Developing an Anthropology Curriculum for High School: A Case Study from Durant High School, Hillsborough County, Florida

It has become increasingly apparent that anthropology has much to offer when it comes to educating our youth. This is true for all grade levels, kindergarten through senior level studies in high school. Here, this idea will be explored further by focusing on the students of Durant High School (DHS) of Plant City, Florida. This project was designed to explore the idea of combining widely accepted pedagogical theories (Gardner 1983, 1993, 1999; Geraci 2000; Silver, Strong and Perini 1997) with anthropological theory and methods in order to devise effective curricula for high school archaeology and other anthropology courses. More essentially, teachers must combine four approaches when designing curricula: multiple intelligences (MI), learning styles(LS), modes of presentation, and the use of ethnographic field methods. Through a combination of MI, LS, available modes of presentation, and ethnographic methods three major goals were accomplished. One, the anthropology and archaeology classes of the DHS program were improved and strengthened. Two, data were generated that will aid in improving future education programs of all types. Three, a new technique for public archaeology students to apply their work and experience practically, toward a bettering of our community through education, was developed; thereby illustrating another reason that public archaeology is a subdiscipline of applied anthropology