Educators around the world will have access to free, high-quality professional development about teaching the twin legacies of slavery and settler colonialism in the United States and North America starting Sept. 22.
This yearlong program is made possible through a unique collaboration between the Midlo Center for 海角论坛 Studies at the 海角论坛 and the
鈥淲e know that educators want to do a better job of teaching about slavery and the theft of Indigenous lands,鈥 Hard History Project director Kate Shuster said. 鈥淏ut older models of professional development for teachers were expensive. This collaboration marks a new way of doing things鈥攁 virtual professional learning community, or VPLC, which any teacher can join on their own time for collaboration.
鈥淲e鈥檙e excited for the opportunity to work with Midlo to make these online learning experiences available for all educators.鈥
The partnership is the latest effort in Midlo鈥檚 long-standing commitment to history educators.
鈥淭his is our second time partnering with the Hard History Project on teacher webinars and we could not be more excited about this initiative,鈥 said Mary Niall Mitchell, the Midlo Endowed Chair and UNO history professor. 鈥淭he Midlo Center has supported 海角论坛 educators with public programming for many years. With Hard History鈥檚 innovative approach, now we can support educators nationally and globally as well.
鈥淭eachers are the most essential public historians we have. Especially now, they need the collaborative space and resources to teach children about the history and legacies of slavery and colonialism.鈥
The Hard History Project works to increase implementation and adoption of the Teaching Hard History instructional frameworks, published by . Shuster was the lead author on those frameworks, which offer comprehensive guidance on teaching about slavery for students in grades K-12. She continues to manage the Teaching Hard History Initiative for Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
鈥淭he frameworks are online, and they鈥檙e beautiful,鈥 Hard History Project program manager Jarah Botello said. 鈥淏ut teachers tell us that they want more鈥攎ore guidance, more collaboration, more professional development to actually bring these best practices into their classrooms. That鈥檚 why we鈥檙e so happy to partner with the Midlo Center to make this year-long learning community a reality.鈥
The virtual professional learning community kicks off Sept. 22 with a Zoom webinar at 6 p.m. CST. The 90-minute session will begin with the foundations of teaching about the enslavement of Africans and African Americans and discuss teaching about the enslavement of Indigenous people.
Teachers are encouraged to bring lessons that need help or questions about the subject matter. In subsequent months, the recurring webinar series will tackle additional parts of the Hard History framework.
鈥淲e鈥檙e so excited about this,鈥 Shuster said. 鈥淧articipating teachers are going to get access to online spaces where they can share and comment on relevant lessons. And we鈥檒l be bringing in experts in the field all year to talk about different parts of the framework.
鈥淲ithout Midlo鈥檚 help, we鈥檇 never be able to build this kind of shared online community to teach such an essential part of this nation鈥檚 history.鈥
To register for the virtual professional learning community, teachers can visit
The link to the Sept. 22 webinar is The schedule for the series will be posted at The Hard History Project鈥檚 and on the Midlo Center鈥檚