Date Approved
4-2025
Graduate Degree Type
Project
Degree Name
Education-Instruction and Curriculum: Secondary Education (M.Ed.)
Degree Program
College of Education
First Advisor
Sherie Klee
Academic Year
2024/2025
Abstract
Research indicates there is a decline in student comprehension and engagement in Social Studies knowledge among secondary students in the United States. Students lack access to diverse voices in their history classrooms, which may lead to an unbalanced perspective of American history. While there are multiple reasons behind this lack of diversity in the secondary classroom, this paper focuses on three culprits: Lack of diversity in state standards, lack of diversity in class curriculums, and that teachers may lack the knowledge to teach multiple viewpoints to students. One way to combat these problems is by implementing culturally relevant pedagogy, which uses students’ diverse backgrounds to engage them in learning. To that end, a unit plan has been developed that fulfills the stated objectives of the state standards for the unit under study but also incorporates diverse views from women and men who otherwise would not be heard from in the traditional curriculum. This is a turn-key ready unit, so teachers of any experience level can utilize it with success. Measured by pre-and post-test data, as well as student surveys after the unit, this unit will help to drive engagement and foster critical thinking in the social studies classroom.
ScholarWorks Citation
Langholz, Benjamin D., "Closing the Gap in American History Knowledge in K-12 Students" (2025). Culminating Experience Projects. 547.
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/gradprojects/547
