By Gabriela Garcia
Dr. Elizabeth (Liz) Harrelson Magill, a 2025 Baylor School of Education PhD graduate, received the Baylor University Graduate School’s 2024-25 Outstanding Dissertation Award for her groundbreaking doctoral research exploring a new approach to teaching K-12 history. Magill earned her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in social studies education and is now a Clinical Assistant Professor and secondary certificate coordinator in Baylor’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction.
The Graduate School’s Outstanding Dissertation Award recognizes exceptional scholarship, research, and writing by doctoral students. The awards help raise the profile of doctoral students and are presented annually in Humanities, Sciences, and Social Sciences. Magill won the Social Sciences award for her dissertation, Problematizing the Present and Possibilizing the Future: Designing a Critical Historiography ‘History of the Present’ Framework for Social Studies Education.
Regarding the impetus behind her dissertation topic, Magill said, “For seven years, I had worked with various teachers across different subjects, and that experience really opened my eyes to the common challenges they face in connecting history to what’s happening today. Seeing those struggles is what sparked my curiosity and ultimately inspired the focus of my dissertation.”
Dr. Philip Nichols, associate professor and Magill’s dissertation chair, said, “Liz is a highly accomplished student and a rising star in the field of history and social studies education. Her achievements at this early stage in her career suggest a trajectory that will continue to make lasting impacts in her areas of specialization, as well as in wider methodological conversations.”
Dr. Tony Talbert, professor in Qualitative Research and Social-Cultural Studies Education, called Magill an exemplary graduate student, dedicated member of the Baylor University academic community, and inspiring colleague. “Her dissertation is a shining example of the kind of research that reflects the mission of Baylor University’s Graduate School — to advance knowledge, promote justice, and foster transformative education,” he said.
Magill’s dissertation restructures what history education might look like if teachers and students treated the past as something that is directly connected to the issues we face today. She designed and implemented a “History of the Present” framework for social studies education, and it has educators rethinking how they teach history. Thieramework consists of four guiding practices: centering, sourcing, scaling, and narrativizing. These practices replace the “just the facts” approach to teaching history.
Marginalized voices and perspectives are brought to the forefront with the practice of centering. Instead of focusing primarily on dominant narratives, centering shifts the attention to those who have historically been overlooked or silenced. Sourcing involves the examination of where historical accounts originate and how they differ; scaling involves exploring connections across time, geography, and context. Lastly, narrativizing leads to the recognition that history is not told through fixed truths, but through competing stories.
Magill tested this framework in real classrooms with the help of experienced social studies teachers. The results revealed how students responded when history was presented as contested, complex, and relevant to their lives.
One teacher implemented this framework in the classroom to rethink how indigenous history is taught. The teacher developed a series of lessons to help students understand the flaws of how indigenous history has been traditionally taught and the implications for how indigenous perspectives are understood today. This was accomplished by intentionally using secondary sources that provided different and more nuanced historical disputes than the simplified version commonly presented in textbooks. Magill mentioned how the use of the framework allowed students to consider the power and tension that exist between narratives and how it can influence and inform our thinking about indigenous issues today.
Another teacher designed lessons inspired primarily by the scaling component of Magill’s framework, which encourages educators to consider questions of temporality and space/place. The teacher’s goal was for students to connect individual events and time periods to broader historical currents and add complexity to topics often taught as a singular American experience. To achieve this, the students participated in a card sort activity where students placed historical concepts into time periods and discovered that multiple answers could be valid. This illustrated the limitations of traditional periodization and emphasized that many historical issues persist today.
Magill’s work suggests that teachers are not only messengers of the past, but also active mediators of historical meaning. This means they can choose additional voices to incorporate, what sources to trust, and which narratives to challenge. She said that reframing the historical knowledge moderated by established standards and instruction is important for creating an open space for students to see themselves as participants in ongoing struggles rather than enforcing a one-dimensional version of history. Embracing the “History of the Present” framework allows classrooms to become places where history is not frozen in time, but a space that helps us understand the world we live in and improve our futures, she said.
As Magill’s research continues to gain traction, her award-winning dissertation can stand as a beacon for transformative teaching — advancing academic discourse, equipping teachers, and empowering students to see history not as distant facts, but as living narratives that shape their world and future.
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