Charley Brooks

Before I came to UC Santa Cruz, I was teaching world history and English in San Francisco. I taught in multiple schools—the city’s juvenile hall school, a comprehensive public middle school, and finally a small charter school. While I was teaching, I was constantly bumping up against larger philosophical questions I had about what it meant to teach history and where the histories I taught really came from.

Ultimately, what drew me to Santa Cruz was the personal attention from faculty. Even before starting my program, I spoke with a variety of faculty members and graduate students from all different fields who offered me advice and support in making my decision. I could tell that mentorship was a priority and that my work, however much it varied from my faculty advisor’s, would be nurtured. This impression has borne out during my time at Santa Cruz thus far.

I study social studies education and teacher preparation and am interested in questions about what histories are taught in schools, to whom, and to what effect. I am especially interested in how the histories taught vary based on demographics, commitments, and identity in terms of students, teachers, and communities. Inherent to the teaching of history are issues of race, racism, and whiteness. 

To study these topics, I utilize qualitative methods, including critical discourse analysis, which helps to reveal ideologies that underpin language use that are not necessarily evident on the surface. I find that this method is particularly useful in locating whiteness, which is frequently obfuscated especially within historical narratives that are taught in schools and present in textbooks. I’m also interested in developing pedagogical strategies that foster critical awareness and interrogation of power embedded in taken-for-granted historical narratives.