By Ali McKersie

Like so many Americans, I was glued to the television this past summer, watching the January 6th hearings with intense interest. They highlight a critical truth about democratic nationhood — that our institutions are only as strong as the collective efforts of an informed, discerning, and principled citizenry. And in the absence of such a citizenry? Government of, by, and for the people is vulnerable.

So, what is the antidote? It begins with educating for American democracy. And I mean that in a literal sense.

Last December, I began a fellowship with an initiative through iCivics called Educating for American Democracy (EAD). EAD emerged from the herculean efforts of more than 300 scholars and educators, who came together to create a roadmap for K–12 teaching and learning in American history and civics. Through the fellowship, I joined eight talented teachers from across the United States to create a year-long middle school curriculum, using the EAD Roadmap as a guide. We had the support of extraordinary advisors. The process was rigorous and demanding, but also inspiring and illuminating, underscoring the necessary role of education in fostering civic skills and dispositions and promoting democratic processes and participation.

At the core of the EAD Roadmap is a deep and abiding respect for the power of a really good question to propel inquiry-based learning. (The document contains hundreds of questions!) Such an approach captures the imagination of young people, and puts them on a path of historical investigation that is uniquely generative. To this, they inevitably bring additional questions, often essential ones, weaving together the past and present, compelled to ask themselves and their peers over and over again — How might the choices people made long ago inform the choices we make today? And what is revealed in this process for many of these students is a deeper understanding that their own experiences and contexts, filled with an abundance of diverse influences, constitute an important resource from which to draw.

I am reminded of a lesson I wrote as part of a larger module within this year-long EAD curriculum about the efforts of young immigrants in the early labor movement to secure fair wages and safe working conditions. Students are asked in this lesson to play the role of a 16 year-old garment worker, living in New York City in 1908, who must make a choice: Do they join their fellow workers in a factory-wide strike, standing in solidarity, or do they cross the picket line to continue to earn much needed wages for their struggling family? Students carefully consider a set of primary source documents presenting a range of factors and viewpoints. Each choice brings its own set of ramifications with which the students must wrestle. Like real-life, the path forward is not clear cut.

And herein lies a moment of significant growth. We know that higher-order thinking develops when class activities and content are scaffolded through sustained inquiry for full student engagement that reinforces knowledge and comprehension, encourages application and analysis, and invites synthesis and innovation. We also know that higher-order thinking has positive social implications, growing in students their capacities for problem solving, collaboration, perspective taking, and empathy, all critical aspects of a vibrant civic culture.

American history by its very nature is hard history. It requires that we look unflinchingly at the forces that led to the enslavement of Africans, the removal of indigenous peoples from their lands, the exploitation of immigrants, and the subjugation of women. It also requires that we look at the social movements that took root to fight back against these forces, the change agents who emerged from a plurality of circumstances, living out the American creed through their heroic deeds, demanding liberty and justice for all. It begs the question: How have such actions mattered for American society past and present, and how might our own actions matter in the future? Indeed, hard history is an opportunity to reckon with the tension that resides at the heart of what it means to be an American, a potentially transformative undertaking for young people.

The EAD Roadmap is a powerful tool for curriculum development. It issues a clear invitation for teachers to put inquiry at the center of instruction, where students’ full cognitive, imaginative, and emotional potentialities are engaged. If we expect young people to fully appreciate the advantages of democracy, and show themselves willing to fight for it, they must be given the opportunity to experience it in the setting of the classroom. This moment in history, a decidedly hard moment with so much at stake for our society at large, calls upon teachers to commit themselves anew to educating for American democracy.

By Kimberly Huffman

I had the unique opportunity to work on the Educating for American Democracy (EAD) Pedagogy Task Force Committee at the outset of the EAD initiative. It is incredible and exciting to see the EAD Roadmap transformed and applied into daily unit lesson plans that will be easily accessible for educators across the country. Working with the iCivics team couldn’t have been a more collaborative, motivating, encouraging, and supportive opportunity. The iCivics EAD National Teacher Fellowship provided a tremendous and enriching experience for me and I am honored to have been a part of this special project.

After 25 years in the classroom, sometimes we may think we have the “ magic formula” for what makes our individual classrooms work efficiently to hit the required standards. iCivics provided professional development along the way to ensure the iCivics EAD Teacher Fellows were incorporating best practices into our curriculum maps. We studied language, storytelling, media platforms, and viewpoint diversity. These are essential components of lesson planning that I have been omitting. Gaining new insight and refreshment of the fundamentals have helped me create stronger, better, and more engaging lessons. I have been encouraged and supported in designing the best civic education possible for my students.

What I rediscovered through my participation as an iCivics EAD Teacher Fellow is how essential it is to give students questions and sources, so then students can build understanding for themselves. Those answers may differ for various students, but it gives them empowerment, efficacy, and ownership in the answers they arrive at to aid in their understanding. My role is to provide students with the best, most reliable, and historically accurate resources to examine the questions that help us discover our true history. Teaching the skills that can be utilized to find any answers is essential for students in any course of study. They become invested in the discovery. The joy of learning becomes the journey rather than a finite outcome.

Teachers from across the nation all have different physical and social locations, but our aspirations and challenges are similar. I think it is important for each educator to use the lessons we created as a guideline. Teachers can and should adjust and modify to meet the needs, challenges, and interests of their own students. Teachers are the experts in their field and know their individual students. The framework provided is not only helpful for the first-year teacher to assist them in getting started and the substitute teacher who is filling in, but also for veteran teachers wanting a fresh approach that engages students’ interest and learning.

Collaborating with iCivics on the EAD Roadmap alongside other social studies teachers has reinforced and revitalized my commitment to civics and American history education to ensure that our constitutional foundations and civil liberties are preserved for generations. As civics and history educators, it is important for all of us to provide lessons that incorporate the importance of constitutional government within the context of our historical past. It is essential that we keep civic education relevant and real to all students. To provide a full and inclusive history of our nation. Throughout history our government has been challenged, divided, and tested to its limit. It is imperative to understand the vulnerability and relevancy of the U.S. Constitution. Those that have understood our history and have knowledge of our Constitution will become the guardians of our democracy and will preserve and protect it for prosperity.

By Katelyn Fitzgerald

Becoming an iCivics EAD Teacher Fellow was the most impactful professional development that I have experienced in my 15 years of teaching civics to 8th graders. The educators that I was fortunate to work with are some of the most knowledgeable, passionate, brilliant, and innovative people I have ever met. Their love for the content that they teach and their dedication to getting this work done right was infectious. The partnerships that iCivics has with English Language Learners Success Forum, All Y’All, the Library of Congress, and academic advisors from prestigious universities around the country—specifically Dr. Jane Kamensky from Harvard University—provided the perfect opportunity for me to dig deeper into content knowledge and think analytically about what I teach, how I teach and, most importantly, WHY I teach.

The Educating for American Democracy (EAD) inquiry curriculum at first glance can admittedly be overwhelming and dense. But once we dug in, I immediately saw so much value in the work we were doing. The EAD Roadmap makes sure that EVERYONE has a voice and can see themselves in the history of our great country. I was introduced to the concept of reflective patriotism, which is so important at this time in our country’s history. There is so much to be proud of, yet there are many complexities that need to be addressed and understood to get the whole story of America. The curriculum allows for analysis, evaluation, and reflection about our history. It allows teachers to guide students through difficult history. Students are given the opportunity to look at primary documents and encouraged to draw their own conclusions.

The iCivics EAD curriculum does not shy away from difficult conversations. It gives students the tools they need to be able to have productive discourse about our past, present, and future. At a time when politics continues to divide our country, one of my primary goals as a civics teacher has always been to give students the skills they need to discuss the political world in a productive and meaningful way. The iCivics EAD curriculum is the most effective way that I have seen to help me achieve this lofty goal.

I am so excited to see how this curriculum will be implemented in classrooms throughout the country. Having a behind-the-scenes look at how in-depth and complex curriculum is developed has made me appreciate the results so much more. I look forward to seeing how other educators throughout the country adopt and adapt the lessons to meet their needs.

The iCivics EAD curriculum offers the flexibility that is needed to implement lessons in an effective way across many different states and localities. As teachers begin using this in their classrooms, it will be so important for them to realize that none of this is set in stone. The beauty of this curriculum is that lessons can be modified, different sources can be used, and activities can be added to suit the needs of the district or classroom where the curriculum is being implemented. The curriculum was written by classroom teachers who understand the importance of adaptability.

At our final meeting for iCivics EAD Teacher Fellows, I said that my career as a classroom teacher will now be divided into two distinct parts—teaching before my iCivics EAD fellowship and teaching after my iCivics EAD fellowship. Through my work with iCivics, I am motivated to make sure that ALL of my students can see themselves in the history that I teach and to facilitate nuanced discussions. I am excited to encourage my students to draw their own conclusions about history and government by helping them access high-quality primary sources. Teaching civics can be a challenge, but I know using this curriculum will make it even more rewarding!

By Blair Lynch

I am going into my 12th year as a middle school American history social studies teacher. In reflection, I can trace my evolution of growth as an educator. There are so many things I have changed about my teaching practices during that time. In reality, I want to go back to those students I taught 11 years ago and apologize. Let’s be honest, our art of teaching is not refined those first few years! Teachers learn just as students do. As I grew as an educator, I realized that for each new set of students I edited the strategies I implemented, the skills I focused on, even the resources and materials I used. Like a tree, my instructional practice grew from year to year, never looking the same as learnings from my peers and community led to adjustments in my teaching style to incorporate new skills.

The influence of my students has had the most impact on the strategies and resources I incorporate in the classroom. I have attempted to blend their individual learning styles and personal sensitivities into the classroom while also advancing their historical understanding of the content. Next year, I will continue to edit and alter the way content is presented to my students. Serving as a teacher fellow for iCivics’ Educating for American Democracy (EAD) implementation was one of the most professionally rich and rewarding learning opportunities of my career and will greatly influence my approach for tackling the coming school year.

As iCivics EAD National Teacher Fellows, we were tasked with the challenge of developing a generalized curriculum that could be used as a base framework for middle school American history teachers across the nation. The curriculum was designed to be focused on inquiry and thematically diving deep into the material. The student is designed to be the center of the educational learning experience. The EAD curriculum encourages students to move past basic memorization of historical content and to focus on “why” history happened. It emboldens students to explore and investigate the voices of those past generations through a historical lens while also using their discoveries to develop and support their individual conclusions relating to the material.

To finalize our fellowship, we were able to meet in person with all the other educator fellows and stakeholders in person in Boston, MA. It was a phenomenal experience. Who doesn’t love a bunch of history nerds coming together to celebrate the work we have all accomplished?! While there, I found myself experiencing the city with a member of the iCivics team. We found the 54th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial. I had always seen images of the relief, even used images of it in the lessons that I taught on the courageous men of the 54th, the first African American unit in the Union Army of the Civil War. It was moving for me to be there, but then I saw the reaction of my friend. I saw the raw emotion and pride she exuded from seeing the same relief.

I was reminded at that moment that each of my students are individuals and bring unique complexities and perspectives to the material that is presented each school year. Their personal reactions and conclusions to the same material will vary from student to student. My job as their teacher is to give the opportunity in every lesson for students to discover their own personal connection to the material. Inspired by my trip to Boston and the guidance of my co-fellow’s curriculum, I began to rethink how I will teach the 54th Massachusetts Regiment this coming year. It is a lesson that I am genuinely excited to tackle. It will showcase the growth I have made as an educator during this process while also challenging my students to look even more deeply at the sacrifice made by those brave individuals. In an attempted sign of disrespect, the men of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, including their officers, were buried in an unmarked grave after their defeat at Fort Wagner. My lesson will purposefully attempt to bring life to their stories in which we will say their names and give them the tombstones they so deserved.

Teachers spend so much time teaching, it is important to remember that we are also the students. We should continually be working to improve and perfect our craft. Students are the ultimate benefactors of our continued growth, students who will transition to be active and informed community members. Working as an iCivics EAD Teacher Fellow continued to grow my skills and my confidence as a teacher to tackle difficult material and to allow students to discover historical conclusions for themselves. This curriculum will provide teachers across the country with the framework and the professional training to do the same in their own classrooms.