Textbooks vs. Teaching: Evaluating Multicultural History Education in North Carolina Secondary Schools (2015)

Undergraduate: Hillary Stroud

Faculty Advisor: Patrick Akos
Department: American Studies

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This paper presents and analyzes current North Carolina Department of Public Instruction policies regarding history textbooks and classes in secondary schools as they reflect (or fail to reflect) attention to multicultural competence. I examine the textbook selection processes in place and their manifestations in specific schools and classrooms, contextualized with respect to the legislatures responsible for them and the ways in which these policies have developed over the years to their present condition. I then analyze the texts themselves and the degree of cultural competence they offer according to standards set by education researchers; we consider the texts in terms of educational efficacy broadly understood. Lastly, we explore the ways that textbooks interact with teaching practice in the classroom in communicating or not communicating multicultural understandings of American history. The purpose of this paper is ultimately to evaluate current history education policy in North Carolina and to consider how it might be improved.