Challenge Islamophobia Project Introduces Lessons from Baltimore to San Francisco

Alison Kysia, project director of “Islamophobia: A people’s history teaching guide,” was invited to present at Morgan State University’s Faculty Institute in Baltimore, MD on August 9, 2018. She shared the interactive lesson on “Black Muslims in the United States: An Introductory Activity” with 175 educators and discussed ways that participatory pedagogies like the meet-and-greet can create more inclusive classrooms.

Later in the month, she was in Iowa where she piloted the “What is Islamophobia? A Jigsaw Activity” with 35 teachers.

Alison has piloting sessions scheduled at local high schools and community colleges throughout the fall and all of the lessons in the “Islamophobia: A people’s history teaching guide” will be ready for free download from our website in November.

She will be presenting the teaching guide at the 18th Annual Teaching for Social Justice conference in San Francisco on October 6th and at the 98th Annual National Council for the Social Studies Conference in Chicago in December.

Below is some of the feedback we have received in recent presentations:

The role play is great way to get students interested in a subject before we ask them to go deeper.

I learned that there are a lot of powerful Black Muslims who have changed the world.

Great facilitation, very deep discussion. I am so glad I attended this session. Perfect.

Can’t wait to use this in my 7th grade class.

I never heard these stories before.

I learned that I can go “out of the box” in designing new teaching strategies with inclusiveness in mind.

You got me thinking about how my assignments foster inclusivity. I tend to believe my assignments are benign, but I need to be thinking differently about power dynamics in the curriculum.

Are you interested in scheduling a workshop or class visit? Contact Alison at akysia@teachingforchange.org for more information.