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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Saw this sign at the KC airport. I know there are more important things to quibble with about the name, logo, and iconography, but why oh why is it ‘Chiefs Kingdom’ and not ‘Chiefdom’?

Sign for Kansas City Chiefs saying “Welcome to Chiefs Kingdom”

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

New in HEQ: "The Transatlantic Adaptation of Universal History" explores universal history in early U.S. education through the work of an adapted text by Alexander Fraser Tytler. It reveals a lot about how civilizational framings supported American exceptionalism. doi.org/10.1017/heq....

doi.org

The Transatlantic Adaptation of Universal History: Exploring the Many Editions of Tytler’s Elements of General History | History of Education Quarterly | Cambridge Core

The Transatlantic Adaptation of Universal History: Exploring the Many Editions of Tytler’s Elements of General History

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Ecuador v Curaçao let’s go! Incredible atmosphere.

Selfie at a World Cup game in Kansas City

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American Historical Association @historians.org · 08/05/2026

A federal judge granted the motion for a summary judgment on all counts in favor of the AHA, @acls1919.bsky.social, and @modernlanguage.bsky.social in our lawsuit to restore the NEH, ruling that the mass termination of grants was “unlawful, unconstitutional, ultra vires, and without legal effect." 🗃️

historians.org

Federal Judge Rules to Restore National Endowment of the Humanities Funding In Historic Case - AHA

Statements From American Council of Learned Societies, American Historical Association, and Modern Language Association on the Ruling FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 7, 2026 - This afternoon US District J...

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

At a conference in LA and why did they choose to make security droids look like Daleks?

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Whit @drwhit.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Good evening, everyone! Just a heads-up: we've got a whopper of a Texas SBOE meeting tomorrow. Things are getting to a dramatic pitch on the social studies standards revision and the literacy lists. Watch this thread tomorrow at 9 AM CT ⬇️. I'll be here all day so you don't have to.

sboe.texas.gov

Meeting Agenda — Current | State Board of Education

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

I’m glad to hear of that focus, and definitely see the significance. But as I’m following updates from Texas, just the latest in a series of such instances, politicized central control over history education appears the greater danger to me.

historians.org

Texas Social Studies TEKS Revision Field Guide - AHA

Support Honest History in Texas Public Schools Over the next few months, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) will make decisions with profound implications for the future of history and social s...

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

And though I see things a bit differently, I really appreciate your thoughtful response!

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

It is a risk/reward calculation with few great options. I acknowledge that local politics can be just as fractious, but the damage done with poor standards in one district is far less than an entire state. Agree that working together and forging shared norms is the key in either case.

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

But mandated standards are too prone to culture wars that hurt teachers and their students in many cases. I'm glad that things worked out in Illinois, but millions of students are impacted by overtly politicized standards in states like Virginia, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas.

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

I don't advocate walking away from content or professional support. And I think guides are a great idea! This is what the state of Kansas provides. Minimal prescriptive standards, but a substantial set of suggested resources to help teachers. www.ksde.gov/Agency/Divis...

ksde.gov

History, Government, and Social Studies (HGSS)

Structured Literacy--Structured Literacy refers to the explicit, systematic, diagnostic, and cumulative approach to teaching literacy that acknowledges the value of both word recognition and oral and written language comprehension as evidenced in all grades and disciplines.

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

C3 had less content but accepted centralized state control over the subject. I’m making the case that we should leave as may of these decisions to local districts and teachers as possible.

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

A very legitimate concern! I say in the piece that it would be ideal to do away with these types of mandates since they are too prone to politicization. But they are so entrenched at this point that having a minimal number might end up doing the least harm.

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

K-12 standards are likely not improving history education, but are providing endless grist for the culture wars. We can do better. In my latest with the Journal of American History, I suggest a minimalist approach to the creation of standards. doi.org/10.1093/jahi...

Article Title: The Best History Standards Govern Least: The Case for Standards Minimalism. By Stephen Jackson

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

If we keep going down the path we're on, we run the risk of the subject descending to the level of mere indoctrination.

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

We can and should trust in the professionalism of history teachers in their own communities rather than an increasingly authoritarian top-down system that often excludes expertise and forces teachers to offer highly polarized interpretations of the past.

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Instead, I argue that we should practice standards minimalism by mandating only broad and basic concepts, leaving the rest to local school districts and individual teachers. The states of Kansas and Maine provide good examples of how to do this.

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Standards centralize too much power over such a sensitive topic into the hands of state-level political factions. They are often not driven by the common pursuit of truth, but in 'winning' against their perceived political foes.

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

We should have learned this lesson after the National History Standards fiasco of the 1990s. In the time since we've had multiple flare ups over history standards in states across the country, which are getting worse, not better, in the 2020s.

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Why can't we create a consensus set of standards in history? Because we don't agree about the past, and the topic has become deeply politicized.

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Second, history standards tend to privilege 'coverage' at the expense of deep thinking in the discipline. Endless lists of names, dates, and facts lead to rote memorization, not critical thinking and interpretation in the discipline.

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Historians have made good faith arguments in support of standards since the 1980s, but they have two primary drawbacks. First, they present inviting targets for culture warriors who want to prioritize their controversial versions of history at scale.

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

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C. Tocci @tocci.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

The 2026 CUFA Program Chairs are excited to share the call for proposals with members & the broader #socialstudies community: Continuities, Countercurrents, & Change in Social Studies. Proposals will be due April 13, 2026, 11:59pm Hawaii Standard Time. Submissions go live March 6!

docs.google.com

CUFA 2026 Call for Proposals & Session Types

College & University Faculty Assembly of the National Council for the Social Studies 2026 Annual Conference Chicago, IL | Hyatt Regency Chicago | December 2nd - 4th, 2026 2026 CALL FOR PROPOSALS Cro...

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

My sense is that they don’t engage with scholarship that does not come from their ideological milieu.

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American Historical Association @historians.org · 07/03/2026

Major news: A @nytimes.com story today reports on developments in our lawsuit, filed with @modernlanguage.bsky.social and @acls1919.bsky.social, opposing the illegal dismantling of the NEH. The article covers newly released discovery in the case. Here’s what discovery confirmed: 🧵(1/7)

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Note the connection between Western and American exceptionalisms, which is a pronounced feature of the contemporary history wars that doesn’t often generate headlines.

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Jack Schneider @jackschneider.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

The latest issue of History of Education Quarterly is out. Here's a thread with open-access links to all of the articles...

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Noelle Sullivan Ph.D @noellesullivan.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

The environmental and social harms are clear but it’s also made students tune out, not knowing why they should bother learning or thinking. Now I have to tell them why uni is useful for THEM, beyond just feigning work to get a degree. I’ve gone analog a lot. They’ve actually liked it.

nytimes.com

Opinion | A.I. Companies Are Eating Higher Education

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Literally and figuratively confronted by inflation while buying balloons for my kid’s birthday party.

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Exploding tree warnings were the last straw. I’d like to speak to Nature’s manager, please.

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Well good morning to you too, Kansas!

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Clear eyes, full heart, can’t smile.

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

One of our last and most powerfully unifying American symbols: the unbelievably successful coach who has never smiled one single time.

Curt Cignetti at the CFP Semifinal game on January 9.

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

I’m glad you’re here with me, Bluesky, here at the end of Stranger Things.

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Alex Hyres @hyres376.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

I'm putting together the latest edition of the @aeradivf-history.bsky.social newsletter. If you have any calls that might be of interest to #histed #edhist scholars or if you have published a book in the past year, then please DM me with the call or the citation. cc: @aeraedresearch.bsky.social

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Björn Lundberg @bjornlundberg.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Get ready for ISCHE 2026! The SWG History of Knowledge in the History of Education invites paper proposals for two panels: ✍️ Knowledge & Emotions in the History of Education 📚 General theme: Knowledge + Education Full CFP: shorturl.at/4UNtC Submit by 15 Jan 2026 via: www.conftool.org/ische47

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Thanks for sharing all of this over such a long day! The process is itself very troubling, as is the disjointed sequencing they’ve adopted.

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Whit @drwhit.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Good morning! Texas is revising its K-12 social studies standards (TEKS) for 5.5 million kids, & the State Board of Education (SBOE) is meeting today to discuss their progress today. I will be live-tweeting (posting?) about anything that concerns social studies. Follow this thread for updates!

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American Historical Association @historians.org · 17/11/2025

The Texas SBOE had chosen an unusual and radically restructured new framework that significantly reduces coverage of US and world history in the standards. For more information about the ongoing TEKS revision and the implications of these changes, check out the AHA’s Field Guide. 🗃️

historians.org

Texas Social Studies TEKS Revision Field Guide - AHA

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

I wrote a book on world history in Texas, and if you're interested you can hear a bit more with my talk to the New Books Network. newbooksnetwork.com/the-patchwor...

newbooksnetwork.com

Stephen Jackson, "The Patchwork of World History in Texas High Schools" (Routledge, 2022) - New Books Network

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Stephen Jackson @stomperjax.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

There is a lot going on right now, but if you are in Texas and care about history, consider speaking to the State Board of Education as they ramp up for a revision to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. www.historians.org/news/social-...

historians.org

Social Studies TEKS Revision Action Alert - AHA

Over the next few months, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) will make decisions with profound implications for the future of history and social studies instruction in Texas public schools. Whe...

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