Manifesting Destiny: Re/presentations of Indigenous Peoples in K-12 U.S. History Standards

• Published in: Theory and research in social education Vol. 43; no. 1; pp. 68 - 101
• Main Authors: Shear, Sarah B., Knowles, Ryan T., Soden, Gregory J., Castro, Antonio J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 02.01.2015
• Subjects: American history; American Indians; Case Studies; Content Analysis; Course Content; Elementary School Students; Guidelines; History Instruction; Indigenous Populations; Indigenous studies; Mixed Methods Research; postcolonial theory; Social Studies; social studies standards; State Standards; United States History
• ISSN: 0093-3104; 2163-1654
• DOI: 10.1080/00933104.2014.999849

In this mixed-methods study, we use a postcolonial framework to investigate how state standards represent Indigenous histories and cultures. The research questions that guided this study include: (a) What is the frequency of Indigenous content (histories, cultures, current issues) covered in state-level U.S. history standards for K-12? (b) What is the difference between the frequency of inclusion of pre-1900 Indigenous content and post-1900 Indigenous content in U.S. history standards for K-12? (c) How do the standards depict Indigenous Peoples in U.S. history? U.S. history curriculum standards from all 50 states and the District of Columbia were analyzed using within-case analysis and quantified to represent each state's depiction of Indigenous content. Findings reveal that standards overwhelmingly present Indigenous Peoples in a pre-1900 context and relegate the importance and presence of Indigenous Peoples to the distant past.