Best of ESD: Integrating History and Current Events & Creating an Open Classroom Climate, with Amber Joseph (East Side Community School, NYC)

This is a re-broadcast of one of ESD's most popular episodes.  Amber Joseph, a public school social studies teacher in New York City,  discusses how teachers can create safe spaces for discussing controversial public issues and how they can guide students to explore potentially emotion-laden current events, such as police shootings. We also consider how history teachers can integrate current events into their curricula.

Ms. Joseph currently teaches 8th grade history and civics at East Side Community School in Manhattan. Enjoy hearing from this dynamic and wise educator.

Resources Related to this Episode

Video Highlights of this Episode (15 min)

Webinar on Discussing Controversial Issues in Classrooms, featuring Amber, Brett, & Others (Democracy Ready NY Coalition)

Amber's Article on Pandemic Teaching (New York Review of Books)

Brett Levy's Article on Generating Dynamic Classroom Discussions (The Social Studies)

Brett Levy's Other Open Access Research Articles

Education for Sustainable Democracy Site

ESD Facebook Page (Please like!)

ESD YouTube Channel (Please subscribe!)


Related ESD Episodes

Voice from the Classroom: Teaching the Capitol Riot in a Politically Diverse High School (with Lauren Collet-Gildard, Arlington High School)

Guiding Productive Political Discussions, with Diana Hess (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Teaching Elections & Modeling Political Tolerance, with Wayne Journell (University of North Carolina at Greensboro)

Engagement & Equity in Civic Education, with Professor Jane Lo (Michigan State University)