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

In today’s political climate, how can teachers create safe spaces for discussing controversial public issues? How should they guide students to explore potentially emotion-laden current events, such as police shootings of unarmed African-Americans? And how can history teachers integrate current events into their curricula?

Amber Joseph has been a public school social studies teacher in New York City for about a decade, and she currently teaches 8th grade history and civics at East Side Community School in Manhattan. She love her job and thinks a big part of it is helping her students navigate challenging issues, consider differing perspectives, and realize their potential as civic participants.

In our conversation, she shares her views and experiences, including integrating history and civics instruction, teaching about the Black Lives Matter Movement, keeping it real with students, and what keeps her coming back to teach each year.


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 Open Access Research Articles

Education for Sustainable Democracy Site

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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)


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