Event: The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, one of the leading educational foundations in the country, has selected The University of Texas at Austin as a distinguished institution for training the next generation of history teachers. Twenty-five primary and secondary education teachers from schools throughout the country (including three in Texas) will participate in a weeklong seminar on the UT Austin campus, where they will work closely with faculty members to improve the quality of history education in their schools and communities.
Media will be able to sit in and photograph the training and interview the high school teachers and UT Austin faculty members about the impact of the program.
When: June 23-29. Media are recommended to attend interactive teacher workshops from 8:45 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, June 25, and Thursday, June 27.
Where: Seminars will be held at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, Sid Richardson Hall (SRH) room 3.122, 2315 Red River St. Tours will be held at various locations on campus.
Background: With a focus on the history of U.S. foreign policy, the Gilder Lehrman seminar will include readings and lectures by distinguished University of Texas at Austin faculty members, as well as campus tours of archives and book collections.
The goal of the workshop is to help bring new research and excitement about history into classrooms across the country, says Jeremi Suri, the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs, who is spearheading the summer workshop.
“This workshop is a great example of how our research and teaching on campus add enormously to the public experience for citizens in Texas and other states. This workshop is part of our broader effort at UT to train the future leaders of our society. Our future leaders will need high-quality history education in their local schools,” says Suri, a professor of history and public affairs.
While exploring America’s emergence as a world power in the late 19th century, the participants will use archival materials from various locations on campus, including the LBJ Presidential Library, the Harry Ransom Center and the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.
The seminar is designed to show teachers how historical research and teaching can influence citizenship and policy for the better.
“Late in my high school social studies teaching career, I had an opportunity to attend a Gilder Lehrman Institute teaching seminar as a participant and found that it was the first time that I was offered a rich professional development experience,” says Wendy Thowdis, master teacher and Gilder seminar coordinator for the Gilder Lehrman seminar.
In addition to research methods and classroom pedagogy, teachers will learn how to use social media as a communication tool. Use hashtag #GLIUT2013 to follow the seminar on Twitter.
Sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Foundation, the summer seminar offers more than 1,000 educators the chance to study American history with leading historians at more than 60 historical sites, museums and top universities throughout the United States and United Kingdom. Since the program’s inception, more than 7,000 educators have participated in Gilder Lehrman seminars.
Collaborators include Humanities Texas, the LBJ School of Public Affairs, the LBJ Presidential Library, the Institute for Historical Studies and the Department of History in the College of Liberal Arts.
