“I Am the Textbook”: Using Family History Interviews to Enhance Social Studies Education

This study examines how family history interviews reveal achievement within families, while highlighting Black accomplishments often excluded from social studies education. Grounded in curricular and pedagogical resuscitation (CPR) and building on critical family history (CFH), this research explores how personal narratives can better inform historical curiosity and questions. Employing autoethnography and photo/artifact elicitation, this study centers a family history interview with Charles Thomas—a former student-athlete, HBCU graduate, ex-NFL professional football player turned educator, and uncle—revealing how Black education, institutions, and achievement intersect with broader social, political, and historical contexts. Findings demonstrate that CPR’s tenets of body, spirit, and mind serve as a vital framework for embedding Black experiences into social studies instruction, challenging historical omissions, and cultivating a more accurate and engaging curriculum. This study offers both theoretical and practical applications for classroom instruction.