Fostering Historical Thinking toward Civil Rights Movement Counter-Narratives: Documentary Film in Elementary Social Studies

Abstract

This article describes how elementary preservice teachers used four documentary films to think historically about the United States Civil Rights Movement. The author situates the descriptive case study within research about historical thinking and documentary film, identifying the need for using documentary film to think historically in the elementary teacher education setting. Findings included increased understanding of the process of historical thinking and content knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement among the preservice teachers. A discussion of teaching historical thinking using documentaries in elementary teacher education and opportunities for future research is offered.

Keywords:

• documentary film
• elementary social studies education
• historical thinking

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Drs. Wayne Journell and Jeremy Hilburn for their feedback during the preparation of this manuscript.