Teaching for Change

Last updated
Teaching for Change
FoundedDecember 1989
Type501(c)3
52-1616482
Focuseducational
Location
  • Washington, DC
Coordinates 38°55′04″N77°01′54″W / 38.917813°N 77.031777°W / 38.917813; -77.031777
Area served
United States
Methodparent organizing, professional development, and publications
Key people
Nzinga Tull, Board Co-Chair
Employees
21
Website www.teachingforchange.org
Formerly called
Network of Educators on Central America

Teaching for Change is a non-profit organization founded in 1989 and based in Washington, D.C., with the motto of "building social justice, starting in the classroom." [ citation needed ] This organization uses publications, professional development, and parent organizing programs to accomplish this goal.

Contents

Programming

Teaching for Change coordinates a variety of programs that aim to encourage teachers, students, and parents to build a more equitable, multicultural society through education.

Tellin' Stories

The Tellin' Stories program is a process for building parent engagement in schools. This program uses a bottom-up approach, encouraging parents to define what their roles will be. [1] The training plan has four stages:

Teaching for Change Bookstore

Teaching for Change founded and operated an independent, non-profit bookstore [3] located inside Busboys and Poets 14th and V Streets location for ten years. [4] The bookstore hosted author events and provided selections of books focusing on progressive politics, multicultural lessons for pre K-12, and people's history. Teaching for Change helped bring noted authors to host readings, discussions and book signings, including Alice Walker, Howard Zinn, Cornel West, Ronald Takaki, Michelle Alexander, Melissa Harris-Perry, John Sayles, Nikki Giovanni, Bob Moses, Juan Gonzalez, Ralph Nader, Taylor Branch, Dave Zirin, Naomi Klein, Tariq Ali, Clarence Lusane, Marita Golden, Charles E. Cobb Jr., Bernie Sanders, Edwidge Danticat, Judy Richardson, and Junot Diaz. Teaching for Change closed its bookstore in April 2015 and shared its recommendations for books online. [5]

Zinn Education Project

Teaching for Change co-founded the Zinn Education Project with Rethinking Schools in 2008 to provide teachers with free resources to help teach a people's history including free downloadable lesson plans as a companion to Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States and other classroom resources for educators around the country. [6]

Civil Rights Teaching

As of 2006, the state of Mississippi "passed the Civil Rights/Human Rights Education in the Mississippi Public Schools Curriculum bill," which mandated "the integration of civil rights and human rights" topics into the curriculum of the K-12 schools under its purview. [7] Accordingly, Teaching for Change worked with the McComb School District and the Mississippi Department of Education for ten years to incorporate lessons on the civil rights movement and labor history in the curriculum. The stated intention was to help schools "end a decades-old culture of silence" on difficult historical events in the region. [8] [9] McComb Legacies, an after-school and summer enrichment program, grew out of the partnership between Teaching for Change and the McComb School District. As part of McComb Legacies, high school students work as historians to uncover the history of the voting rights struggle in McComb and Mississippi. [10] In the spring of 2013, two McComb student projects made it to the national level of the National History Day competition. The Voting Rights Struggle, a documentary film created by McComb students, tells the story of the first SNCC voter registration drive, which was located in McComb. [11] The film can now be seen at the African American Civil War Museum in Washington, DC. [12]

D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice

In 2017, Teaching for Change launched DC Area Educators for Social Justice, a community of mutual support for educators to collaborate on curriculum, professional learning, and activism. [13] Beginning in 2018, DC Area Educators for Social Justice has led the yearly D.C. Area Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. [14] Beginning in 2015, DC Area Educators brought together local social justice teachers to form a graduate level writing group in a program titled Stories from our Classroom. Some of these stories went onto be published in The Atlantic , Huffington Post , Edutopia, and other well-known periodicals. [15]

Teaching Central America

In 2017, Teaching for Change launched the website Teaching Central America. [16] The website offers free downloadable lessons, biographies, poetry, and prose from Central American writers such as Roque Dalton, Rigoberta Menchú, Claribel Alegría, and Ernesto Cardenal.

Social Justice Books

Teaching for Change launched the Social Justice Books website in 2017. [17] The Social Justice Book site contains more than 60 carefully selected lists of multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators, along with dozens of book reviews coordinated by the See What We See (SWWS) coalition. [18]

History

In the 1980s, with a growing Central American population and U.S. involvement in the region, 11 committees of educators and community leaders formed across the country to assess how to address the needs of Central American students and increase public awareness about U.S. foreign policy in Central America. [19] These committees convened in Los Angeles to form a national organization, the Network of Educator's Committees on Central America (NECCA) that became incorporated in December 1989 [19]

Through the early 90s they produced teaching resources on Nicaragua and El Salvador and hosted teacher workshops around the country based on the book Rethinking Columbus. [20] In 1993, NECCA won the Humanities award from the DC Humanities Council and in 1994 they launched a mail order catalog for progressive teaching resources. [ citation needed ]

As the organization expanded its focus, Network of Educator's Committees on Central America changed its name to Teaching for Change. Through the 1990s, Teaching for Change organized seminars for educators on social justice education topics and published their own teaching guide, Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development.

In 1999, Teaching for Change hosted a seminar for educators in the DC area focusing on "putting the movement back into Civil Rights" history teaching at Howard University. That seminar led to the production of a teaching guide with the same name, in collaboration with the Poverty and Race Resource Action Council (PRRAC).

Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching won the Philip C. Chinn book of the year award [21] and Teaching for Change won the National Association for Multicultural Education Organization of the Year in 2004.

In 2005, Teaching for Change was invited by former board member and entrepreneur Andy Shallal to open a bookstore in Busboys and Poets.

In 2008, in partnership with Rethinking Schools, they launched the Zinn Education Project to provide middle and high school teachers with free access to lessons for Howard Zinn’s A People's History of the United States and other people's history resources. [22]

In 2014, Teaching for Change was attacked by Rush Limbaugh who said of the organization, "it’s racist, it’s bigoted." [23] [24] [25]

Teaching for Change launched the Teach the Beat initiative [26] to bring go-go artists to D.C. classrooms and was among the national recipients of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation Family Engagement Awards [27] in 2014.

In 2019, the Zinn Foundation Project achieved the milestone of 100,000 registered teachers in the program. [28] Also, during Latinx Heritage Month, Teaching for Change began its first yearly "Teach Central America Week" to strengthen students' knowledge of Central America. [28]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard Zinn</span> American historian and socialist thinker (1922–2010)

Howard Zinn was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist intellectual and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a political science professor at Boston University. Zinn wrote more than 20 books, including his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United States in 1980. In 2007, he published a version of it for younger readers, A Young People's History of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teacher</span> Person who helps others learn

A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.

Critical pedagogy is a philosophy of education and social movement that developed and applied concepts from critical theory and related traditions to the field of education and the study of culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myles Horton</span> American educator

Myles Falls Horton was an American educator, socialist, and co-founder of the Highlander Folk School, famous for its role in the Civil Rights Movement. Horton taught and heavily influenced most of the era's leaders. They included Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, John Lewis, James Bevel, Bernard Lafayette, and others who would create the Nashville Student Movement, Ralph Abernathy, John B. Thompson, and many others.

Lisa D. Delpit is an American educationalist, researcher, and author. She is the former executive director and Eminent Scholar at the Center for Urban Educational Excellence at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, Benjamin E. Mays Chair of Urban Educational Leadership at Georgia State University, and the first Felton G. Clark Distinguished Professor of Education at Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She earned the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship for her research on school-community relations and cross-cultural communication.

Culturally relevant teaching is instruction that takes into account students' cultural differences. Making education culturally relevant is thought to improve academic achievement, but understandings of the construct have developed over time Key characteristics and principles define the term, and research has allowed for the development and sharing of guidelines and associated teaching practices. Although examples of culturally relevant teaching programs exist, implementing it can be challenging.

A common school was a public school in the United States during the 19th century. Horace Mann (1796–1859) was a strong advocate for public education and the common school. In 1837, the state of Massachusetts appointed Mann as the first secretary of the State Board of Education where he began a revival of common school education, the effects of which extended throughout America during the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inclusion (education)</span> Where disabled students spend most of their time with non-disabled students

Inclusion in education refers to including all students to equal access to equal opportunities of education and learning, and is distinct from educational equality or educational equity. It arose in the context of special education with an individualized education program or 504 plan, and is built on the notion that it is more effective for students with special needs to have the said mixed experience for them to be more successful in social interactions leading to further success in life. The philosophy behind the implementation of the inclusion model does not prioritize, but still provides for the utilization of special classrooms and special schools for the education of students with disabilities. Inclusive education models are brought into force by educational administrators with the intention of moving away from seclusion models of special education to the fullest extent practical, the idea being that it is to the social benefit of general education students and special education students alike, with the more able students serving as peer models and those less able serving as motivation for general education students to learn empathy.

Freedom Schools were temporary, alternative, and free schools for African Americans mostly in the South. They were originally part of a nationwide effort during the Civil Rights Movement to organize African Americans to achieve social, political and economic equality in the United States. The most prominent example of Freedom Schools was in Mississippi during the summer of 1964.

Multicultural education is a set of educational strategies developed to provide students with knowledge about the histories, cultures, and contributions of diverse groups. It draws on insights from multiple fields, including ethnic studies and women studies, and reinterprets content from related academic disciplines. It is a way of teaching that promotes the principles of inclusion, diversity, democracy, skill acquisition, inquiry, critical thought, multiple perspectives, and self-reflection. One study found these strategies to be effective in promoting educational achievements among immigrant students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Busboys and Poets</span> Restaurant chain in Washington, D.C., area

Busboys and Poets is a full-service restaurant, bar, bookstore, coffee shop, and events venue in the Washington, D.C. area, founded in 2005 by Andy Shallal. The original Busboys and Poets is located at 14th & V streets in the U Street Corridor of Washington, D.C. There are now seven locations in the D.C. area: A second location opened in Shirlington, Virginia in 2007; a third location opened in DC's Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood in 2008; a fourth in Hyattsville, Maryland opened in July 2011; a fifth at D.C.'s Brookland neighborhood opened in 2014; a sixth opened in D.C./Maryland's Takoma neighborhood in 2015; and a seventh location opened in D.C.'s historic Anacostia neighborhood in early 2019. It has been described as a haven for writers, thinkers and performers from America's progressive social and political movements.

Shirley R. Steinberg is an educator, author, activist, filmmaker, and public speaker whose work focuses on critical pedagogy, transformative leadership, social justice, and cultural studies. She has written and edited numerous books and articles about equitable pedagogies and leadership, urban and youth culture, community studies, cultural studies, Islamophobia, and issues of inclusion, race, class, gender, and sexuality. Steinberg was the Research Chair of Critical Youth Studies at the University of Calgary for two terms, executive director of the Freire Project freireproject.org, and a visiting researcher at University of Barcelona and Murdoch University. She has held faculty positions at Montclair State University, Adelphi University, Brooklyn College, The CUNY Graduate Center, and McGill University. Steinberg directed the Institute for Youth and Community Research at the University of the West of Scotland for two years.

Kevin Kumashiro is the former dean of the School of Education at the University of San Francisco. He was previously a professor of Asian American Studies and Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and is the immediate past president of the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME).

Social workers employ education as a tool in client and community interactions. These educational exchanges are not always explicit, but are the foundation of how social workers acquire knowledge from their service participants and how they can contribute to information delivery and skill development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elementary schools in the United States</span> Primary education in the United States

In the United States, elementary schools are the main point of delivery of primary education, for children between the ages of 4–11 and coming between pre-kindergarten and secondary education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles E. Cobb Jr.</span> American journalist and civil rights activist

Charles E. "Charlie" Cobb Jr. is a journalist, professor, and former activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Along with several veterans of SNCC, Cobb established and operated the African-American bookstore Drum and Spear in Washington, D.C., from 1968 to 1974. Currently he is a senior analyst at allAfrica.com and a visiting professor at Brown University.

Critical mathematics pedagogy is an approach to mathematics education that includes a practical and philosophical commitment to liberation. Approaches that involve critical mathematics pedagogy give special attention to the social, political, cultural and economic contexts of oppression, as they can be understood through mathematics. They also analyze the role that mathematics plays in producing and maintaining potentially oppressive social, political, cultural or economic structures. Finally, critical mathematics pedagogy demands that critique is connected to action promoting more just and equitable social, political or economic reform.

Inclusive Classroom is a term used within American pedagogy to describe a classroom in which all students, irrespective of their abilities or skills, are welcomed holistically. It is built on the notion that being in a non-segregated classroom will better prepare special-needs students for later life. In the United States, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 guaranteed civil rights to disabled people, though inclusion of disabled students progressed slowly until the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, after which almost half of US students with disabilities were soon in general classrooms.

Abolitionist teaching, also known as abolitionist pedagogy, is a set of practices and approaches to teaching that emphasize abolishing educational practices considered by its proponents to be inherently problematic and oppressive. The term was coined by education professor and critical theorist Bettina Love.

Mathematics for social justice is a pedagogical approach to mathematics education that seeks to incorporate lessons from critical mathematics pedagogy and similar educational philosophies into the teaching of mathematics at schools and colleges. The approach tries to empower students on their way to developing a positive mathematics identity and becoming active, numerically literate citizens who can navigate and participate in society. Mathematics for social justice puts particular emphasis on overcoming social inequalities. Its proponents, for example, Bob Moses, may understand numerical literacy as a civil right. Many of the founders of the movement, e.g. Eric Gutstein, were initially mathematics teachers, but the movement has since expanded to include the teaching of mathematics at colleges and universities. Their educational approach is influenced by earlier critical pedagogy advocates such as Paulo Freire and others. Mathematics for social justice has been criticised, however, its proponents argue that it both fits into existing teaching frameworks and promotes students' success in mathematics.

References

  1. ↑ "Tellin Stories, Finding Common Ground" By David Levine, Rethinking Schools, 2009
  2. ↑ National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group, Taking Leadership/Innovating Change: Profiles in Family School and Community Engagement Harvard Family Research Project, March 2010.
  3. ↑ "Teaching for Change at Busboys and Poets" in Shelf Awareness, November 2, 2010
  4. ↑ Todd Kliman, Rainbow Room: The Busboys and Poets Controversy, Washingtonian, December 1, 2005.
  5. ↑ "Teaching for Change Moves Online Amid Challenges for Diversity in Books" by Stacia Brown in The Washington Post, March 18, 2015
  6. ↑ "Yes!Magazine recommends the Zinn Education Project", May, 2010
  7. ↑ Cunningham, David; Rondini, Ashley (2017). "LEGACIES OF RACIAL CONTENTION: Implementing Mississippi's Civil Rights/Human Rights Curriculum, 2006-2011". Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race. 14 (1): 325–348. doi:10.1017/S1742058X17000030. ISSN   1742-058X. S2CID   149284556.
  8. ↑ Carmen K. Sisson, Mississippi mandates civil rights classes in schools Christian Science Monitor, October 8, 2009
  9. ↑ "These Mississippi Teens Should School the Supreme Court on the Voting Rights Act". GOOD Magazine. 2013-03-12. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  10. ↑ "Have lessons about Mississippi's violent past become optional? - The Hechinger Report". The Hechinger Report. 2014-06-22. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  11. ↑ Titus Ledbetter III, Mississippi Students Take Award-Winning Voting Rights Documentary to Nation's Capital AFRO, June 19, 2013.
  12. ↑ Deborah Barfield Berry, showcase civil rights work Jackson Clarion-Ledger, June 12, 2013.
  13. ↑ "D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice". Teaching for Change. Retrieved June 6, 2019.
  14. ↑ Harris, Naomi (February 4, 2019). "'Week of Action' returns to DC to share Black Lives Matter principles in local schools". The DC Line. Retrieved June 6, 2019.
  15. ↑ "Stories from Our Classrooms Celebration". Teaching for Change. June 15, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2019.
  16. ↑ "Teaching Central America". Teaching Central America. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  17. ↑ "Social Justice Books". Social Justice Books. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  18. ↑ "See What We See". Social Justice Books.org. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  19. 1 2 History Teaching for Change website, 2017
  20. ↑ Rethinking Columbus, http://www.rethinkingschools.org/ProdDetails.asp?ID=094296120X Rethinking Schools.
  21. ↑ "Philip Chinn Book Award - National Association for Multicultural Education". nameorg.org. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  22. ↑ "Bringing Zinn to Class". Bostonia.
  23. ↑ "Rush Revere Books Dissed on C-SPAN2". The Rush Limbaugh Show. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  24. ↑ "Teaching for Change, Supporters React to Limbaugh Slam". American Booksellers Association. 2014-06-19. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  25. ↑ "Rush Limbaugh Attacks the Bookstore at Busboys and Poets". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  26. ↑ "Teach the Beat: Go-Go Goes to School: Artists and Scholars in the Classroom". TMOTT GO GO Magazine. 2015-10-15. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  27. ↑ "W.K. Kellogg Foundation announces recipients of $13.7 million investment to empower parents as leaders and key decision makers in education". W.K. Kellogg Foundation. 2014-04-17. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  28. 1 2 "2019 Highlights" (PDF). Teaching for Change. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.