Research

This Teaching with Primary Sources project was informed by two decades of research on how 9/11 has been included in curriculum and textbooks, state academic standards, and US classrooms. This research has been conducted by Jeremy Stoddard and Diana Hess, faculty at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, along with a number of collaborators over the years. If you are interested in obtaining copies of any of these research articles and cannot access them through the links below, please contact Jeremy Stoddard at jdstoddard@wisc.edu.

Teaching 9/11 and the War on Terror National Survey of Secondary Teachers

Stoddard, J. (2019). Teaching 9/11 and the War on Terror National Survey of Secondary Teachers. Madison, WI

The findings from this national survey of US secondary social studies teachers provide insights into what is being taught about the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, DC, and the resulting Global War on Terror.

9/11 and the War on Terror in Curriculum and States Standards Documents Data Set

Stoddard, J., Hess, D., & Henne, B. (2019). 9/11 and the War on Terror in Curriculum and States Standards Documents Data Set. Madison, WI

This is a data set and summary analysis of US state social studies academic standards for how they include the events related to September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US, the resulting Global War on Terror, and more general standards related to terrorism.

9/11 and Terrorism: “The Ultimate Teachable Moment” in Textbooks and Supplemental Curricula

Hess, D., & Stoddard, J. (2007). 9/11 and Terrorism: “The Ultimate Teachable Moment” in Textbooks and Supplemental Curricula. Social Education, 71(5), pp 231–236.

An article detailing the importance of 9/11 in the curriculum for textbooks publishers and how different textbooks treat 9/11 in a variety of ways.

Teaching about 9/11 and Terrorism and Against Islamophobia

Stoddard, J. (2021). Teaching about 9/11 and Terrorism and Against Islamophobia. Annals of Social Studies Education Research for Teachers, 2(1), 40–47.

An article about “how U.S. curricula and teachers include resources to discuss the events of 9/11… (with) several suggestions for how to teach about 9/11 while simultaneously teaching against Islamophobia.”

Echoes of Terrorism in Today’s U.S. Classrooms: A Re-Reading of Media Used to Teach about 9/11

Stoddard, J. (2021). Echoes of Terrorism in Today’s U.S. Classrooms: A Re-Reading of Media Used to Teach about 9/11. Canadian Social Studies, 52(2), 74-88.

Stoddard's article “problematizes media-related modalities used to critically teach the events of 9/11… (and) suggests that pairing documentary footage about 9/11 with actual news accounts can unveil angles of inquiry that would be productive in helping teachers/students complexify how the echoes of 9/11 are situated within historical, global, and contemporary contexts.”

What schools teach about 9/11 and the war on terror

Stoddard, J., & Hess, D. (2021). What schools teach about 9/11 and the war on terror. The Conversation

This Conversation article offers a brief overview of the findings from the 9/11 survey including how 9/11 is typically taught in schools, challenges, and obstacles teachers encounter when teaching 9/11, and strategies for improving 9/11 education.

“It’s a Growing and Serious Problem:” Teaching 9/11 to Combat Misinformation and Conspiracy Theories

Daniel S. Berman & Jeremy D. Stoddard (2021) “It’s a Growing and Serious Problem:” Teaching 9/11 to Combat Misinformation and Conspiracy Theories, The Social Studies, DOI: 10.1080/00377996.2021.1929054

Berman and Stoddard use 9/11 as a case study to document the rise in conspiracy theories. In the article, they address how conspiracy theories form, the popularity and accessibility of 9/11 conspiracy theories in popular discourse, and teachers' attempts and strategies for combatting 911 conspiracy theories.

9/11 and the war on terror in American secondary curriculum fifteen years later

Jeremy Stoddard & Diana Hess (2016). 9/11 and the war on terror in American secondary curriculum fifteen years later. In Journell, W. (Ed.) Reassessing the Social Studies Curriculum: Promoting Critical Civic Engagement in a politically polarized, Post-9/11 World (pp. 15-28). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Press.

This chapter focuses on the overall themes and trends of how 9/11 and the war on terror were included in curriculum, textbooks, and state standards. Published near the 15th anniversary of the attacks, we found that the themes have overall changed little from the initial curriculum and textbook editions after 9/11.

9/11 in the curriculum: A retrospective

Diana Hess & Jeremy Stoddard (2011). 9/11 in the curriculum: A retrospective. The Social Studies, 102, 75-79.

In this article, we highlight the main themes identified in how 9/11 and the war on terror are represented in curriculum and textbooks as we near the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

The challenges of writing “first draft history”: The evolution of the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath in school textbooks in the United States

Jeremy Stoddard, Diana Hess, & Catherine Hammer (2011). The challenges of writing “first draft history”: The evolution of the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath in school textbooks in the United States. In Yates, L. and Grumet, M. (eds). 2011 World Yearbook of Education: Curriculum in today’s world: Identities, politics, work, and knowledge, (pp. 223-236). New York: Routledge.

In this chapter, we focus our analysis on how textbook editions changed from their initial inclusion of 9/11 to the revised editions 3-5 years later. In particular, we found that some key events, such as the justification for invading Iraq, shifted from a search for weapons of mass destruction to a focus on regime change. We also found some texts were more likely to include events deemed controversial, such as the USA Patriot Act, as the events are further in the past.

Examining the Treatment of 9/11 and Terrorism in High School Textbooks

Diana Hess, Jeremy Stoddard & Shannon Murto (2008). Examining the Treatment of 9/11 and Terrorism in High School Textbooks. In J. Bixby & J. Pace (Eds.) Educating Democratic Citizens in Troubled Times: Qualitative Studies of Current Efforts (pp. 192-226). Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

In this chapter, we focus on the nature of intellectual work, topics, and themes related to 9/11 and the war on terror in the initial editions of popular textbooks that included the 9/11 attacks.