Conflict over the curriculum is nothing new in American public education, which has never been insulated from the culture wars. In the past few years, conflict over the teaching of race has torn through history and social studies classrooms, inciting the most serious fight over America's past since the last “history war” in the 1990s. At issue in the current conflict are debates over what schools should teach K-12 students about the history of race and racism in the United States. The chief flashpoint in this fight has been the New York Times’s 1619 Project, led by journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, which seeks to retell the story of America's founding through the lens of racial inequality. Pushback on the 1619 Project has included the Trump administration's 1776 Commission, which produced a series of proposals seeking to ban 1619-aligned curricula and oppose critical race theory.

For this policy dialogue, the HEQ editors asked Donnalie Jamnah and Jonathan Zimmerman to discuss the latest round of history wars in K-12 public education, exploring the extent to which the past helps us understand the troubled present, as well as what the future might hold. Donnalie Jamnah is the K-12 Partnerships Manager for the education team at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. In that role, she manages several programs including the 1619 Educator Network. Prior to joining the Pulitzer Center, she worked as a classroom teacher and instructional coach. Zimmerman is a past president of the History of Education Society and the Judy and Howard Berkowitz Professor in Education at the University of Pennsylvania. His work examines how education practices and policies have developed over time, and the myths that often cloud our understanding of teaching and learning. He is the author of nine books, including Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools (2002), which the University of Chicago Press will release in a revised twentieth-anniversary edition in 2022.

HEQ policy dialogues are, by design, intended to promote an informal, free exchange of ideas between scholars. At the end of the exchange, we offer a list of references for readers who wish to follow up on sources relevant to the discussion.

Relatively little literature specific to the discipline of History aims to translate theory into practice in regard to designing effective online and flipped learning experiences. This article synthesises current literature into practical advice and reflects on previous experience as an aid to historians (a) tasked with developing online or flipped units or (b) who have transitioned online and are seeking ways to improve. Feedback from students and learning analytics from a flipped unit at a large Australian university underpin the paper's advice. Student feedback and behaviour, coupled with the reflections of the unit's designers, encourage (1) prioritising effective educational media and recording practices over the production of digital material with the longest shelf life, (2) explicit consideration of unit structure and support offered to students, (3) readings which consider the student perspective, (4) enthusiasm about the delivery format, and (5) the overarching importance of constructive alignment.