iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Run, don't walk, to read Quynh Dang's dissertation on Vietnamese teachers' and students' conceptions of harmony and civic education--open access at the link. This is one of the best dissertations I've supervised. #sschat #harmony #Vietnam #civiceducation www.proquest.com/openview/521...

proquest.com

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Coming in 2026🤞: Amy and I explore how we're recentering learning in our methods classes through reading, writing, and discussion--and doing away with digital technology.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Free publication (link in comments) supports educators teaching global citizenship education from Asia-Pacific perspectives, through concrete activities, stories, cases, examples, and instructional strategies. ##sschat #gce #globalcitizenshipeducation

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

If you're at the National Council for the Social Studies, come to Li-Ching Ho's and my presentation on teaching for hope! Saturday, Dec. 6, Room 201. #sschat #socialstudies #teachingsocialstudies @socialstudies.org

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Great opportunity for high school social studies teachers in the United States! #sschat #iteachsocialstudies #historyteacher

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Like lamb and Bordeaux, Barton & Ho pair well with Pace.

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Reposted by Keith C. Barton

Viet Thanh Nguyen @vietthanhnguyen.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

It’s going to be real tough to discuss Japanese American internment without saying something negative. All national parks now have this sign. Sanitizing crimes and erasing memory is one more step towards a white supremacist version of history.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

"Rebuilding a Democracy in Ruins," including chapters by LaGarrett King and Richard Williams, Li-Ching Ho Tricia Seow and Xian Hui Tan, Jennifer Hauver, Kristen Duncan, Jillian Carter Ford, Kathryn Ellerhoff Engebretson, and Alexandria Hollett

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

National History Day has been eliminated.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Li-Ching Ho and I just published this article on #hope and #historyteaching in the journal of the New South Wales History Teachers Association. DM for a higher-res version. #SSChat #iteachsocialstudies

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

But as teachers, we have a special obligation to stand up for what is right, because more than any other profession, we influence the future. We must take responsibility for the face of the world.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

But we might get in trouble! Yes, we might. Many people have gotten in trouble for standing up for what is right. It’s likely to happen again, because we are living through a horrible and dangerous moment in our nation’s history.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

“As teachers, we make sure that students learn about all people; we make sure that they see all people as deserving of dignity, respect, and rights; we don’t discriminate in our classrooms—that’s not what we do.” We need to say it, practice it, own it.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

What we can do is act as the professionals we are and state our principles clearly and confidently:

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

But what if someone complains!? Yes, what if? If someone complains about these things—and they might—they are not coming from a place of generosity or humanity or democracy. We probably won’t be able to change their minds, but that’s not our job.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Every action we take or fail to take sends a message, so we must make sure we are sending messages that promote the humanity of all people.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

If students never see LGBTQ+ people, or immigrants, or Asian Americans in our books and posters, they will rightfully conclude that we think these people are not important enough to care about.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

It’s not enough that we avoid demeaning or stereotypical images, as important as that it, because the messages we send by what we leave out are as important as those we include.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

So too for our walls: Our posters must show workers striking and minorities marching and same-sex couples kissing and present-day Native people governing and people in less economically developed countries teaching and laughing and inventing.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

(And of course, these books must portray them in respectful and dignified ways, as knowledgeable, insightful, and concerned people who take responsibility for their own lives and who work for the common good.)

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

These must be stories that both reflect the backgrounds of our students and that expand their understanding and concern to people who may be very different than they are.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

When we choose books for reading aloud, we must make a conscious decision to use those that include rich and accurate portrayals of the full range of humanity—racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities, people in and from other countries, compassionate men and powerful women, people working for justice.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

the decorations we put on our walls, and the examples we use in teaching (for example, the read-aloud books we use in elementary classrooms). And these may be two of the most powerful ways of taking responsibility for the face of the world.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Teachers can and must counter this. This is not as difficult as it seems, even in today’s highly controlled school settings. As teachers, there are two things we have almost complete control over:

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

All of these have been precursors to removing people’s rights and their dignity, and destroying the lives of people near and far.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Immigrants are portrayed as criminals; minorities as incompetent; women as objects; LGBTQ+ individuals as deviant; Native peoples as remnants; protestors as traitors; people in other countries as irrelevant to national interests.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

In the United States, politicians and internet trolls have dehumanized people for many years. With the current takeover of government, this has accelerated to dangerous levels.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Farmers became easy marks for land confiscation; Jewish shopkeepers were run out of business and soon faced an even worse fate. The words, labels, and images we use matter, and they have consequences for the people they refer to.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

He gives examples of Stalinist propaganda depicting prosperous farmers as pigs; Nazis painting “Jewish” on Jewish-owned businesses. Once these labels became taken for granted, it was easier to deprive people of their rights, their dignity, and their property:

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Timothy Snyder argues in _On Tyranny_ that we must take responsibility for the face of the world. The images and symbols we take for granted today enable—or limit—the realities of tomorrow.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

It is easy to feel powerless in the current moment, when political action seems too risky, too pointless, or both. But there are many things we can, and must, do if we want a better world than the one we’re caught up in now.

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Social studies teachers (or history/social science teachers): Help me out with some ideas, even inspiration, by completing this sentence—“As social studies teachers, we…” (do what?) #sschat #iteachsocialstudies @edusky.bsky.social

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Social studies teachers (or history/social science teachers): Help me out with some ideas, even inspiration, by completing this sentence—“As social studies teachers, we…” #sschat #iteachsocialstudies @edusky.bsky.social

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

This webinar is sponsored by the Children’s Identity and Citizenship European Association (Cicea), which is a European civic education organization. www.cicea.eu/index.php/ne...

cicea.eu

CiCea Webinar 10: Teaching for hope in a world in crisis: Moving from the theoretical to the practical

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Teachers and teacher-educators who are looking for hope in these troubled times might be interested in this webinar @liching22.bsky.social and I are doing next week on teaching for #hope. Everyone is welcome to join. @edusky.bsky.social #socialstudies #sschat #iteachsocialstudies #civiceducation

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

This webinar is sponsored by the Children’s Identity and Citizenship European Association (Cicea), a European civic education organization. www.cicea.eu/index.php/ne...

cicea.eu

CiCea Webinar 10: Teaching for hope in a world in crisis: Moving from the theoretical to the practical

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Reposted by Keith C. Barton

ApocalypticaNow @apocalypticanow.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

The early dreams about the internet focused on connecting people with each other Now tech companies are using the internet to keep us isolated and divided, talking to phantoms and absorbing lies

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

I know this: Mark Pope is better at Xs and Os than John Calipari. (Also: Mark Few needs a new haircut.) #BBN

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Keith C. Barton @kcbarton.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

A cold day for activism at Indiana University on this 60th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley, but oppression knows no weather, and neither can resistance.

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