Archival Research with High School Students and School History

An Example of Signature Pedagogy through Project- and Place-Based Learning

Abstract

Archives-based teaching and research remains rare in high schools. Research in this area also remains scarce. This article provides an overview of ways one interdisciplinary project-based learning (PBL) program used school history to introduce historians’ signature pedagogy of archival research to 13- and 14-year-old high school students. It provides an overview of the 9-week interdisciplinary unit from the perspective of the history teacher with the hopes of providing inspiration for others. The article includes consideration of school context, interdisciplinary collaboration, creating an accessible archive for students, and ways history labs were crucial to teaching historical thinking in an authentic way.