Gradwell, Jill M. “Using Sources to Teach History for the Common Good: A Case of One Teacher’s Purpose.” The Journal of Social Studies Research 34(1) (2010): 56-76.
In this paper, Gradwell provides a case study of a middle school teacher who uses primary sources in her classroom because she is concerned with preparing students for informed citizenry, as opposed to reasons of recent history education scholarship or reform efforts. Gradwell uses Barton and Levstik’s (2004) Teaching History for the Common Good as a framework for making sense of this teacher’s purpose and practice. She argues that the teacher’s understanding of the role and purpose of history education influences her teaching and motivates her to use primary sources. She provides examples of the teacher’s use of Barton and Levstik’s four stances (identification, analytic stance, moral response stance, and exhibition stance). One implication of this teacher’s use of primary sources is that it demonstrates that teachers need a sense of guiding purpose in order to introduce primary sources into the classroom, and that primary sources can be used for more than analytic history.