Mission & Vision of the Virginia Council for History Education
Cultivating Creativity in History Education
The mission of the Virginia Council for History Education (VCHE) is to support history educators and improve history education in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The VCHE constitution outlines the following purposes for our organization:
Promote and support public history;
Advocate and advance the study and teaching of history in K-12 schools throughout the Commonwealth;
Encourage and support the development and implementation of meaningful and effective history curriculum, instruction, and assessment;
Provide a program of professional activities for history educators and students;
Provide for educational and professional interaction among those with an interest in history.
In carrying out these purposes, our vision is to advance creative approaches to teaching and learning history. Creativity opens possibilities for teachers to approach their craft in ways that engage students, developing their imagination, problem-solving, and the freedom to engage in divergent thinking. In history education, creative thinking can spark curiosity about how historians use sources to construct accounts of the past, how history is remembered, and how our society has changed over time. In taking a creative approach to history education, we aim to support ambitious pedagogical techniques in formal and informal spaces of history education which center inquiry, the agency of teachers and learners, and deliberation over the common good. Public history is history for and about people, and takes place outside of traditional academic settings, emphasizing that study of history should include diverse perspectives, place- based opportunities, and relevance to the world in which we live. Our public history work is grounded in the conviction that history education serves a civic purpose and public history acts as a vital bridge between schools and communities. We believe creative history education can aid residents of Virginia in developing an awareness of the role of history in everyday life and a sense of the purpose of historical knowledge for civic life.
Our vision includes:
Enacting programming which sparks excitement about history education in students, teachers, and community members
A multi-sensory approach to historical education, with an emphasis on place-based learning
The use of new technologies for history education
Reimagining significance in public display of history by highlighting sites/narratives of hidden histories
Supporting members, especially classroom teachers, pursuit of leadership opportunities (e.g., school board positions, VCHE Board of Directors, professional development leads)
Facilitating teacher agency in shaping history education in the Commonwealth
Providing a resource hub for history educators centered on creative pedagogical techniques and curricular resources from a variety of perspectives/people/organizations (e.g., teachers, teacher education programs, museums, professional organizations, etc.)
Integration of arts into history education to examine how narrative representation impacts our understanding of the past
Supporting efforts to transform assessments towards assignments that support inquiry, reasoning, and student creativity and expression
Interdisciplinary approaches to history education
We believe education is an act of aspiration. This ambitious agenda reflects our aspirations to grow creative teaching and learning practices in Virginia’s history education.
Rather than starting with knowledge as the basis of schooling, if we could start without the school to think about creativity as the basis of education, or as I would want to argue, self-formation as the basis of education then perhaps we would be able to begin to do things differently (Ball, 2020).
Ball, S. (Interviewee). (2020, October, 4). The Sociology of Education policy [Podcast]. Neil Selwyn (Host). Meet the Education Research, Monash University, Australia.