Scholarly Inquiry

Scholarly Inquiry: Bill Bigelow

Prepared For: Dr. M. Dunn

Prepared By: Jonothan Brown

EDCI 610

4/24/07

Table of Contents

Bill Bigelow: Background..................................................................3

Educational Themes and Beliefs......................................................... 4

Dispute Questions........................................................................... 7

Bigelow's Educational Philosophy....................................................... 10

Works Cited.................................................................................. 13

Bill Bigelow: Background

Bill Bigelow has taught high school in Portland, Oregon since 1978. Between 1991 and 1993, he led workshops with teachers throughout the country using the Columbus myth to draw attention to racial biases in the school curriculum. He is an editor of the education reform journal, Rethinking Schools, and is the author of Strangers in Their Own Country: A Curriculum Guide on South Africa (Africa World Press, 1985), and The Power in Our Hands: A Curriculum on the History of Work and Workers in the United States (with Norm Diamond, Monthly Review Press, 1988). He has co-edited four books with Rethinking Schools: Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice (1994), Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice, Volume 2 (2001), and, with Bob Peterson, Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World (2002). Bigelow has also authored several teaching guides for films and videos, including most recently for the Academy Award-nominated film, Regret to Inform (1998).This information was provided by an interview with B. Bigelow conducted by Kelly Schrum in March 2002.

In the interview conducted with Mr. Bigelow, he shared some of his background and also some of his educational views and experiences. He explained how he first started teaching the 1973-74 school year in an alternative school in Cincinnati, Ohio with six other Antioch college students. He says his first "regular" teaching job began in the fall of 1978 at Grant High School in Portland, Oregon.

Mr. Bigelow has a concentration in history. He's taught U.S. history, global studies, literature and U.S. history, literature and social change, and a freshman social studies course. He's versatile, however. He's also coached baseball and football, which he considers a different kind of teaching, and advised the Model United Nations Club.

Educational Themes and Beliefs

In the interview, Mr. Bigelow was asked, "What are the biggest themes that you try to convey?" He responded, "Most of the history classes I had in school were awful. They were filled with lectures and textbooks and little else. I don't want to be that kind of teacher. So I begin from the standpoint that I want my students to come away from the class believing that studying history can be enjoyable and meaningful (Interview, 2)." His overarching theme is that "History is not simply stories of the past, or a collection of facts--it's about making explanations for the way things are today. It's also about drawing inspiration from the past, recognizing that anything we appreciate today, anything about this country that is decent, got that way because people worked together to create it (Interview, 2). "

Another question asked to Mr. Bigelow in the interview was, "How do you organize your U.S. history survey course? " In his answer he stated that he used a "modified chronological" Approach. "Although there is something appealing about organizing a course around large themes, it's always seemed to make more sense to move through the decades in the order that things happened, looking for patterns as we go. That said, I also move back and forth from past to present (Interview, 3)." He uses Native American issues as an example. He says that with while studying that he transitions forward to look at the birth of the American Indian Movement, and aspects of what's going on today.

Mr. Bigelow compares events from the past with what's currently going on in students' lives. Another example he makes is Frederick Douglas. He says that if they read excerpts from Frederick Douglass's autobiography; where he describes his fight with Mr. Covey, the "slave breaker," who Douglas' master rented him to, he may have students write about a time when they somehow defied injustice, however small. "I don't want to equate students' actions with the huge risks that Douglass confronted," he says, "but I do want students to touch that place in themselves that may help them to empathize with what Douglass encountered. More than that, I want our classroom to honor struggles for justice of all kinds, big and small (Interview, 3)."

Mrs. Schrum also asked Mr. Bigelow, "What are the most effective assignments that you use in the U.S. survey course?" He responded by saying that "The best assignments are those that actually show social dynamics to students and don't just talk about them. Role-plays and simulations do this well (Interview, 4)." For this answer he uses one of his role-plays about U.S. labor history as an example which puts the class in the position of being Industrial Workers of the World organizers during the 1912 Lawrence, Massachusetts, textile strike; and students need to work together to plan strike strategy. Another example he uses looks at the origins of testing and tracking in the early years of the modern U.S. high school. He thinks this one is especially important because most U.S. history curricula don't ask students to think critically