Abstract
History is not the past. It is the stories we tell about the past. How we tell these stories - triumphantly or self-critically, metaphysically or dialectally - has a lot to do with whether we cut short or advance our evolution as human beings. Grace Lee Boggs
In this opening quote, scholar and activist Grace Lee Boggs (2012) underscores the critical role of history in understanding society and people. However, scholars such as Howard Zinn (1998) and James Loewen (2008) note that educators have too often failed to realize the potential power of history. They assert that US history classes often focus on the memorization of historical facts, figures, and events while creating few opportunities for students to learn how to leverage history to critically analyze the present. In their critique of traditional treatments of US history, Zinn and Loewen also argue that marginalized communities are often rendered irrelevant to the dominant historical narrative. This invisibility of minoritized communities in US history has a wide range of negative consequences, such as leading students to question whether they belong in US society, devaluing their communities’ contributions to it, and inhibiting their ability to understand their communities, families, and themselves. This invisibility of minoritized communities in US history has a wide range of negative consequences.
Despite the importance of understanding the history of one's society and community, history is progressively devalued along with other fields in the social sciences and humanities as higher education becomes increasingly corporatized and institutions place greater emphasis and value on revenue-generating endeavors (Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004). In this article, we argue that a critical analysis of history that is grounded in students’ cultural communities plays an essential role in constructing curricular and co-curricular environments that enable all students to optimally learn and grow. Centering history in college learning is about more than facilitating students’ acquisition of content knowledge. As we discuss in the following, a critical analysis of history can lead to a greater understanding of the relevance of one's community and a wide range of developmental outcomes among students, including identity, civic, and leadership outcomes.
Ethnic Studies courses are a site at which culturally relevant history is often centered as a learning tool. While Ethnic Studies courses certainly provide models for realizing the potential power of culturally relevant historical analysis, they are not the only curricular and co-curricular spaces that can and should offer students opportunities to learn U.S. history from culturally relevant perspectives. In this article, we make the case for the range of educators across college campuses to consider the value of culturally relevant history in their own work.
The Impact of Historical Analysis on Learning
In our own lives, learning about the histories of our own Japanese American and Okinawan communities, as well as larger Asian American and Indigenous community histories, was transformative. It allowed us to connect decades of ethnic community struggles to our own conditions and experiences, catalyzed our own identity development, elucidated the shared struggles of marginalized communities, and fueled our passion for decolonization and justice work. As a result, in our own courses and research, we purposefully link historical processes to current conditions, realities, and issues that impact marginalized communities. Over the years, we have found that this linkage also helps our students comprehend the durability of pervasive societal problems, enhances their understanding of the context and conditions surrounding their own lives, and informs the development of their identity and purpose.
Our experiences are validated by a growing body of evidence. Over the last three decades, scholars have generated ample empirical evidence that learning opportunities are more conducive to students thriving if they are relevant to learners’ lives (Museus, 2014; Tintiangco-Cubales et al., 2015). They note that curricula allowing learners to construct knowledge about and give back to their communities are more likely to facilitate students’ engagement, sense of belonging, empowerment, and eventual educational attainment. Educators can center historical analysis relevant to minoritized students’ cultural communities in a wide range of learning environments that exist across their campuses. Educators can center historical analysis relevant to minoritized students’ cultural communities in a wide range of learning environments that exist across college campuses.
Linking History to Students’ Lives
In recent years, opportunities to center critical culturally relevant analyses of history in curricular and co-curricular spaces and programs abound as a wide range of campuses has been forced to deal with controversies tied to their institutional histories (Croucher et al., 2020; Daigle, 2019; Kretsinger-Harries, 2020). On many college and university campuses, student protesters have demanded that their institutions remove statues of confederate soldiers and change building names tied to racist historical figures (Kretsinger-Harries, 2020). In recent years, opportunities to center critical culturally relevant analyses of history in curricular and co-curricular spaces and programs abound as a wide range of campuses have been forced to deal with controversies tied to their institutional histories. There are increased discussions about how postsecondary institutions'' origins and histories are linked to the occupation and theft of Indigenous lands, and the problems with racialized mascots (Daigle, 2019). In our own classes, we have helped students analyze the historical U.S. exploitation of global crises to racially scapegoat people of color, raising their consciousness of the connections between current anti-Asian rhetoric and the rise in anti-Asian hate amid the COVID- 19 pandemic (Croucher et al., 2020). Educators seeking connections between historical contexts and contemporary politics impacting students'' communities are surrounded by possibilities.
We advocate for the integration of critical and culturally relevant historical analysis into the broad range of curricula, programs, or initiatives across college campuses. For example, education courses can link the colonial and anti-Black histories of US colleges and universities to analyze contemporary controversies surrounding racist commemorated historical figures. Courses in Health Science might connect histories of colonization to current health disparities in iIndigenous communities. Psychology and counseling courses might analyze the connection of histories of imperialism and war to intergenerational trauma among refugee communities. Courses in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics can examine how white supremacy, patriarchy, and colonialism shape the domination of Western epistemologies and underrepresentation of people of color, women, and Indigenous communities in these fields. Creating culturally relevant learning opportunities through critical historical analyses contributes to an array of positive developmental outcomes…
Regardless of academic discipline, one of the most powerful ways that educators can construct environments that center on culturally relevant historical analysis is through leveraging students and their communities as invaluable resources. In college courses and service-learning projects, educators can support students in collecting oral histories from their families and kinship networks to construct an archive that can be deployed to educate others about critical issues in these communities. In undergraduate research opportunities and service projects, educators can engage the histories of their students’ families as valuable assets in figuring out how to meet the needs of communities. In one example, a faculty member and students from refugee families leveraged the latter's knowledge to design and execute a community-based research project that generated knowledge about a newly arrived refugee community's struggle (Authors, in press). This research informed the work of a community-based organization that provides behavioral health services to refugees. Such projects allow students to engage in learning relevant to their lives, strengthen their bonds with their communities, and write and rewrite historical narratives about their communities that can be used to educate others. One of the most powerful ways that educators can construct environments that center culturally relevant historical analysis is by leveraging students and their communities as invaluable resources. Such projects allow students to engage in learning relevant to their lives, strengthen their bonds with their communities, and write and rewrite historical narratives about their communities that can be used to educate others.
Fostering More Complex Understanding of the World through Historical Analysis
Creating culturally relevant learning opportunities through critical historical analyses contributes to an array of positive outcomes, such as healthier identity development, increased civic engagement, and enhanced leadership capacities (Olcoń et al., 2019; Parsons & Turner, 2014). Almost all identity theories that delineate the processes that individuals undergo as they develop their identities suggest that people from minoritized populations lack awareness of differences in society and appreciation of their cultural communities in their early years (Torres et al., 2009). Developing knowledge about how historical processes have differentially impacted communities teaches students about why inequities in opportunities and outcomes across diverse populations currently exist (Parsons & Turner, 2014). In addition, students learning about their histories allows them to cultivate an awareness of how historical contexts shape the conditions and challenges that live within their communities (Olcoń et al., 2019). In doing so, such knowledge permits students to foster greater appreciation of their communities and promote healthier cultural identities among them. Educators seeking connections between historical contexts and contemporary politics impacting students’ communities are surrounded by possibilities.
Scholars note that culturally relevant historical analysis also supports the development of students’ commitments and capacities to engage in activism (Rhoads, 1998). They point out that college student activism is often grounded in an understanding of how the historical oppression of marginalized communities contributes to existing inequities today. Moreover, social and political activism can be strengthened by an understanding that marginalized communities have a history of advocating for equity in solidarity with each other (Pulido, 2008). In addition, researchers have documented how some college student activists root their work in a historical legacy of social movements, seeing their work as a continuation of long-lasting struggles for greater equity and justice throughout society (Rhoads, 1998).
Culturally relevant historical analysis can also help cultivate the necessary knowledge and skills for students to become and continue to be effective community and societal leaders. Higher education researchers highlight that knowledge of social problems and the ability to effect positive social change are critical aspects of any leadership development efforts (Komives & Wagner, 2016; Museus et al., 2017). Comprehending social problems requires awareness of their origins, how they have evolved throughout history, and how these histories shape current social and political dynamics. For these reasons, few would argue with the notion that any individual who does not understand the history of a community or society is ill-equipped to lead it.
Moving Forward
In sum, we believe that educators should make concerted efforts to integrate the critical analysis of the histories of students’ cultural communities into their academic and student affairs curricula and programming. While many educators do center such activities, they often happen within isolated spaces on college campuses, such as Ethnic Studies programs and cultural centers. We encourage educators to expand their notions of the utility of history and consider how a culturally relevant historical frame can bolster the range of developmental initiatives throughout both academic and student affairs on college campuses. … educators should make concerted efforts to integrate the critical analysis of the histories of students’ cultural communities into their … curricula and programming.
It is important to acknowledge that many college educators might struggle to figure out how to integrate culturally relevant historical analyses into their curricula or student development programs. Many of us were educated in traditional history courses that did not promote critical thinking, seldom engaged and centered the histories of marginalized communities, and failed to make explicit the relevance of history to understanding current issues. Therefore, educators might have to commit to (re-)educating themselves about society's diverse histories and doing the hard work of meaningfully connecting it to contemporary critical issues. … Through supporting these efforts more holistically, institutions can better create the conditions for all students to see the relevance of learning environments to their communities and lives.
In figuring out how to integrate culturally relevant historical analyses into courses and co-curricular programs, we encourage educators to partner with Ethics Studies faculty. Many Ethnic Studies faculty have in-depth training and experience constructing and delivering courses and learning opportunities that center culturally relevant histories and can therefore serve as critical resources and partners in designing such curricula and educational programs. However, given the devaluation of Ethnic Studies within the increasingly corporatized academy (Darder, 2012), institutions run the risk of exploiting these faculty. To adequately support Ethnic Studies faculty, campuses can and should provide them with substantial support, time and compensation, and recognition for leading efforts to foster more culturally relevant curricula.
Yet, it is important that institutions balance supporting Ethnic Studies faculty leadership in this arena with shifting the culture of the larger campus to be more culturally relevant. Campuses should create and maintain structures in key units, such as inclusion and equity divisions and offices of teaching and learning, that support the development of culturally relevant pedagogical skills across the campus. To cultivate a culture more conducive to culturally relevant curricula across the campus, institutions can and should incentivize faculty across disciplines and fields to participate in professional development opportunities and enhance their abilities to engage the histories of diverse people in their work. By supporting these efforts more holistically, institutions can better create the conditions for all students to see the relevance of learning environments to their communities and lives. In doing so, institutions are also more likely to foster the conditions necessary for diverse populations to thrive.
