Teaching LGBTQ+ History in High Schools Practical Strategies and Voices of Experience

Meet the Authors
Contributors
Preface
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations

Introduction: The Imperative to Teach LGBTQ+ in Challenging Times

Part I: Why We Need to Teach LGBTQ+ History: Voices of Experience

Chapter 1: Voices from the Academy: Professors as Agents of Change

• Past and Presence in Making FAIR History Education, Don Romesburg
• The Mountains We Climb: Perspectives on Teaching Queer History from a Coal Miner’s Daughter, Sandra Slater
• Why I Teach LGBTQ+ History, Daniel Hurewitz
• Reflections on Lesbian Pedagogy, Bettina Aptheker

Chapter 2: Voices from the Classroom: Teachers’ Perspectives on the Importance of LGBTQ+ History

• The Words We Teach Our Children Shape the World, David Duffield
• Our Pedagogy is Our Movement, Justin Martinez
• “After a Hurricane, Comes a Rainbow”:  Why Our LGBTQ+ Students Need Our Classrooms, Lauren Jensen
• LGBTQIA+ History and the Dignity of Students, Olivia “Olive” Garrison

Chapter 3: Voices in Higher Education: Teacher Educators’ Perspectives on LGBTQ+ Inclusive Curriculum

• “These Walls Aren’t Straight and Neither am I”: Reflections of a Gay Black Professor, J.B. Mayo, Jr.
• Queer Comics as Windows, Mirrors, and Magical Portals in LGBTQ+ History, John M. Palella
• Challenge Accepted:  Navigating the Obstacles to Teach LGBTQ+ History, Stacie Brensilver Berman
• Teach Queer Joy, Wendy Rouse

Chapter 4: Voices of Activism: LGBTQ+ History’s Power to Create Societal Change

• Queer History Over Our Shoulders, Rick Oculto
• It’s a Critical Time to Foster LGBTQ+-Inclusive School Climate and Curriculum, Jinnie Spiegler
• Drag Herstory, Lil Miss Hot Mess

Part II: How We Can Teach LGBTQ+ History: Practical Strategies

Chapter 5: Voices from the Field: Incorporating LGBTQ+ History in Middle and High School Classrooms, Stacie Brensilver Berman and Robert Cohen

Conclusion
Appendices

• Appendix A: LGBTQ+ History Resources

• Appendix B: Recommended Reading List

• Appendix C: Teaching LGBTQ+ History: Contributors’ Advice to Teachers

Biography

Stacie Brensilver Berman is a Clinical Assistant Professor at New York University, USA, and was previously a public school teacher for 10 years. She is the author of LGBTQ+ History in High School Classrooms in the United States since 1990 and Project Based Learning in Real World US History Classrooms: Engaging Diverse Learners (co-authored by Diana B. Turk).

Robert Cohen is a Professor of History and Social Studies at New York University, USA, whose most recent books are Confronting Jim Crow: Race, Memory and the University of Georgia in the Twentieth Century, and Rethinking America’s Past: Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States in the Classroom and Beyond (co-authored by Sonia E. Murrow).

This book is a marvel. And we need it now more than ever. Teaching LGBTQ+ History in High Schools is a book for and by teachers. It features contributions from a wide range of thinkers and practitioners invested in the art and craft of teaching accurate history that also diversifies the voices that we have been told are worth studying. The authors offer personal stories of empowerment and strategy in the classroom, while also laying out a roadmap to help ensure LGBTQ+ history remains a key part of our curricula.

Julio Capo, Jr., Florida International University, Author of Welcome to Fairyland: Queer Miami before 1940

Written by teachers, for teachers, Teaching LGBTQ+ History in High Schools shares theories of pedagogy, classroom-tested curricular activities, and examples proving the continued relevance of the LGBTQ+ past. Most powerfully, it offers the voices of educators speaking from the perspective of their classrooms and with the wisdom of experience.  Brimming with creativity and compassion, the volume combines practical guidance for those who want to introduce or more fully incorporate LGBTQ+ topics in history and social studies classes with inspiring accounts of the positive impact that teachers can make in the lives of their students. And vice versa! At a time when public education in the US seems mired in divisive politics, Teaching LGBTQ+ History brings a reminder of the transformative possibility of schools.

Anne Valk, The Graduate Center at the City University of New York & Director of the American Social History Project