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Presenter: Cayla A. Koduah

Faculty Sponsor: Sean Campbell Goodlett

School: Fitchburg State University

Research Area: History

Session: Poster Session 4, 2:15 PM - 3:00 PM, 163, C15

ABSTRACT

Twenty-first century open educational resources (OER) lack many of the constraints of their printed counterparts. OER therefore should offer authors the freedom to pursue controversial topics and to include more up-to-date historical scholarship. This study examines 20 physical and 10 OER U.S. history textbooks published between 2000 and 2025. The author analyzes the currency of the scholarship behind topics like the Trail of Tears and more generally Native Americans in the context of Jacksonian America; the presence or absence of traditional historiographical narratives; the language used to discuss these topics; and the strictures of the secondary education textbook market and industry. This study finds no significant disparity in the narratives and only minimal differences in topics treated. Differences emerge in the rhetoric deployed in descriptions of Native Americans and various historical events. The promise that OER held for authors is thus not achieved.