ABSTRACT
OSU’s College of Education experimented with alternative tracks for teacher education, including Educational Programs in Informal Classrooms based on the British Informal School model. Classroom-based research relies on there being something to observe. Spending long periods of time in classrooms facilitates that trust. Their students read a rich array of historical literature, appeared to enjoy learning history, and comfortably interacted with a variety of adults in their classrooms. Perhaps most importantly, revisiting the two classrooms cautions against too-easy assumptions about how history teaching and learning happen in elementary schools. The teachers in each of these classrooms were very different in some ways. A growing body of children’s literature addressed issues of racism, sexism, and ethnocentrism within United States (US) borders, but there was considerably less attention to introducing young readers to cultures outside the US To some extent, this literary “in-country” emphasis reflected civil rights and feminist movements in the US.
