Students’ Understanding of the History of Enslavement in America: Differences by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender

Students in the United States learn about the history of enslavement throughout their educational experiences. Yet our understanding of what students from different racial, ethnic, and gender backgrounds know about this difficult period in American history is limited. In this study, we use mixed methods to examine written narratives of students’ understanding of the history of enslavement in the United States. As a whole, narratives about enslavement were most commonly associated with its end (the Civil War and abolition) and with its violence (general brutality). Differences were found by race and ethnicity as well as by gender. Understanding how students narrate what they know can help educational researchers and teachers better serve diverse educational needs by designing curricula that relate to students’ multiple social identities.