A Holistic Approach to History Education: The 2008 OAH Annual Meeting

Siobhan Carter-David

So goes another wonderful OAH annual meeting. This year, attention to precollegiate history education and community college historians played a pivotal role in the meeting’s success through the use of live performances, visual illustrations, and sessions geared to teaching, special events for teachers, and the annual TAH Grant Symposium.

As always, there was a number of sessions dedicated, primarily, to serving the needs of precollegiate teachers of American history. Sessions on the subject of teaching historical methods, teaching race, teaching historiography, organizing professional development for primary and secondary teachers, and building better lessons plans were held over the course of the meeting. Additionally, many teachers stayed an extra day for the TAH Grant Symposium, which addressed at least one of the issues presented at the meeting sessions: students and the development and assessment of historical thinking skills, in addition to a focus on funding sources and explicating the voice of pre-collegiate educators.

A breakfast for community college historians and the Focus on Teaching luncheon for precollegiate teachers underscored the experience for both groups. As is customary, the OAH president-elect spoke at the breakfast for the OAH-GLI travel grant winners. Pete Daniel addressed the audience of over forty history teachers, discussing the amusement of locating exciting and useful sources in unlikely places.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of history education at the meeting was the public school exhibition, which featured three-dimensional paper and computer projects and a drama performance examining the meaning and implications of the Iraqi war. John Eligo of the New York Times reported that some at the meeting considered the first-time inclusion of precollegiate students to be “a breath of fresh air.” Most grippingly, musical tributes to the origins of rhythm and blues, Latin jazz, hip-hop, and bachata by the students of P.S. 140 gave homage to the history of their Bronx neighborhood of Morrisania.

This year the OAH brought together teachers and students from every level of education. Next year in Seattle, we promise again to bring together diverse voices in the world of American history in order to better meet the needs of our members and the communities in which our annual meeting serves.

On a personal note, as my time at OAH draws to a close this August, I would like to take this opportunity to say farewell to all OAH members and to thank you for allowing me to serve as your education coordinator for the last two years. I would also like to thank each member of the OAH staff for their kindness and assistance in helping me complete my tasks, and in particular, Terry, Ginger, Anna, Amy, Annette, Ashley, and Lee for their support in personal matters regarding my transition to wife and mother. It has been great being a part of the OAH team and its wonderful mission.

As the recipient of the 2004 IU-OAH Diversity Fellowship—a joint venture between OAH and Indiana University’s Department of History—I received six years of funding to support the completion of my doctoral degree: two fellowship years, two years teaching, and two years working for OAH. This fellowship allows for one student every two years to be presented with the benefit of a very well-rounded introduction to the historical profession. The two teaching years are spent as an associate instructor (TA) in the history department and the fellowship years are typically used for research. The years at OAH, however, are the most dynamic. In addition to smaller projects, I have been given various responsibilities from helping to compose the Ford Foundation grant proposal used for our community college workshop series, to coordinating the OAH-GLI travel grant program, to assisting TAH grant directors with procuring support for their school systems. Working under the tutelage of Executive Director Lee Formwalt has been rewarding, exciting, challenging and eye-opening.