National Association of Scholars,
January 10, 2013
U.S. history courses at American
colleges and universities downplay the nation’s economic, military, and
political history and dramatically overemphasize the role of race. So finds a
new study by the Texas Association of Scholars (TAS) and Center for the Study
of the Curriculum at the National Association of Scholars (NAS).
The study focused on the University
of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M as representative institutions because
Texas law requires all students at public universities to take a year of
American history and for universities to post course syllabi and faculty
credentials online. The researchers found that many important topics received
scant attention while more than half the faculty members focused on race,
class, and gender (RCG) in their courses. Among the topics that were often
crowded out were America’s diplomatic, philosophical, religious, and scientific
history.High emphasis on race, class, and gender in reading assignments. 78 percent of UT faculty members were high assigners of RCG readings;
- 50 percent of A&M faculty members were high assigners of RCG readings.
- An absence of significant primary source documents and
key concepts
- Tocqueville’s Democracy in America and the Gettysburg Address, for instance, were rarely assigned, and numerous political documents, such as the Mayflower Compact and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, were not assigned in any American history courses.
- High level of race, class, and gender research
interests among faculty members teaching these courses. 78 percent of UT faculty members had special research
interests in RCG;
- 64 percent of A&M faculty members had special
research interests in RCG.
“The patterns we uncovered at UT and
A&M reflect national trends in the discipline. To turn this around history
departments must review their curricula, keep broad courses broad, hire
less-narrowly-specialized faculty members, and diversify graduate programs.”
Original Article
