A Deafening Silence: History Textbooks and the Students Who Read Them

This article provides a review and analysis of research targeting the rift separating history written for adults and the historical texts aimed at K-12 audiences––specifically history textbooks. The role of personal agency in historical writing, both for those who write and those who read, is emphasized as an important element separating the two rhetorical genres. A body of research exploring what students learn from reading and the complex...