The History of History

How has the teaching of history changed over the last half-century? That's what Larry Cuban, emeritus professor at Stanford, was curious to find out when he began researching his new book, Teaching History Then and Now: A Story of Stability and Change in Schools.

A former high school history teacher from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, Cuban focused his examination on the two urban schools in which he taught: Cleveland’s Glenville High School and Washington, D.C.’s Cardozo High School. What he found was that while many things stayed the same — the socioeconomic background of the students, the age/grade structure of the schools — there had been an evolution in the way things were taught, due largely to the two reform movements: the New Social Studies of the 1960s and the New History of the 1990s.

In this edition of the Harvard EdCast, Cuban speaks about his new book and reflects on the stability and change of teaching history in American schools.

About the Harvard EdCast

The Harvard EdCast is a weekly series of podcasts, available on the Harvard University iTunes U page, that features a 15-20 minute conversation with thought leaders in the field of education from across the country and around the world. Hosted by Matt Weber, the Harvard EdCast is a space for educational discourse and openness, focusing on the myriad issues and current events related to the field.