Build civil discourse with courage, understanding, belonging, and empathy.
Discomfort lies at the heart of all learning, especially concerning discussions on difficult and complex topics like climate change, slavery, and police brutality. This book presents ways to help teachers become strong facilitators--not endorsers--of contentious conversations to promote community. There are four themes that arise when exploring civil discourse: courage, understanding, belonging, and empathy. This book is organized around these themes, with each chapter providing:
- How-to tips for bringing work beyond the classroom
- Checklists to guide progress and assess learning
- Exploration of different types of discourse and when to use each
- Steps for preparing a classroom for contentious conversations
- Activities to practice discourse and disagreement
Joe Schmidt has worked in the field of Social Studies education for the past 16 years, ranging from a high school classroom teacher, district curriculum specialist, adjunct instructor to a state level specialist. He is currently serving as a member on iCivics Educator Network, ThinkerAnalytics Advisory Board, National Council for Geography Teachers and the National Council for the Social Studies Board of Directors. While working with the National Council for the Social Studies, he has actively worked on several committees, such as the Task Force on Advocacy, the Summer Leadership Initiative and the Task Force on Inquiry.
Joe has conducted hundreds of hours on researching and presenting training on the importance of contentious conversations in the social studies classroom. He has had the honor to present his research to several state level social studies leadership groups. Joe holds a Masters of Art in Education from Viterbo University and a Bachelor′s degree from the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh in Social Studies education and History (minor).
Nichelle Pinkney has been a social studies educator for the past 16 years ranging from elementary teacher, high school teacher, intermediate instructional coach, district instructional coach and district curriculum coordinator for grades K-12. She has spent most of her educational experience in Title 1 schools. She is currently serving as the Social Media Coordinator for the Texas Social Studies Supervisor Association. She is the TSSSA-2020 District Improvement Grant recipient devising a series of educational experiences for teachers to understand the diverse perspectives of history to implement in their instructional practices. Nichelle has found passion in providing equitable education to every student. She has worked to revise the current curriculum to ensure that it is diverse, equitable and inclusive for all students and teachers.
Nichelle has reviewed several instructional texts and sat on many advisory councils. She works with Julie Stern on the Learning Transfer Team as the social studies specialist, providing professional learning and resources to help teachers plan for Learning that Transfers. She has presented to educators nationally and internationally from the Annual Visible Learning Conference to the National Council for the Social Studies. Nichelle holds a Masters of Art in Educational Administration from Lamar University and a Bachelor′s degree from Salem College in Sociology, Women's Studies (minor) and Political Science (minor).
