Stephen Jackson
- Assistant Professor
Contact Info
Biography —
Stephen Jackson is an Assistant Professor of the Social, Cultural, and Historical Foundations of Education at KU. He received his PhD in History from The George Washington University, and trained specifically in imperial and colonial studies. Prior to joining the faculty at KU, he worked in the History Department at the University of Sioux Falls for ten years, winning the Outstanding Faculty Award in 2016. His research focuses on the historical connections between education, imperialism, and decolonization within the British Empire that continue to affect educational systems today. He has published two books on these topics, Constructing National Identity in Canadian and Australian Classrooms (Palgrave, 2018), and Religious Education and the Anglo World (Brill, 2020). More recently, Stephen has explored the historical legacy of Eurocentrism and imperialism in American classrooms, resulting in a third book, The Patchwork of World History in Texas High Schools (Routledge, 2022). Stephen has published articles in journals such as the History of Education Quarterly, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, History Compass, and History of Education Review. At KU Stephen teaches courses on the history of education, including on critical topics such as the culture wars.
Education —
Research —
- History of Education
- Colonial Education in the British Empire
- World History Education
- The history of mass education
- Decolonization
Teaching —
- History of Education
- The transnational development of higher education
- Imperial and Colonial Education
- Global Perspectives on Educational History
- Educational Culture Wars, Past and Present
Selected Publications —
Peer Reviewed Books
2022 The Patchwork of World History in Texas High Schools: Unpacking Eurocentrism, Imperialism, and Nationalism in the Curriculum, 1920-2021. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003323785
2020 Religious Education and the Anglo-World: The Impact of Empire, Britishness, and Decolonisation in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
2018 Constructing National Identity in Canadian and Australian Classrooms: The Crown of Education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Journal Articles
2024 “American Imperial Exceptionalism? Texas Secondary World History Depictions of American Empire, 1925-2016.” Historica Paedagogica, Online publication September 11. https://doi.org/10.1080/00309230.2024.2362250
2024 “Teaching how official history is made: State Standards as Primary Sources.” American Historical Review129 (2), pp. 629-651.
2024 “A False Binary.” A response to Dr. Ben Jones in “The South Dakota Social Studies Standards Debate.” Social Education 88 (3), pp. 138-141.
2024 “Historical inertia and politicized insulation from scholarship: The real challenges to democratizing, diversifying, and decolonizing the curriculum in K-12 World History Classrooms,” World History Bulletin 39 (2), pp. 10-12.
2023 “The Hillsdale Effect: South Dakota’s Troubled New Social Studies Standards.” Social Education 87 (6), pp. 355-360. ScholarWorks: https://hdl.handle.net/1808/34954
2023 “Introduction to the Forum: Standards and World History.” World History Connected Vol 20, No. 1. https://doi.org/10.13021/whc.v20i1.3520
2023 “The Place of World History in South Dakota’s Failed 2021 Social Studies Standards Revision Process.” World History Connected Vol 20, No. 1. https://doi.org/10.13021/whc.v20i1.3527
2022 “The British Empire and Mass Education.” History Compass Vol. 20, No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12709
2021 “‘Both Sides of the Mountain’: Growth and Volatility at Sioux Falls College, 1953-1978” South Dakota History Vol. 51, No. 2, pp. 201-227.
2020 “‘Not in the Business of Indoctrination’: Religious Education in South Australian Public Schools, 1968-1980.” History of Education Review Vol. 49 No. 2, pp. 249-262. https://doi.org/10.1108/HER-01-2020-0006
2018 “The Triumph of the West: American Education and the Narrative of Decolonization, 1930-1965,” History of Education Quarterly Vol. 58, No. 4.
2017 “British History is Their History: Britain and the British Empire in the History Curriculum of Ontario, Canada and Victoria, Australia 1930-1975.” Espacio, Tiempo y Educación, 4(2), 165-186.
2014 “In Accord with British Traditions: The Rise of Compulsory Religious Education in Ontario, Canada and Victoria, Australia 1945-1950.” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 42 (2), 693-709.
Magazine Articles
2022 “Standards of Revision: Partisan Politics Comes to South Dakota’s Schools.” Perspectives on History, online publication October 2022, print publication January, 2023.
2020 “Chalk + Church.” State Library of New South Wales Magazine, Spring 2020.
Book Chapters
2022 “USF.” In Jon Lauck and Patrick Hicks (eds.), City of Hustle: A Sioux Falls Anthology. Cleveland: Belt Publishing.
2018 “In War as in Peace, Culture for Service: Sioux Falls College and the Twin Crises of Depression and War,” in John Laukaitis, Denominational Higher Education During World War II. New York: Springer International Publishing.
Selected Presentations —
2024 “Plenary: The Politicization of History Education at the State Level: Legislation and Standards.” American Historical Association Conference, San Francisco, January 4.
2023 ;“Roundtable: We’re Up Against It: British Studies, Public Advocacy, and the History Wars.” North American Conference on British Studies, Baltimore, November 10.
2023 “The Privileged Place of the British Empire in Texas World History Textbooks.” History of Education Society Annual Conference, Atlanta, November 2.
2023 “A Revolution in Waiting? Assessing World History’s Place in Texas High Schools 1920-2021.” World History Association of Texas Conference, Commerce, TX, February.
2021 “Colonial Frameworks in a Post-Colonial World: The Case of World History in Texas, 1980s-Present.” History of Education Society Conference, San Diego, California, November 4.
2020 “Tracing Religious Education Across an Empire.” Scholar Talk Presented to the State Library of New South Wales, June 2.
2020 “An Empire Hiding in Plain Sight: American Imperialism in Texas World History Textbooks, 1939-Present,” History of Education Society (US) Virtual Conference, November.
2020 “‘The hoariest issue of all’: Religious Education and the Anglo-World.” Faculty Seminar on British Studies, University of Texas at Austin, March 13. Talk Cancelled Due to Covid-19.
2019 “Rethinking Britishness in the Era of Decolonization: The Politics of History Education in Ontario, Canada and Victoria, Australia, 1960-1975,” American Historical Association, Chicago, Jan 3-6.
2017 “Looking for a Mind at Work: ‘Hamilton’ and the Liberal Arts,” 16th Annual LAR Colloquium Address, University of Sioux Falls.
2016 “National Belonging in an Imperial Framework: Textbook Narratives from Ontario and Victoria, 1930-1965,” History of Education Society, Providence, November 6.
2016 “Decolonizing the Classroom in the British World: Empire, Nationalism, and Decolonization in the Curriculum of Ontario, Canada and Victoria, Australia,” Georg Eckert Research Colloquium, Germany, July 19.
2016 “Teaching Decolonization: Integrating Decolonization into Survey Courses,” National History Center’s Decolonization Seminar Reunion, Washington, D.C., July 6.
2016 “Narrativizing Decolonization: Exploring the Changing Meaning of Decolonization in Classrooms in the United States, Canada, and Australia,” American Historical Association, Washington, D.C., Jan. 9.
Panels Organized
2023 “Roundtable: State Standards for World History in American Schools: Challenging Moments and Promising Outcomes.” Chair and Panelist. World History Association 2023 Annual Conference, Pittsburgh.
2023 “Under the Baobab XV: Teaching and Learning World History in a time of ‘Divisive Concepts.’” World History Association online session, January 26.
2020 “Shaping Knowledge: Learning and Empire in the 19th and 20th Centuries.” North American Conference on British Studies, Virtual Conference, November.
2018 “An Educational Identity Crisis: Abandoning Britishness and embracing multiculturalism in the schools of Ontario, Canada and Victoria, Australia, 1960-1980.” North American Conference on British Studies, Providence, Oct. 28.
Awards & Honors —
2024 The Society of Professors of Education Book Award for The Patchwork of World History in Texas High Schools: Unpacking Eurocentrism, Imperialism, and Nationalism in the Curriculum, 1920-2021 (Routledge, 2022).
2023 Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award, awarded jointly by the American Historical Association and the Society for History Education.
2020 Research Fellow with the Institute of Historical Studies, University of Texas at Austin.
2020 Constructing National Identity in Canadian and Australian Classrooms, Shortlisted for the Kevin Brehony Prize for the best first single-authored book in the history of education, History of Education Society (UK), 2020.
2019 Constructing National Identity in Canadian and Australian Classrooms, Shortlisted for the International Standing Conference on the History of Education (ISCHE) First Book Award.
2016 Outstanding Faculty Award, University of Sioux Falls.
2015 Excellence in Teaching Award, USF Chapter of National Society of Leadership and Success.
2014 Member, Ninth International Seminar on Decolonization, National History Center.
Grants & Other Funded Activity —
2019 Australian Religious History Fellowship, State Library of New South Wales. $20,000 AUD.
2019 Spencer Foundation ‘Small’ Research Grant. $44,000 USD.
2016 Georg Eckert Research Institute Fellowship.
2010 Canada Student Doctoral Research Award.
Memberships —
- American Historical Association
- Organization of Educational Historians
- North American Conference on British Studies
- History of Education Society
- World History Association