A Converation with Kathleen Kean

Christine Compston

Christine Compston (CC): Why did you decide to teach high school history?

Kathleen Kean (KK): History was my favorite subject all through school. By the time I was in high school, I knew that I wanted to major in history in college and prepare to teach history at the high school level after graduation. I looked for a college with a strong history major where I could also get the education credits required for certification. I chose Chatham College, in Pittsburgh, PA. I began teaching in the fall of 1969 and have taught more than twenty-five of the intervening years, primarily eleventh grade U.S. History and Advanced Placement U.S. History. High school teaching has been rewarding because the students are mature enough to handle challenging content and I enjoy working with that age group as they make the transition into more independent adults.

CC: What aspects of your undergraduate education best prepared you to teach?

KK: The most important factors were a solid background in history, a strong core curriculum of additional liberal arts courses, and education courses that help me in identifying methods to teach the content effectively. An excellent set of solid history courses enabled me to become well versed in content and taught me the skills required to do history myself. I was fortunate to be able to work with demanding scholars who loved the discipline and helped me to hone my skills during my four years as an undergraduate.

As a senior I took a two-semester senior tutorial required for graduation. I was able to do original primary source work based on a collection of over one hundred letters written by my great-great grandfather during the Civil War. He was an Irish immigrant to Buffalo who volunteered for an Irish unit in the Northern Army. Not only did I learn a great deal about Irish participation in the war, but through searching in old city maps, street directories, baptismal records and city newspapers, I also helped fill in the gaps about the wife and six children to whom the letters were addressed. Needless to say, the experience of working with this collection has had a huge impact on my own teaching! Each year during the Civil War unit, I pass out copies of some of the letters and discuss the "detective work" I did. Students tell me that reading from these letters helps make the textbook material more "personal." As I show students how I framed questions and went about finding the answers, I am passing along the instructional techniques and excitement of discovery that I learned from my teachers.

CC: You have a Master's degree as well. How did graduate work improve your teaching?

KK: The more specialized courses in U.S. history deepened my knowledge of the discipline. I also gained valuable insights as a teaching assistant because I worked closely with college freshmen and saw that many struggled without strong note taking, critical thinking, and reading skills. When I returned to the high school classroom, I was better equipped to teach the content in more depth and to reinforce what high school students needed to know to successfully make the transition into college.

CC: Your concern with professional learning opportunities leads to a set of related questions. What do you think should be the purpose of professional development programs? How should such programs be structured to be of the greatest benefit to high school history teachers?

KK: Formal professional development programs can be valuable. My schedule, like that of many teachers, includes family and community as well as school-related responsibilities. As a result, I usually attend two- to three-day workshops or week-long summer institutes. Short workshops have made it possible for me to brush up on specific areas of content or explore new theories related to teaching. These programs have helped me incorporate new methods so that I can reach students with varied learning styles.

In addition to taking courses, I have also had opportunities to organize and direct programs, For example, I won a grant from the Committee on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution and became the project director for a teacher-training workshop that brought forty Wisconsin high school teachers together with scholars to exchange ideas. Fortunately, our group was able to have Dr. Mary K. Tachau as our principal resident scholar. Teachers who participated in the workshop still fondly remember her enthusiasm for teaching about the Constitution and her willingness to work with secondary teachers. After the initial three-day session, teachers returned to their classes to design and implement new lessons on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. As part of the workshop design, we were all required to integrate ideas we had just learned into new lessons, test them in our classes, and meet again four months later to share and discuss what we had learned. Dr. Tachau was so interested in the project that she agreed to return to participate in these meetings.

CC: You mentioned the need to keep learning in order to meet the needs of new generations of students. How has your approach to teaching history changed over time? What factors have influenced these changes?

KK: Over the years, one of the major challenges has been how to teach history in an engaging, thoughtful way so that students will not only learn but also like the subject. Since I teach a required course, I deal with some students who are reluctant participants. One strategy I have used for engaging these students has been to put an emphasis on teaching the skills needed to understand historical relationships. Another is to include content that captures their interest. As historical scholarship has broadened to include topics long ignored, I have tried to do the same with my curriculum. By incorporating these new fields, I have seen signs of curiosity among even my least interested students.

My approach to teaching A.P. history has grown out of the way I have approached teaching any of the other "levels" of U.S. history. Of course, I can assign more readings from a variety of sources and students are more willing (most of the time) to put in the extra effort needed to struggle with conflicting interpretations, but I have found that even my "average" students are more intrigued by topics that show controversy and complexity. When students see how historians use evidence in various ways and often arrive at different conclusions, or learn how bias can be detected in opposing arguments, students learn to understand that history is more than a mere memorization of facts.

CC: How do you manage to engage students who are "visually" oriented, particularly those in advanced placement classes that emphasize reading and writing? What strategies have you found most effective in the classroom?

KK: I have become increasingly aware of how important it is to draw from a variety of methods and approaches when introducing history content. When I use videos, I want students to become emotionally involved and to better visualize the content, but I also caution them to realize they need to use different behaviors from the passive ones they use watching entertainment television. I have found several videos from the American Experience series have worked well for my students because they draw upon primary source quotes and photos and contain insights from historians to help bring the content alive.

CC: How has your involvement in the OAH contributed to your teaching?

KK: My membership in the OAH has helped me to stay connected to current developments in the teaching and study of U.S. history, and the Annual Meeting has helped me to interact directly with scholars who are writing the books from which I teach. Although the world of the high school teacher can feel disconnected at times from the dialogue at the university level, the contacts I have made through the OAH have helped me to stay abreast of new directions and to bring fresh insights into my classroom.

As a member of the OAH Focus Group that reviewed the National History Standards, I was invited to participate in stimulating debates about what should or should not be included and why. Serving on the board of the Magazine of History also allowed me work with people who share common interests, and these contacts have strengthened the dialogue among teachers at all levels of the profession.

Rarely do teachers know how they will shape the future actions of their students, but I feel I owe a great deal to the many who worked with me. I also am grateful that the OAH has broadened its mission to include pre-collegiate teachers because history education at all levels is our common concern.

Christine Compston is the former director of the National History Education Network and History Teaching Alliance (1993-1996). She is also co-editor of The Holmes-Frankfurter Correspondence, 1912-1935, as well as a new biography targeted for young adults, Earl Warren: J

ustice for All, available this year.