We have an exciting change of plans to share: in putting together California’s inaugural Make History, Teach History: An LGBTQ History Symposium over the past few months, we have connected with many stakeholders who’ve been eager to help co-create a high quality LGBTQ-inclusive professional learning program for teachers and administrators. During this process, one thing has become clear: many more organizations want to contribute than we’d anticipated.
So we’re shifting the focus of our October 12 event: it will now be an LGBTQ History Stakeholder Forum. Its goal: to convene key stakeholders to provide input on the best way to deliver the state’s inaugural LGBTQ-inclusive professional development program for K12 history and social science educators.
Rather than exploring lesson plans, classroom engagement, and school community trouble-shooting and advocacy, we’ll be inviting interested community members and thought leaders – this means you – to influence the larger planning processes, with facilitated sessions on key questions such as:
- What are the best structures, content, and strategies to provide professional development for administrators and teachers around implementing the teaching of LGBTQ history in our schools?
- What does the research inform us about teaching LGBTQ history?
- How can we best collaborate and leverage the resources we each have, to get the best materials to educators?
- What academic institutions, education professionals, organizations, companies, and others should be involved?
- How do we support school districts in the implementation of policies consistent with the FAIR Education Act and of LGBTQ history teaching that is aligned with the new state History/ Social Science Frameworks?
- How can we impact the education of all students so they are more engaged in learning, in a way that improves retention and graduation rates, and leads to more college- and career-readiness?
We’ll facilitate discussion among educators and educational stakeholders, bringing all our collective insight to bear on the content and structure of the inaugural LGBTQ history professional learning program (to be hosted in Spring 2019).
We look forward to planning this important work together with you October 12th, at the Google Community Space in San Francisco, and in the months to come.
For further info and to register, visit the event page here.
