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Inclusive Civics Education

A racially diverse group of high school students smile as they stand in front of the teachers at the 2018 Civics Education Institute. A girl stands in front of the others, speaking into a microphone.
Students co-lead 2018 Massachusetts Civics Education Institute of the Department of Elementary & Secondary Education.

Support All Learners in Civics

Reform to Equal Rights: K-12 Disability History Curriculum features lessons to support inclusive civic engagement projects in grades 6-8 & grades 9-12. Includes information on civics projects for disability rights.  

 

High school student aids teachers in curriculum writing.
Students lead inclusive civic education.

Emerging America strives to ensure that every student has support to participate in civics education including civics projects in the community. 

Civic engagement and service-learning engage diverse learners in authentic work that motivates because it matters in the world. Emerging America founder, Rich Cairn, has been a national leader in community-based learning since the 1980s. 

Unfortunately, students with disabilities are too often deprived of civics education. (See Emerging America blog posts by Rich Cairn and by Leah Bueso.) Civics programs are finally beginning to turn attention to inclusion of students with disabilities. 

Emerging America offers many resources through the Accessing Inquiry digital clearinghouse that support inclusive instruction in civics and history. The page below features exciting resources focused especially on inclusion in civic education. Contact us about workshops and courses.

 

Disability History & Civics Extension to the EAD Roadmap

Emerging America is a proud sponsor of the 2021 Educating for American Democracy Roadmap. This vital framework raises the profile of history and civics education across grades and advances the central role of inquiry.  

With the Learning Disabilities Association of America, Emerging America helped draft an Educating for American Democracy Roadmap Disability History and Civics Extension. This document presents a framework and penetrating questions to guide both the inclusion of students with disabilities in civics and of a narrative of people with disabilities across American history and civic life. Emerging America published the Reform to Equal Rights: K-12 Disability History Curriculum to support both these goals. 

View the recording of a joint webinar, "Creating an Inclusive Civic and History Education for All: Educating for American Democracy," from March 25, 2021, including Louisiana teacher Kim Eckert. 

     

    ​A hand with a marker writes on a selfie poster for the teach disability history campaign.​

     

    Join the #TeachDisabilityHistory campaign! Led by youth and young adults from Easterseals Massachusetts. Link to the campaign. 

     

     

       

       

      Essential Tools for Inclusive Civic Engagement

      The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released an inclusive version of its Civics Project Guidebook, This is the most effective and useful support for civics projects available, including recommendations from Emerging America. 

       

      Other Resources to Support Inclusion in Civics:

       

       

      “You don’t have to carry a sign to support others in the movement. You can bake cookies for the meeting and that’s very important.”  - Interview with Crip Camp Documentary Filmmaker Jim LeBrecht 


      Library of Congress TPS Civics Apps

      Many of Emerging America's colleagues in the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Consortium have developed exciting apps and curriculum on civics education. Find additional apps from the Library of Congress TPS program at these links:

      History's Mysteries: Historical Inquiry for Elementary Classrooms
      Computer screen showing History's Mysteries website.
      History's Mysteries is a ready-to-use program for classrooms and remote instruction. Veteran and award-winning educators Laurie Risler and Kelley Brown–decade-long teacher coaches with Emerging America–created this inquiry-based K-5 curriculum featuring primary sources from the Library of Congress and Massachusetts collections. 
      Citizen U - The Barat Education Foundation
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      Citizen U is a multidisciplinary, inquiry-based civics curriculum using primary sources for elementary, middle, and high school students to foster civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions.

      Casemaker - Bean Creative
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      Case Maker features twenty pre-made civics challenges that teachers can share with their 6th-8th-grade students, or customize and annotate specifically for their needs.

      DBQuest - iCivics
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      DBQuest introduces students to major questions in civics and history using a Big Question as guiding light for deep examination of three selected primary sources from the Library.

      Engaging Congress - Indiana University
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      Engaging Congress is a fun, interactive game that uses primary sources to explore the basic tenets of representative government and the challenges they face in contemporary society.

      KidCitizen - Muzzy Lane Software
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      Kid Citizen features episodes in which children interactively explore Congress and civic engagement through historical primary sources, connecting what they find with their daily lives.

      Eagle Eye Citizen - George Mason University
      "logo for Eagle Eye Citizen"

      Eagle Eye Citizen is a digital resource that helps middle and high school students think critically about Congress, civic participation, and American history using primary sources from the Library.

      Upcoming Workshops


      April 9, 2024 - Sponsored by the Learning Disabilities Association of America  This one-hour workshop empowers Special Education teachers to foster supportive…
      July 15 - 8:30am - 3pm - Collaborative for Educational Services, 97 Hawley Street, Northampton, Massachusetts. Register.