"For all young people, LGBTQ-inclusive K-12 history education promotes civic engagement, appreciation for how past diversity shapes our present, and critical citizenship skills. For LGBTQ+ students, it enriches identity, community, safety, resilience, and success. Contested Curriculum explores the history of LGBTQ-inclusive K-12 history education in the US. What began in fits and starts in activism and educational materials across the late twentieth century led to the passage of California's FAIR Education Act in 2011. Subsequent implementation in California and across the country has presented many challenges and opportunities. Historian Don Romesburg, the lead scholar working with LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations on the FAIR Education Act and related textbooks and teaching, tells the compelling story of the struggle to make history education more accurate and relevant. The insights of Contested Curriculum are all the more urgent in this era of anti-LGBTQ book bans, "Don't Say Gay" legislation, and attempts to diminish the powerful role that inclusive and honest history education should play in our democratic nation"--
Contested Curriculum recounts the fight for LGBTQ-inclusive K-12 history education in the United States. Historian Don Romesburg makes a powerful case for why teaching about LGBTQ lives in schools can help us produce more informed, more thoughtful, and more compassionate citizens.
Today, many states have proposed so-called Dont Say Gay bills that prohibit public school teachers from mentioning LGBTQ topics in the classroom. But a few states, like California, have taken decisive steps in the other direction. They mandate inclusive education that treats LGBTQ history as essential to the curriculum. At once a history of an evolving movement and an activist handbook, Contested Curriculum navigates the rocky path to LGBTQ-inclusive K12 history education in the United States and recounts the fight for a curriculum that recognizes the value of queer and trans lives.
What began in fits and starts in activism and educational materials across the late twentieth century led to the passage of Californias landmark FAIR Education Act in 2011, ensuring that LGBTQ history has a place in the K12 classroom. Historian Don Romesburg, the lead scholar who worked with advocacy organizations to pass the act, recounts the decades-long struggle to integrate LGBTQ content into history education policy, textbooks, and classrooms. Looking at California and states that followed its lead, he assesses the challenges and opportunities presented by this new way of teaching history. Romesburgs powerful case for LGBTQ-inclusive education is all the more urgent in this era of anti-gay book bans, regressive legislation, and attempts to diminish the vital role that inclusive and honest history education should play in a democratic nation.
