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LaGarrett King

University of Missouri Columbia, Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum, Faculty Member

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LaGarrett is an Assistant Professor of Social Studies Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia. My research interests include history education (focusing on Black history), Race, Social Studies and Curriculum foundations, and Multicultural Teacher Education. He received his Ph.D in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in Social Studies Education from the University of Texas-Austin in 2012.

He was a former high school Social Studies teacher in Louisiana, Texas, and Georgia.

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Georgia State University

Felicia Moore Mensah

Brandeis University

University of California, Los Angeles

University of Derby

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Patricia Sanchez

University of Texas at San Antonio

Jeanette Haynes Writer

New Mexico State University

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Papers by LaGarrett King

Food for Thought: A Framework for Social Justice in Social Studies Education

Articles published in ACEi's Focus Quarterlies are peer-reviewed. Articles published in Focus on ... more

Making inquiry critical: Examining power and inequity in the classroom Unofficial and Unconventional social studies spaces for students of color View project Perspectives on the Teaching of Black History in Schools (Editor) View project

Interpreting Black History: Toward a Black History Framework for Teacher Education

I argue in this article that a close examination of preservice teachers' Black history knowledge ... more I argue in this article that a close examination of preservice teachers' Black history knowledge is needed to possibly improve curricular and instructional approaches of Black education. Seven preservice teachers were studied and asked to write Black history narratives to ascertain how they interpreted Black history. I analyzed these responses through a Black history framework that combined aspects of diaspora literacy, historical consciousness, and Black Critical race theory. Findings indicate preservice teachers held both critical and noncritical Black history knowledge. Implications are given to teacher educators to find out how to effectively gauge Black history as a heuristic for diversity education.

Baskets of cotton and birthday cakes: Teaching slavery in social studies classrooms

by LaGarrett King and Ashley N Woodson

In this paper, we introduce educative-psychic violence as a tool that we have found useful in our... more In this paper, we introduce educative-psychic violence as a tool that we have found useful in our practice for developing and evaluating lessons about slavery. Educative-psychic violence is a concept that helps to explain the types of harm that students experience when we teach about slavery in superficial or reductive ways. The ‘violence’ in educative-psychic violence does not refer to physical actions that injure, harm, or damage persons or property. Instead, it is a type of psychological violence, one that keeps students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds from developing a full sense of their racial, historical and political identities. We use educative- psychic violence to examine two provocative moments involving lessons about slavery – the use of word problems involving slavery in a mathematics classroom, and the 2016 children’s book A Birthday Cake for George Washington. We offer recommendations to individual teachers and teacher educators for using educative-psychic violence as a tool to assess their own practice.

The Status of Black History in U.S. Schools and Society

A look at the current status of K-12 Black history in schools and society.

The Media and Black Masculinity Looking at the Media Through Race[d] Lenses

This paper is a response to the efforts made by educators, scholars, and concerned ... more This paper is a response to the efforts made by educators, scholars, and concerned citizens on creating educational spaces that discuss State violence against young Black people. From the standpoint that the media is a salient contributor to the racial contract, this paper discusses the following: (1) the connection of the racial contract to news media; (2) the intersectionality of Critical Media Education and Critical Race Theory; and (3) the need to develop the Critical Race Media Literacy of students and citizens.

Black Lives Matter as critical patrotism.pdf

Black history is more than skin color.pdf

Black History as Anti-Racist and Non-Racist: An examination of two high school Black history textbooks

" A Narrative to the Colored Children in America " : Lelia Amos Pendleton, African American History Textbooks, and Challenging Personhood

Numerous research studies have investigated the racist undertones of traditional history textbook... more Numerous research studies have investigated the racist undertones of traditional history textbooks of the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century. Few studies, however, have thoroughly and theoretically explored how African American history textbooks and African American educators have responded to these racist textbooks. Utilizing the theory of revisionist ontology, this study sought to fill this gap by examining Lelia Amos Pendleton's history textbook, A Narrative of the Negro. This article explicates Pendleton's approach to historical writing and argues that her approach went beyond typical contributionist approaches to narration. It provides an example of a written account of history that reinvented African American personhood.

African American History, Race and Textbooks: An Examination of the Works of Harold O

by LaGarrett King and Anthony L. Brown

This paper proposes that as a way to broaden the theoretical and historical context of social stu... more This paper proposes that as a way to broaden the theoretical and historical context of social studies foundational literature and curriculum history, attention must be given to issues of race and racism related the experiences of African Americans. First, race and racism should be used as an analytical tool to examine longstanding foundations topics. Second, historically marginalized social studies scholars need to be recognized and theoretically situated within the existing literature of social studies foundations. Last, there must be comparative work that examines African American and White progressives' similar and divergent conceptions of K-12 social studies curriculum. As a way to address these limitations in the social studies foundations literature, this paper provides a comparative examination of the different ways in which Harold O. Rugg and Carter G. Woodson rendered race and racism in the textbooks they authored during the early twentieth century. This article conclud...

Revisionist Ontology and the Historical trajectory of Black Curriuclum

by LaGarrett King and Crystal Simmons

Teaching black history as a racial literacy project

Scholars have long promoted black history as an appropriate space to promote the development of r... more Scholars have long promoted black history as an appropriate space to promote the development of racial literacy. Few research studies, however, have examined how teacher education uses black history as a heuristic to teach about race. Using racial literacy as a framework, this article examined the varied ways four social studies pre-service teachers interpret and taught race through black history. The pre-service teachers were aided by a black history summer reading program dedicated to help them gain the necessary knowledge to teach race through black history. The findings indicated that the pre-service teachers taught race and black history more critical than traditional US history classes but were limited in their presentation of black history and race.

From Non-racism to Anti-racism in Social Studies Teacher Education: Social Studies and Racial Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Black History, Inc! Investigating the Production of Black History Through Walmart's Corporate Web Site

by LaGarrett King and Anthony L. Brown

Multicultural Perspectives, 2012

Social and public sites are becoming a popular medium for intellectual consumption of Black histo... more Social and public sites are becoming a popular medium for intellectual consumption of Black history. Given the educational climate in which many students’ exposure to Black history may come from outside of schools, the authors examine how Walmart's Black History Month Web site produced simplistic and safe narratives about African American history.

Am I not a man? I am a man

This book chapters examines Black male representation in an Black history textbook.

Race is a highway: Toward a Critical Race Approach in Economics Classrooms

This chapter attends to the gap in social studies literature concerning the nuanced ways that tea... more This chapter attends to the gap in social studies literature concerning the nuanced ways that teachers and teacher educators can explore the nexus between Critical Race Theory and economics. Using CRT as an analytic lens, we examine the historical and contemporary economic influences of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 (FAHA). Throughout the book chapter we explicate on our definition of race and racism, discuss relevant literature on economic education, critique the Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics, introduce the CRT framework as an analytic for economic teaching, and provide a lesson plan that elucidates racial economics teaching. Our purpose is to provide teachers with a heuristic of race to follow as they develop their economics lesson plans.

The Forgotten Legacy of Carter G. Woodson: Contributions to Multicultural Social Studies and African American History

by LaGarrett King, Anthony L. Brown, and Ryan Crowley

The Social Studies, 2010

Killing Me Softly: How violence comes from the curriculum we teach

by LaGarrett King and Susan Cridland-Hughes

Once a Year to be Black: Carter G. Woodson, Curriculum and Fighting against typical Black History Month pedagogies during Black History Month

This paper presents the findings from a qualitative study that examined the experiences of three ... more This paper presents the findings from a qualitative study that examined the experiences of three middle school teachers who created their own Black History Month curriculum. Although, the
relevance of Black History Month is under scrutiny by opponents who feel it marginalized the histories of African Americans, proponents of this position have failed to account for teachers
who view and use Black History Month to challenge passive approaches to teaching Black history and to provide narratives that are critical and disrupt the overreliance on traditional
historical sources. Our research adds to the literature of scholars who are interested in uncovering the various ways in which teachers navigate or interrupt “official curriculum” that
marginalizes African American history. Findings suggest that Black History Month teaching operates in both transgressive and regressive ways that require more scholarly attention and consideration to tease out the appropriate pedagogies for Black History Month.

Food for Thought: A Framework for Social Justice in Social Studies Education

Articles published in ACEi's Focus Quarterlies are peer-reviewed. Articles published in Focus on ... more

Making inquiry critical: Examining power and inequity in the classroom Unofficial and Unconventional social studies spaces for students of color View project Perspectives on the Teaching of Black History in Schools (Editor) View project

Interpreting Black History: Toward a Black History Framework for Teacher Education

I argue in this article that a close examination of preservice teachers' Black history knowledge ... more I argue in this article that a close examination of preservice teachers' Black history knowledge is needed to possibly improve curricular and instructional approaches of Black education. Seven preservice teachers were studied and asked to write Black history narratives to ascertain how they interpreted Black history. I analyzed these responses through a Black history framework that combined aspects of diaspora literacy, historical consciousness, and Black Critical race theory. Findings indicate preservice teachers held both critical and noncritical Black history knowledge. Implications are given to teacher educators to find out how to effectively gauge Black history as a heuristic for diversity education.

Baskets of cotton and birthday cakes: Teaching slavery in social studies classrooms

by LaGarrett King and Ashley N Woodson

In this paper, we introduce educative-psychic violence as a tool that we have found useful in our... more In this paper, we introduce educative-psychic violence as a tool that we have found useful in our practice for developing and evaluating lessons about slavery. Educative-psychic violence is a concept that helps to explain the types of harm that students experience when we teach about slavery in superficial or reductive ways. The ‘violence’ in educative-psychic violence does not refer to physical actions that injure, harm, or damage persons or property. Instead, it is a type of psychological violence, one that keeps students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds from developing a full sense of their racial, historical and political identities. We use educative- psychic violence to examine two provocative moments involving lessons about slavery – the use of word problems involving slavery in a mathematics classroom, and the 2016 children’s book A Birthday Cake for George Washington. We offer recommendations to individual teachers and teacher educators for using educative-psychic violence as a tool to assess their own practice.

The Status of Black History in U.S. Schools and Society

A look at the current status of K-12 Black history in schools and society.

The Media and Black Masculinity Looking at the Media Through Race[d] Lenses

This paper is a response to the efforts made by educators, scholars, and concerned ... more This paper is a response to the efforts made by educators, scholars, and concerned citizens on creating educational spaces that discuss State violence against young Black people. From the standpoint that the media is a salient contributor to the racial contract, this paper discusses the following: (1) the connection of the racial contract to news media; (2) the intersectionality of Critical Media Education and Critical Race Theory; and (3) the need to develop the Critical Race Media Literacy of students and citizens.

Black Lives Matter as critical patrotism.pdf

Black history is more than skin color.pdf

Black History as Anti-Racist and Non-Racist: An examination of two high school Black history textbooks

" A Narrative to the Colored Children in America " : Lelia Amos Pendleton, African American History Textbooks, and Challenging Personhood

Numerous research studies have investigated the racist undertones of traditional history textbook... more Numerous research studies have investigated the racist undertones of traditional history textbooks of the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century. Few studies, however, have thoroughly and theoretically explored how African American history textbooks and African American educators have responded to these racist textbooks. Utilizing the theory of revisionist ontology, this study sought to fill this gap by examining Lelia Amos Pendleton's history textbook, A Narrative of the Negro. This article explicates Pendleton's approach to historical writing and argues that her approach went beyond typical contributionist approaches to narration. It provides an example of a written account of history that reinvented African American personhood.

African American History, Race and Textbooks: An Examination of the Works of Harold O

by LaGarrett King and Anthony L. Brown

This paper proposes that as a way to broaden the theoretical and historical context of social stu... more This paper proposes that as a way to broaden the theoretical and historical context of social studies foundational literature and curriculum history, attention must be given to issues of race and racism related the experiences of African Americans. First, race and racism should be used as an analytical tool to examine longstanding foundations topics. Second, historically marginalized social studies scholars need to be recognized and theoretically situated within the existing literature of social studies foundations. Last, there must be comparative work that examines African American and White progressives' similar and divergent conceptions of K-12 social studies curriculum. As a way to address these limitations in the social studies foundations literature, this paper provides a comparative examination of the different ways in which Harold O. Rugg and Carter G. Woodson rendered race and racism in the textbooks they authored during the early twentieth century. This article conclud...

Revisionist Ontology and the Historical trajectory of Black Curriuclum

by LaGarrett King and Crystal Simmons

Teaching black history as a racial literacy project

Scholars have long promoted black history as an appropriate space to promote the development of r... more Scholars have long promoted black history as an appropriate space to promote the development of racial literacy. Few research studies, however, have examined how teacher education uses black history as a heuristic to teach about race. Using racial literacy as a framework, this article examined the varied ways four social studies pre-service teachers interpret and taught race through black history. The pre-service teachers were aided by a black history summer reading program dedicated to help them gain the necessary knowledge to teach race through black history. The findings indicated that the pre-service teachers taught race and black history more critical than traditional US history classes but were limited in their presentation of black history and race.

From Non-racism to Anti-racism in Social Studies Teacher Education: Social Studies and Racial Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Black History, Inc! Investigating the Production of Black History Through Walmart's Corporate Web Site

by LaGarrett King and Anthony L. Brown

Multicultural Perspectives, 2012

Social and public sites are becoming a popular medium for intellectual consumption of Black histo... more Social and public sites are becoming a popular medium for intellectual consumption of Black history. Given the educational climate in which many students’ exposure to Black history may come from outside of schools, the authors examine how Walmart's Black History Month Web site produced simplistic and safe narratives about African American history.

Am I not a man? I am a man

This book chapters examines Black male representation in an Black history textbook.

Race is a highway: Toward a Critical Race Approach in Economics Classrooms

This chapter attends to the gap in social studies literature concerning the nuanced ways that tea... more This chapter attends to the gap in social studies literature concerning the nuanced ways that teachers and teacher educators can explore the nexus between Critical Race Theory and economics. Using CRT as an analytic lens, we examine the historical and contemporary economic influences of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 (FAHA). Throughout the book chapter we explicate on our definition of race and racism, discuss relevant literature on economic education, critique the Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics, introduce the CRT framework as an analytic for economic teaching, and provide a lesson plan that elucidates racial economics teaching. Our purpose is to provide teachers with a heuristic of race to follow as they develop their economics lesson plans.

The Forgotten Legacy of Carter G. Woodson: Contributions to Multicultural Social Studies and African American History

by LaGarrett King, Anthony L. Brown, and Ryan Crowley

The Social Studies, 2010

Killing Me Softly: How violence comes from the curriculum we teach

by LaGarrett King and Susan Cridland-Hughes

Once a Year to be Black: Carter G. Woodson, Curriculum and Fighting against typical Black History Month pedagogies during Black History Month

This paper presents the findings from a qualitative study that examined the experiences of three ... more This paper presents the findings from a qualitative study that examined the experiences of three middle school teachers who created their own Black History Month curriculum. Although, the
relevance of Black History Month is under scrutiny by opponents who feel it marginalized the histories of African Americans, proponents of this position have failed to account for teachers
who view and use Black History Month to challenge passive approaches to teaching Black history and to provide narratives that are critical and disrupt the overreliance on traditional
historical sources. Our research adds to the literature of scholars who are interested in uncovering the various ways in which teachers navigate or interrupt “official curriculum” that
marginalizes African American history. Findings suggest that Black History Month teaching operates in both transgressive and regressive ways that require more scholarly attention and consideration to tease out the appropriate pedagogies for Black History Month.

400 Counting and TEACHING SLAVERY AND ITS AFTERLIFE TEACHING HARD HISTORY DURING HARD TIMES 2 N D A N N U A L TEACHING BLACK HISTORY C O N F E R E N C E

The CARTER Center for K-12 Black history education at the University of Missouri introduces its 2... more The CARTER Center for K-12 Black history education at the University of Missouri introduces its 2nd annual Teaching Black History Conference. This year's theme is, Teaching slavery and its afterlife. Our featured presenters are Ebony Thomas (UPenn) and Hasan Jeffries (Ohio State). Additionally, we have over 50 teacher workshop presentations over the two days.

Registration for the conference is $50.00 before June 1st and $60.00 after June 1st. School districts registering by purchase orders, please contact Lauralyn Fry @fryl@missouri.edu or 573/882-2120.

Conference Hotel is the Holiday Inn East in Columbia, MO. Cost is $84.00 per night. Please call 573 4744444 and mention that you are with the Teaching Black History Conference. Reserve by June 22, 2019.

For more information:
Website: www.bit.ly/carter-center or
Email: mucoecartercenter@missouri.edu.
Conference contact: Greg Simmons gdsimmons@mail.missouri.edu
Founding Director: LaGarrett King kinglj@missouri.edu

Teaching Black History Conference

Held annually, the Teaching Black History Conference aims to improve Black history curriculum dec... more Held annually, the Teaching Black History Conference aims to improve Black history curriculum decision-making and instructional practice. Individual sessions are led by classroom teachers as well as university professors. This year’s theme is Teaching Black History across the Disciplines: A Black Studies Approach. We are focusing on how teachers can bring aspects of Black history and continue to teach math, science, art, English, etc. This year, our guest panel features Karyn Parsons, founder of Sweetblackberry (http://www.sweetblackberry.org/). You may know Karyn as Hillary from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire, a popular sitcom during the 1990s. Sweetblackberry develops Black history cartoons for school children.

Featured presentations include also Black History 101 Mobile Museum (https://www.blackhistorymobilemuseum.com/) and Teaching Tolerance (https://www.tolerance.org/). The conference is for teacher candidates, practicing teachers, teacher educators, community educators, homeschool educators, and anyone interested in furthering Black History Education.

You can register at www.bit.ly/carter-conference-2018. Registration is only 40.00 and can be paid by cash or check. Please send checks to 303 Townsend Hall, Columbia, MO 65211 attention to LaGarrett King, Director. Make the checks payable to the University of Missouri. Please register by June 1, 2018. Any questions, please email cartercenter18@gmail.com.

Thank you,
LaGarrett King
Director
CARTER Center for K-12 Black History Research, Teaching, and Curriculum