The Place of World History in South Dakota’s Failed 2021 Social Studies Standards Revision Process

Abstract

An alarming feature of public education in the United States since 2020 has been a highly coordinated and fiercely combative movement from the right seeking to root out and remove Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the schools. CRT is a legal theory developed decades ago that is only rarely a part of publicly funded curricula at the primary or secondary level. In practice, the term CRT is used in a nebulous fashion that 1 bears little resemblance to the theory it purports to oppose. This movement is a reaction to the provocative 1619 Project published by the New York Times specifically, and to movements for racial justice such as Black Lives Matter more broadly. Responding to 2 the 1619 Project in September of 2020, the Trump administration created the 1776 Commission to historically justify American exceptionalism, largely by downplaying the centrality of slavery and by highlighting the significance of American founding ideals as expressed in the late 18th century. Over the past two years dozens of state legislatures 3 have passed legislation banning CRT or the teaching of ‘divisive concepts’ in public schools.

Most of the scholarly and public attention surrounding the anti-CRT movement has rightly focused on American history education. World history, the second-most 5 important history course taught in U.S. public schools, is only rarely considered within this context. Using the contentious standards revision process of 2021 in South Dakota 6 as a case study, this article will trace how the strident nationalism undergirding the anti-CRT movement can affect world history curricula.