The Hidden Histories of Social Studies: Collaborating with Elementary Preservice Teachers on a School-Wide Community Event

In this reflective piece we address the importance of uncovering hidden histories and voices. Traditional history lessons taught in schools have been predominantly taught through a White, Eurocentric narrative. White males are the dominant voices heard, while People of Color (POC) remain largely silenced from the traditional social studies curriculum (Conner, 2021). After learning of the rich history that thrives in our communities and in our role as university professors, we decided to teach about these critical aspects of history. We share the process of organizing a school-wide social studies, living museum event highlighting unknown New Mexico historical figures. We provide a synopsis of the three themes that emerged from our analysis, which are unveiling hidden historical figures, teaching culturally responsive curriculum, and focusing the project through a critical lens. Within the analysis we describe some of the units presented during the living museum event, followed by a discussion of our reflection.