials combined with the involvement of these teachers in their schools and communities as resource persons on West Africa will certainly provide substantial dissemination of our overall project goals. In sum, our academic alliance is a thriving enterprise. The initial problems were all overcome at least in the short run. In three years we have been awarded over six separate external grants and substantial institutional support. We also have two additional proposals pending. Within the state we have been recognized as a ``model'' that we hope to help others replicate in their own ways and with their own projects. From my perspective, department chairs have an important role to play in developing alliance projects. They are in a unique position to become advocates for such alliances through creative faculty recruitment, modifying the reward structure, seeking internal and external grants, gaining administrative backing, and creating visibility for successful projects. A Department Chair's View of the History Teaching Alliance John W. Johnson Most history department heads/chairs have probably heard about the History Teaching Alliance (HTA). The HTA has not exactly been shy about publicity: articles on the Alliance have appeared in AHA's Perspectives, and sessions have been conducted by the Alliance at major professional meetings. Nevertheless, history chairs may still wonder if working to establish an ``alliance'' or a ``collaborative'' at their institutions would be worth the time and energy. As a department head and as someone who has been involved with alliance projects at two different universities, I want to encourage you to consider applying for an award from the national office of the HTA. Although no two alliances are alike, my experience might be instructive for department chairs who have heard about the History Teaching Alliance but have not yet taken the plunge. In the mid-1980s at Clemson University I directed two Alliance programs on the U.S. Constitution. I left Clemson in 1988 and the collaborative there passed to a successor who redirected and improved it. One of the things that I am proudest of in the first two years as a department head at my new institution the University of Northern Iowa is the founding of another History Teaching Alliance collaborative. I want to emphasize, first of all, that having a History Teaching Alliance on campus promotes real and meaningful cooperation between college history faculty and secondary level social studies teachers. This is something we as department chairs should definitely support. We all pay lip service to the need to relate these two constituencies. But how many of us really do it? Working closely with highly-motivated secondary school teachers in a seminar that stresses the content of history can produce experiences that are mutually beneficial to college faculty and high school teachers. I have found several of the high school teachers I have dealt with in my Alliance seminars to be among the best and most enthusiastic students I have had in almost twenty years of teaching. Although pedagogy is not emphasized in Alliance seminars, there is still the opportunity for the two constituencies to compare notes and make suggestions to each other about how one might effectively present historical materials in class. Alliance seminars generally avoid, on the one hand, the danger of university professors lording it over benighted school teachers, and, on the other hand, the questionable theories and trivial approaches of much that passes for ``teacher education.'' Related to this point, department chairs may lay claim to some of the credit for cooperation between college and high school teachers of history generated by Alliance collaboratives. This can be good for the image of the department (and the chair) within the university and in the community. For instance, my university president at Northern Iowa has publicly lauded our department for its participation in the Alliance and has been very generous in helping us fund the program. In addition, the idea of universities and school districts actually cooperating is the sort of ``man bites dog'' story that the local media love to cover. A simulation of a state constitutional ratifying convention, performed in eighteenth-century dress, that we staged at Clemson in 1988 drew extensive media coverage, complete with pictures. These types of good will and visibility cannot be easily measured, but they are certainly of value to a history department and its chair. How can a department head/chair assist in the establishment of an Alliance? The main thing is to identify a faculty member who has good rapport with non-traditional students and is able and willing to design a project that likely has an appeal to local teachers. Then stay out of the way. The Director of the Alliance at Northern Iowa is Robert F. Martin. Bob is an experienced and very popular teacher who specializes in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century U.S. history. The theme that Bob selected for the UNI Alliance in 1990 was ``Dissent and Reform in 19th and 20th Century America.'' Bob wrote the grant proposal, brought the teachers on line, secured the participation of cooperating faculty and guest presenters and, of course, taught the seminar. He did all of these things splendidly. A second important thing a department head/chair can do is to run interference for the seminar director with the university bureaucracy. Few university bureaucrats understand what the History Teaching Alliance is. Deans, offices of grants and contracts, summer session officials, and public relations staffs need to be educated and fed regularly with appropriate information about the Alliance's application process and if support from the national office in Florida is forthcoming what is necessary to ``deliver'' the program. Even the most experienced faculty members are not comfortable with or interested in these sorts of bureaucratic exercises. Department heads know (or should get to know) the right university officials who can help the Alliance to obtain a foothold in your institution. Department chairs can also effectively help to publicize Alliance opportunities to local teachers and school districts. Sending out Alliance literature, making phone calls and appearing at teacher in-service meetings are useful ways of soliciting applications. These necessary publicity thrusts should be the principal respon- sibility of the seminar director. Yet there are comments that you as chair can offer to potential seminar applicants that the faculty director might be to modest too volunteer, namely that the director is an extraordinarily fine professor and that participating in the course will be one of the great educational experiences of a lifetime. Please excuse the slight hyperbole: I'm wearing my public relations hat. Finally, department chairs can take the lead in soliciting funding for the Alliance from local foundations or corporations, particularly for second and subsequent year programs. Currently Bob and I are working with UNI's office of development to seek funding to continue our alliance for the next three years. We have benefitted from enthusiastic support from our in-house fundraisers, and our prospects for foundation support in 1991 and beyond are encouraging. Even if efforts to net any external funding should fail, working with your university development office is time well spent. Among other things it will let your development officers know that you are serious about helping them do their job, and that, in turn, may lead to the targeting of your department for future fund-raising campaigns. I'd be happy to try to answer any specific questions you might have about the role of chairs/heads in the History Teaching Alliance. Please direct them to me directly or to the editor of the OAH Council of Chairs Newsletter. History of Science in the Secondary Schools Robert A. Hatch The University of Florida, in cooperation with the Program in the History of Science, Technology & Medicine, and the national History Teaching Alliance, received a major grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a two-year program, ``History of Science in the Secondary Schools.'' The project was designed to enhance history of science instruction in secondary schools in both science and history classrooms. Co-Directed by Dr. Robert A. Hatch, Principal Investigator, and Dr. Fred Gregory, the total NSF award was $262,015. The first year of the project involved thirty teachers from the state of Florida in a three-week Summer Seminar focusing on themes in the history of science from the seventeenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. The second year of the project, 1989-90, expanded to include teachers and university faculty from the Southeast, including Florida and Virginia. During year one, the first NSF Summer Seminar was offered by the Department of History in lieu of its annual Wentworth History Teacher Workshop. A central component of the program was its connection with the History Teaching Alliance, directed by Dr. Jane Landers, which provided the collaborative model for the NSF proposal. The present award was the largest grant ever received by the History Teaching Alliance, and is among the largest of its kind NSF has awarded to a public institution in the South. The project involved four major objectives:
A central concern of this project is the image of science that currently dominates our textbooks in science texts as well as historical treatments. The problem is clear. Treatment of the history of science and technology in elementary, middle, and high school science and history courses is woefully out of step with the central role technical knowledge plays in western civilization and the world. A meaningful acquaintance with natural science involves more than an ability to manipulate and apply the skills, techniques, and tools of science. Science literacy implies a willingness to reflect on the role of science and technology within one's time and culture. The history of science offers an excellent resource for promoting science literacy. Historical awareness provides unique insights into the development of scientific skills and tools; it also provides a format for examining the various roles that science and technology have played in past cultures. Through an understanding of the power and promise of science in the specific contexts of the past, a deeper appreciation of the nature and limitations of science emerges. The disbursement of knowledge and the encouragement of critical thinking skills are crucial to an educated society and the primary responsibility usually falls on the nation's schools, specifically, teachers. While texts, facilities, and other components in the education process are important, it is the teachers' knowledge, enthusiasm, and professional confidence in their subject area which is of paramount importance to student learning. As agents of change, teachers are crucial to the development of new approaches to instruction of our scientific past and current technology. But many teachers lack the knowledge and tools to approach the history of science in their classrooms. Our program emphasized content and collegiality. The two year-long discussions engaged university faculty from the Departments of History, Zoology, and Astronomy, the Florida State Museum, the History Teaching Alliance, and thirty school teachers, drawn in two-member teams of one history teacher and one science teacher, from fifteen school districts located throughout the state of Florida. As mentioned, this was expanded in Year Two. All teachers involved in the Institute were visited by an Institute faculty member in their classrooms. In addition, we established a teacher exchange program which strengthened the sense of collegiality between university and school participants and broadened awareness for the challenges faced in their different classrooms. In our teacher exchange, for example, a science teacher from the schools took responsibility for a lecture in a university history of science class. Similarly, university faculty prepared presentations for secondary classes. At the end of each year, all teacher-participants were asked to submit a minimum of four fully revised lesson plans from the Summer Institute which had been tested in the classroom and refined in accordance with those test results. These printed strategies and lesson plans are now being considered for publication. Bringing Japan to Wisconsin through the History Teaching Alliance Lane R. Earns The History Teaching Alliance has provided me the opportunity to work closely with thirteen secondary school teachers from northeastern Wisconsin in a structured, yet highly personalized, program. When I first read about the HTA and its efforts to bring together university and secondary school teachers to improve history education, I had mixed emotions about wanting to become involved in such a venture. On the one hand, I had been looking for a vehicle to bring Japan to local schools since I moved to Wisconsin three years ago; on the other hand, however, I had just completed a frustrating experience trying to interest area sec- ondary school teachers in the local competition for National History Day. I had sent letters to well over one hundred school districts in the area and received not a single reply. I decided to try once again to reach area teachers, in the hope that my topic of ``Japan and the Outside World,'' as well as the promise of stipends and graduate credits would attract a greater response. With the support of my department and university, I applied for an HTA grand and, fortunately, was accepted. To my utter amazement, after mailing more than one hundred letters to area teachers, I received only four responses. Through some urgent phone calls and an address to a gathering of global studies teachers, I was able to gather thirteen people interested in the project only after greatly expanding the geographical boundaries of the search. The situation was not much better on the financial side, as I was having difficulty raising local funds to supplement the HTA and university support. Only a late donation by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Foundation allowed the program to get under way. The program began with a two-week seminar in August led by university speakers from Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin on Japan's relations with foreign countries in historical perspective. The speakers did an outstanding job lecturing to the seminar participants and leading the subsequent discussions, but the most satisfying part of the experience for me was the performance of the secondary school teachers. Starting with a very limited knowledge of Japan and a general reluctance to question visiting scholars, they soon began to feel at ease with the seminar format, and sessions often exceeded the three-hour time limit. By the time the summer session ended, the teachers had developed a good historical base for examining Japan, and they were looking forward to the monthly follow-up meetings on Japan and the world since World War II. They began to channel their enthusiasm in different ways. Some sent me clippings of newspaper and magazine articles they found on Japan for discussion at the next meeting. Others brought materials to the sessions in order to clarify questions that had arisen at earlier sessions. A few asked for reading lists and bibliographic information on topics related to Japan. Being concerned educators, the discussion no matter what the assigned topic for the day always seemed to work its way back at least once a session to a comparison of the educational systems in Japan and America. They asked not only to learn more about how education influences Japan's role in the world, but to see if there are practices that can be adopted for use in their own classrooms. The group has proven to be highly committed to teaching and learning and open to new ideas. I believe the teachers will form an effective nucleus for future projects between the Department of History at UW-Oshkosh and area secondary schools. As a matter of fact, I plan to enlist their support next year when the Department again will attempt to host the regional History Day competition. In an effort to expand the impact of the HTA seminar beyond the immediate group of thirteen teachers, we will conduct our March meeting at the annual state conference of the Wisconsin Council of Social Studies and open the session to all conference participants. We will conclude the monthly sessions with another open meeting in April at the UW-Oshkosh campus. The speaker on this occasion will be the Japanese Consul-General from Chicago. Final reports showing how the teachers plan to incorporate what they have learned into their classrooms will be due in May. Attempts to raise state and local funds for the program continue, with small victories being achieved periodically. Plans to solidity the links between the university and area secondary schools also persist, with the hope that they can be institution- alized in the not too distant future. In spite of the initial difficulties in getting the program off the ground, the reward in terms of personal satisfaction has been great, and I believe we have, indeed, improved the content and quality of history education in northeastern Wisconsin through the History Teaching Alliance. Subscription Expirations If you are a paid subscriber, please take a moment and look at your mailing label. If a portion of your label is red, your subscription has or is about to lapse. We hope you will want to renew your subscription. So please, help us save postage and resources and renew your subscription today! Thank you! OAH Annual Meeting The 1991 OAH Annual Meeting will be held in Louisville, Kentucky, April 11-14, 1991, at the Galt House. The theme for this year's meeting is ``Diversity and Dissent: Politics as Social Process.'' Among the highlights of the annual meeting will be a keynote address by Julian Bond, a public lecture by Toni Morrison on her prize-winning novel, Beloved, and an auction to benefit The Fund for American History. For more information on the eighty-fourth OAH Annual Meeting, please contact the OAH offices in Bloomington. |
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