How can your students connect across the country to share and learn from each other's local histories and civic action? (Leer en español)
We're looking for teachers, district administrators, and other educators interested in developing and piloting the new Collaborative Local History and Action Civics program. This program aims to connect classrooms from different regions through the study and sharing of local history, issues, and events to inform possible local civic engagement.
Guided by student interest, the program is flexibly designed to take many forms: exploring facets of local indigenous history, researching patterns of segregation and discrimination within communities across time, examining the local impact of climate change, or studying significant events that marked shifts in power or ushered in significant change.
Teachers will integrate concepts and pedagogies from critical historical inquiry, Ethnic Studies and the Integrated Action Civics framework into their course curriculum throughout the year. Students will then apply these concepts and analytical strategies in their local historical research and action projects.
Teachers and students will meet and work with another classroom exploring similar themes in a different part of the country. Through Zoom sessions, shared documents, and other digital platforms, groups of students will present, discuss, compare and contrast their local histories. Students will then collaborate in planning and acting on contemporary issues and events within and across their communities.
District administrators can support this work by sharing this program with teachers who may be interested, or by incorporating this framework into their curricular offerings and trainings.
Note: This project is in the preliminary stage of planning and development. We encourage interested educators to apply to participate or contact us for further information.
CLHAC Project Overview:
Program Goals
The primary goals for this project are to:
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Engage with Local Communities: Students work with and learn from local community leaders, organizations, museums and other institutions throughout the program.
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Collaborate Across Regions: Facilitate national, cross-regional collaboration among classrooms to elevate overarching themes and share local particularities. Connect students that are too often regionally siloed and disconnected from, or even at odds with, each other.
- Develop Critical Historical Literacy: Students identify and question traditional dominant historical narratives and elevate counter-narratives through the voices from marginalized communities.
- Reframe US and World History: Support teachers and students in reframing their history curriculum to elevate the related contemporary, local, and indigenous histories and issues.
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Empower Students for Civic Engagement: Develop and share knowledge and skills of civic empowerment. Strategize collaboratively, act locally.
Program Components
- Classroom Collaboration: Participating teachers will pair with teachers from other classrooms. We seek different types of regional and demographic pairings to encourage conversations across political and cultural realities.
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Community Collaboration: Teachers will seek partners in their communities that can support students in learning and acting on local history.
- Curriculum Development: Teachers will augment their existing curriculum with materials and strategies from the Integrated Action Civics Project and California’s State Board Approved Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum.
- Teacher Professional Development Workshops: 3 to 5 half-day Zoom workshops will allow teachers to meet and work with one another to prepare for the program.
- Coaching/Observations: Participating teachers and classrooms will be observed and will work with a coach throughout the program for support.
- Evaluation of Materials: Feedback from teachers and students will help to continually develop and improve program materials and procedures.
Program Timeline
This project is in the initial stages of development. We are seeking funding and connecting with interested educators across the country.
Approximate Timeline
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Summer 2024: Launch California pilot in conjunction with IACP Summer Institute
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October 2024: Launch Library of Congress-funded national pilot program
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2024-2025 School Year: Implement program and teach first collaborative lessons
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2025-2026 School Year: Expand program to include additional regions and teachers
Program Leads
The Collaborative Local History and Action Civics program is being developed and led by"
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Brad Fogo, Associate Professor, Graduate College of Education, San Francisco State University; former Director of Curriculum for the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG). bfogo@sfsu.edu
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Devin Hess, Academic and Civics Coordinator, UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project, and Director of the Integrated Action Civics Project. dhess@berkeley.edu
With active participation of:
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Monica Pelayo Lock, Public historian
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Eric Soto-Shed, Teacher Educator, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
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Chris Martel, Associate Professor, UMass Boston’s College of Education and Human Development.
- Ashia Bomani Ojore, Teacher on Special Assignment, San Francisco Unified School District
Advisory Committee: Our Advisory Committee will actively participate in guiding and implementing this program. We are honored to have the participation and support from these educators:
- Abeer Ramadan-Shinnawi, Educational Consultant, Baltimore County Schools
- Brandy Siddiqi, K-12 Content Lead for Social Studies & Ethnic Studies, Minneapolis Public Schools
- Danielle Babineau, Teacher, AICE US History & Global Perspectives, Florida
- Estevan Leyva, Coordinator, Ethnic Studies, Humanities, and Related Social Sciences. Los Angeles Unified School District
- Eunjee Kang, Teacher, Bohannon Middle School, San Lorenzo, CA
- Ishmael Jimenez, Director of Social Studies Curriculum, The School District of Philadelphia