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Students (and teachers) are returning to school. Whether you’re in front of the classroom or behind a desk, JSTOR Daily has you covered. We pulled together our favorite JSTOR Daily stories to examine effective study habits, why students need not fear the library, and how American public schooling began in the first place. All JSTOR Daily articles, including Syllabi, Reading Lists, and our Pedagogies series, have free links to the supporting academic research. Browse many more JSTOR Daily stories on education, teaching, and learning here.

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Pedagogies and Teaching

Three women and five men gathered in a room which opens up to classical architecture, the group on the left is making music while the others are engaged in conversation; representing the continent of Europe.

Musical Myth-Busting: Teaching Music History with JSTOR Daily

Harnessing the power of quirk to engage students and inspire research in an online learning environment.
Malcolm X at Temple 7, a Halal restaurant on Lenox Avenue and 116th Street, Harlem, 1963

Teaching U.S. History with JSTOR Daily

A survey course may be the only college-level history course a student takes. Here's an easy way to incorporate fascinating scholarship.
A young boy looking bored at his desk in a classroom

Is It Time to Reexamine Grading?

There’s compelling evidence for stronger student work and more meaningful instruction when grades in K-12 education are eliminated or made unrecognizable.
A home schooling session gets underway at the Sloggy household September 14, 2000 in Fayetteville, NC.

How Homeschooling Evolved from Subversive to Mainstream

The pandemic helped establish homeschooling as a fixture among educational options in the US. But it’s been around—and gaining in popularity—for a while.
Paulo Freire in 1963

Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed at Fifty

The Brazilian educator Paulo Freire’s book, first published in English 50 years ago, urges viewing students as interlocutors or partners in the learning process.
A group of high school students constructs basic measuring devices for testing air, water, noise, and radiation-pollution levels. c. 1972

The Troubles with Tracking

Educators have been debating academic tracking since the early years of the public high school.
A line drawing of a girl with a tablet

Does Virtual Learning Work for Every Student?

Given Covid-19, schools have limited options for teaching kids. What’s working and not working in the era of online learning?
An illustration of a woman experiencing information overload

ADHD: The History of a Diagnosis

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has been a controversial diagnosis since it was first described, back in the 1940s.
Smokey Robinson and The Miracles Clockwise from left: Smokey Robinson, Pete Moore, Bobby Rogers, Ronnie White.

Music Education and the Birth of Motown

Music teachers in the Detroit public schools paved the way for the success of future Motown artists like Smokey Robinson and Mary Wilson of the Supremes.
Male teacher assisting student at desk in classroom

How Not to Teach Grammar

When people with opinions and a platform rant about bad grammar, they're not helping, write two English professors.
Illustration: An arithmetic class at a school in London, England. Published in the Illustrated London News, October 3, 1891

Source: Getty

Why Would Parents Oppose Compulsory Education?

In Victorian England, reformers thought all children should go to school. That didn't sit well with everyone—and not just kids.
A student reading a correspondence school magazine, 1946

Three Centuries of Distance Learning

We will probably remember 2020 as the time when distance education exploded. But the infrastructure that enabled this expansion was years in the making.
Boy sitting at desk with book

The Surprising History of Homework Reform

Really, kids, there was a time when lots of grownups thought homework was bad for you.
Two students using text analyzer

How to Teach with JSTOR Text Analyzer

JSTOR Text Analyzer provides students with an additional resource for finding scholarly material.
Students on tablets

6 Digital Work Habits Every Student (and Adult) Needs

These digital study habits are relatively simple and sustainable, and work for students and parents alike.

Around Campus

A Kentucky Wildcats cheerleader performs in th first half against the Florida Gators during the Championship game of the 2014 Men's SEC Basketball Tournament

When Men Join Cheer

What happens when former football players, accustomed to practicing and playing in all-male environments, join gender-integrated cheerleading squads?
Source: https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/ids:4589524

When Harvard Students Couldn’t Get Warm

The early heating systems of New England kept Harvard students cold until the early twentieth century.
A Destroy Rape Culture sticker by Starchild Stela

Little Red Riding Hood On Campus: Women & Public Space

According to one criminologist, “constructing public space as dangerous to women ... reinforces traditional gender norms which emphasize women as vulnerable."
Cover of The Seed

The Campus Underground Press

The 1960s and 70s were a time of activism in the U.S., and therefore a fertile time for campus newspapers and the alternative press.

Literacy, Libraries and (Banned) Books

Women from Boston and Charleston, West Virginia, holding signs, demonstrating against textbooks, Washington, D.C., 1975

When a Battle to Ban Textbooks Became Violent

In 1974, the culture wars came to Kanawha County, West Virginia, inciting protests over school curriculum.
The 1939 first edition cover of The Grapes of Wrath

Banning The Grapes of Wrath in 1939 California

The Kern County, CA Board of Supervisors got a lesson in the Streisand Effect back in 1939, when they banned The Grapes of Wrath from their libraries and schools.
Ella Tyree in Ebony, February 1949

Women in Science Textbooks

A team of scholars examined the seven most popular ecology textbooks. Guess what they didn't find?
Exploring Biology by Ella Thea Smith

The Hidden History of Biology Textbooks 

American biology textbooks supposedly became less scientific after the Scopes trial. One scholar argues that this isn't the whole story.
Mary McLeod Bethune with a Line of Girls from her School in Daytona Beach, Florida, 1905

How Black Americans Fought for Literacy

From the moment US Army troops arrived in the South, newly freed people sought ways to gain education—particularly to learn to read and write.
A tall bookcase of old books

Who Decides Which Books Are “Great?”

The concept of “Great Books," the historian Tim Lacy explains, developed in the late nineteenth century as an attempt to foster a “democratic culture.”
Two young people reading together.

Is Fan Fiction a Helpful Literacy Tool?

Some teachers are adapting to the internet age by trying to understand the "new literacies" of today's students.
Andrew Carnegie (left) and Melvil Dewey (right)

When Melvil Dewey Pursued Andrew Carnegie’s Millions

A clash of library enthusiasts ended with a sexual harassment scandal.
Librarians in Gary, Indiana protect themselves with masks in October 1918 during the flu pandemic

Libraries and Pandemics: Past and Present

The 1918 influenza pandemic had a profound impact on how librarians do their work, transforming libraries into centers of community care.
Butler Library at the Morningside Campus

Do You Suffer from Library Anxiety?

What is library anxiety? Librarians and experts discuss how technology is changing students' attitudes toward libraries and librarians.

Racism and Social Justice

Alpha Pi Omega in UNC's Yackety Yack, 2003

Inside the First Indigenous Sorority

Alpha Pi Omega, the first historically Native American sorority, supports Native students and creates cultural space for them on university campuses.
Classroom of students with their teachers inside a Walapai school at Hackbury, Arizona, circa 1900

Life in Indigenous Boarding Schools

Survivors of schools in the US spoke with scholars about their experiences of cruelty, neglect, and cultural degradation.
Berea College sends its extension workers into remote communities

How a Southern College Tried to Resist Segregation

The founder of Kentucky's Berea College was an abolitionist. While he was alive, the school offered a free education for both Black and white students.
A father teaching his son at home

Why Some Black Parents Choose Homeschooling

Homeschooling has proved to be a valued alternative to the institutional racism often found in the classroom. But it offers something more, too.
Pee Dee Rosenwald School, Marion County, South Carolina, c. 1935.

How Black Communities Built Their Own Schools

Rosenwald schools, named for a philanthropist, were funded mostly by Black people of the segregated South.
The Last Class

The Last Class, 28 Years Later

What happened to the last of the Pell Grant-funded prison higher ed graduates and their paralegal skills? Open Campus's Charlotte West and Angolite associate editor John Corley report.
A university student sitting in an auditorium

The Case for Race-Conscious Affirmative Action

Minority students in racially isolated schools have drastically less access to critical educational resources.
A person standing between bookshelves in a university library.

What Makes a Fair College Admissions Process?

In the wake of the college admissions scandal, scholars go back to the drawing board to answer this most central question.
Oberlin College's Memorial Arch

A Progressive College’s Complicated Relationship with Race

Oberlin College was founded by religious idealists committed to abolitionism and integration. Then public attitudes began to shift.

Reading Lists and Syllabi

Comic books and collectibles are seen during WonderCon 2018 at Anaheim Convention Center on March 23, 2018 in Anaheim, California.

Teaching Comics: A Syllabus

So you want to teach The Sandman? Or William Blake? Or Art Spiegelman’s Maus? A guide to using comics and graphic novels in the classroom.
An NSA security posters from the 1950s or 60s

Security Studies: A Syllabus

National security, borders and migration, climate change and global food supplies, war and terrorism. These make up the academic field of security studies.
Close-up of a dial pack of birth control pills

The History of Reproductive Rights: A Syllabus

A selection of stories on the history of reproductive rights and abortion to foster dialogue inside and outside of the classroom.
Planet Earth from Space

Climate Change: A Syllabus

A selection of stories to foster dialogue among students both inside and outside of the classroom.
An NSA security posters from the 1950s or 60s

Security Studies: Foundations and Key Concepts

Security studies originated in the era of Cold War geopolitics and decolonization. This annotated bibliography introduces readers to scholarship in the field.

From Imperialism to Postcolonialism: Key Concepts

An introduction to the histories of imperialism and the writings of those who grappled with its oppressions and legacies in the twentieth century.
People wait for trains on the platform at Kyiv train station on February 28, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Ukraine, Russia, and the West: A Background Reading List

Research reports and scholarly articles on the history of the Ukraine-Russia conflicts of the past and possible paths for peace.
An illustration of a revolver

Guns in America: Foundations and Key Concepts

This non-exhaustive list of readings on the role of guns in US history and society introduces the field as a subject of scholarly inquiry.
Convicts working at Reed Camp, South Carolina, 1934

Mass Incarceration: A Syllabus

This selection of stories focuses on prison and mass incarceration in the US, which has the highest rate of imprisonment in the world.
Austin Community College Fall 2017 Commencement ceremonies on Thursday, December 14, 2017 at the Frank Erwin Center.

Affirmative Action: Foundations and Key Concepts

This non-exhaustive reading list discusses the origins of affirmative action, the question of race vs. class, and the effects of meritocracy.

And More

Boy Scouts Pick Fruit For Jam at a Fruit-picking Camp Near Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, 1944

Skipping School for Harvest Camp

As more young adults joined the military or worked in wartime industries, England turned to children to fill the growing gap in agricultural labor.
Women's fashion catalogue images from the 1930s

The Back-to-School Shopping Tradition in History

As more women went to college, department stores catered to them by setting up pop-up "college shops" every September.
Nicholas Murray Butler, 1921

Silence in the Face of Intellectual Conflagration

Columbia University President Nicholas Murray Butler's actions (and inaction) towards Nazi Germany spoke loudly, while he said nothing.
Annie Montague Alexander

Annie M. Alexander: Paleontologist and Silent Benefactor

An unsung patron of science whose deep pockets and passion for exploring led to the founding of two influential natural history museums.
Student with practice baby at Cornell University

When Home Ec Classes Borrowed Babies

In the early-to-mid 20th century, foster children in Canada and elsewhere were placed in practice homes and cared for by home economics students.

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