We are pleased to share selected Teaching for Change highlights from 2025.
Our work is made possible by the ongoing support of allies like you. Help us deepen our impact by sharing these stories (as well as our resources) as we continue building social justice, starting in the classroom. Please make a donation to ensure we can continue this work in 2026.
In 2025, we mobilized and supported teachers to expose and challenge the well-funded, right-wing attacks on teaching honestly about U.S. history and current events. During our Zinn Education Project’s (with Rethinking Schools) 5th annual Teach Truth Days of Action, participants modeled that a different response is possible. Instead of buckling to a well-funded hate campaign, we can defend the freedom to learn.
More than 80 organizations signed on as co-sponsors, including the National Education Association, American Library Association, Climate Generatiion, Authors Against Book Bans, HEAL Together / Race Forward, Red, Wine, & Blue, and Pulitzer Center’s 1619 Project for Educators.
Keynote speaker Dr. Scott Manning Stevens (Akwesasne Mohawk Nation) addressed the central role of the Haudenosaunee in the American Revolution (in preparation for the 250th anniversary in 2026), while also examining the broader impact of war, resilience, and cultural survival for Native communities. His talk highlighted how Native perspectives are essential to a complete understanding of U.S. history.
Thanks to a Zinn Education Project donor, all participants received a signed copy of the book, Why You Can’t Teach United States History without American Indians. Teachers attended workshops ranging from an in-depth tour of museum galleries to examining children’s books on the Thanksgiving story, as well as hands-on activity inspired by the poster on Native American women and their role in the American Revolution.
Please make a donation to ensure we can continue this work in 2026 and beyond.
Over the summer, Teaching Central America program specialist Jonathan Peraza Campos spread the word about Teaching Central America in conferences and institutes to help grow support for Central American studies across the country.
For example, at Bruce Monroe at Parkview in D.C., there was a schoolwide celebration of learning about Central America with every grade showcasing their work. Coinciding with the school’s first quarter theme of identity, the unit of study allows students to learn about and honor their own family history and of their peers.
Our Social Justice Books website continues to be a destination for teachers, librarians, and families looking for guidance on book selection. Middle school social studies teacher Emma Wolfe wrote,
This has been one of the best resources for my classroom. I reference your booklists, in particular banned books and heritage months lists, to build my classroom library.
As we do every year, we reviewed titles and added books, bringing our totals to more than 790 reviews and 3,800 titles on our thematic lists.
Please make a donation to ensure we can continue this work in 2026 and beyond.
Hundreds of students and dozens of educators learned more about the official music of D.C. through our Teach the Beat program. Eighth-grade students at Browne Education Campus gathered for a special music class featuring Teach the Beat and The Uncle Devin Show.
We continued the partnership with the basketball team, Capital City Go-Go — coordinating go-go educational programs at their games and for their team and staff.
D.C. Area Educators
Our three D.C. area teacher-led working groups (early childhood, elementary, and middle/high school) met throughout the year. They helped plan for the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action and Teach Central America Week, presented workshops and hosted an information table at the Social Justice Curriculum Fair, and hosted Teach Truth Day of Action events.
We continue to partner with Busboys and Poets to host the free Beyond Heroes & Holidays Series. This series offers the opportunity to engage with authors, scholars, people’s historians, films, and peers on social justice education and fugitive pedagogy. This year we hosted a panel of children′s book authors; a fun-filled people’s history trivia night; book talks on reparations, Guatemalan genocide, Black communities during the Civil War; and more.
Eighth Annual D.C. Area Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action
Our D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice (DCAESJ) held the 8th annual Black Lives Matter at School virtual curriculum fair. Hundreds of people from across the country gathered to prepare for the February Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action and the Year of Purpose. There was a rousing keynote by Jesse Hagopian followed by grade level gallery walks and ten interactive curriculum workshops, including: Do Black Lives Matter in the Spanish Speaking World?; Global Histories, Local Classrooms: Teaching Radical Black Movements in the U.K.; Empowering Change: Educators as Architects of Justice and Democracy; and What Color is Your Clock? An Afrofuturist Perspective on Spacetime, Power, & Identity.
The impact of the curriculum fair was evident in classrooms throughout the D.C. area. Thomas Elementary School students from each grade presented performances about Black activists and staff were honored with awards celebrating Black women; fifth graders at Langley Elementary explored Black excellence in food and agriculture; and pre-K students at Tubman Elementary explore the guiding principles through storytelling.
Fourth Annual Social Justice Curriculum Fair
In August, our D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice (DCAESJ) hosted the fourth annual Social Justice Curriculum Fair. Educators from the D.C. metro area gathered to learn about local organizations supporting social justice education, participate in workshops across subjects and grade levels, and learn about DCAESJ in preparation for the 2025-2026 school year.
This year’s fair honored the radical, everyday love that educators show by teaching truth, affirming students’ identities, and refusing to let injustice go unchallenged in their classrooms. Attendees participated in workshops on activist art, family, SNCC, fugitive pedagogy, D.C. history, and more. In between the workshops, teachers visited tables from dozens of local organizations. Every participant left with a social justice book of their choice. Read more.
Zinn Education Project
Our Zinn Education Project (with Rethinking Schools) reached the milestone of 177,000 teachers registered to use our people’s history lessons.
We led a national campaign to Teach Truth on Constitution Day (September 17) as an invitation to think critically about the rights the Constitution guarantees — and the ones it doesn’t.
We developed new lessons on the history of Black education, queer liberation, the American Revolution, the Constitution, and Reconstruction. We celebrated our 5th anniversary of the Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online series, with 60 classes offered in the first five years. We formed and supported a 6th round of 58 Teaching for Black Livesteacher study groups, coordinated the 5th annual Teach Truth Day of Action, and more.
Civil Rights Teaching
We distributed copies of the new edition of Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching to educators in summer institutes and added new titles to our recommended collection of pre-K-12 books on the Civil Rights Movement.
Virginia Interscholastic Association
We digitized the Virginia Interscholastic Association archives held at Virginia State University in preparation for providing public access in 2026.
Please make a donation to ensure we can continue this work in 2026 and beyond.
We had a table for the Howard Zinn website at four conferences: the American Historical Association (New York), the Northwest Teachers for Social Justice (Portland), the National Council for the Social Studies (Washington, D.C.), and the Howard Zinn Book Fair (San Francisco). We invited other groups to join us, expanding our display to feature people’s history in the digital age.
Staff and Interns
During the 2025 summer, Teaching for Change was joined by three interns with an interest in public policy, education, and history. Sarah Goodman Duffy (rising senior, Connecticut College), Bitaniya Giday (University of Washington graduate, 2025 Truman Scholar), and Camila Rios Picorelli (University of Puerto Rico – Piedras graduate, 2025 Truman Scholar) worked on a variety of our projects. Here are weekly accounts of their activities.
In the News
Teaching for Change was featured in Forbes.com, USA Today, Washington Informer, WHUR, and Word In Black.
The Zinn Education Project was featured in the LA Times, NEA Today, Truthout, and Word In Black.
Teaching for Change in 2025
Highlights
We are pleased to share selected Teaching for Change highlights from 2025.
Our work is made possible by the ongoing support of allies like you. Help us deepen our impact by sharing these stories (as well as our resources) as we continue building social justice, starting in the classroom. Please make a donation to ensure we can continue this work in 2026.
Defending Teachers’ Right to Teach Truth
In 2025, we mobilized and supported teachers to expose and challenge the well-funded, right-wing attacks on teaching honestly about U.S. history and current events. During our Zinn Education Project’s (with Rethinking Schools) 5th annual Teach Truth Days of Action, participants modeled that a different response is possible. Instead of buckling to a well-funded hate campaign, we can defend the freedom to learn.
In addition to the activity options from prior years, we created handouts for sites to teach banned history in public places, drawing from Jesse Hagopian’s lesson, Legalize Black Education.
In advance of the day of action, we hosted classes with Jesse Hagopian on his new book Teach Truth: The Struggle for an Antiracist Education and Jason Stanley on Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future.
More than 80 organizations signed on as co-sponsors, including the National Education Association, American Library Association, Climate Generatiion, Authors Against Book Bans, HEAL Together / Race Forward, Red, Wine, & Blue, and Pulitzer Center’s 1619 Project for Educators.
Teach-Ins with the Smithsonian
On September 20, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) and Teaching for Change co-hosted the 9th annual 2025 Native Knowledge 360° Teach-In in New York City.
Keynote speaker Dr. Scott Manning Stevens (Akwesasne Mohawk Nation) addressed the central role of the Haudenosaunee in the American Revolution (in preparation for the 250th anniversary in 2026), while also examining the broader impact of war, resilience, and cultural survival for Native communities. His talk highlighted how Native perspectives are essential to a complete understanding of U.S. history.
Thanks to a Zinn Education Project donor, all participants received a signed copy of the book, Why You Can’t Teach United States History without American Indians. Teachers attended workshops ranging from an in-depth tour of museum galleries to examining children’s books on the Thanksgiving story, as well as hands-on activity inspired by the poster on Native American women and their role in the American Revolution.
Please make a donation to ensure we can continue this work in 2026 and beyond.
Teaching Central America
Over the summer, Teaching Central America program specialist Jonathan Peraza Campos spread the word about Teaching Central America in conferences and institutes to help grow support for Central American studies across the country.
In October, we coordinated the 7th annual Teach Central America Week. Hundreds of educators signed up to participate using free lessons and resources from TeachingCentralAmerica.org.
For example, at Bruce Monroe at Parkview in D.C., there was a schoolwide celebration of learning about Central America with every grade showcasing their work. Coinciding with the school’s first quarter theme of identity, the unit of study allows students to learn about and honor their own family history and of their peers.
Organizations across the country endorsed the week and publishers donated books to give to teachers who shared stories. We co-hosted an online event with UC-Irvine to introduce elementary lessons on Central America.
In D.C. we hosted an evening with author and artist Pablo Leon as he discussed his new YA graphic novel, Silenced Voices: Reclaiming Memories from the Guatemalan Genocide. Leon combines historical research of the Guatemalan Civil War with his personal experiences as a Guatemalan immigrant to tell a story of family, sacrifice, survival, loss, and hope.
Social Justice Books
Our Social Justice Books website continues to be a destination for teachers, librarians, and families looking for guidance on book selection. Middle school social studies teacher Emma Wolfe wrote,
This has been one of the best resources for my classroom. I reference your booklists, in particular banned books and heritage months lists, to build my classroom library.
As we do every year, we reviewed titles and added books, bringing our totals to more than 790 reviews and 3,800 titles on our thematic lists.
Please make a donation to ensure we can continue this work in 2026 and beyond.
Teach the Beat: Bringing Go-Go to D.C. Students
Hundreds of students and dozens of educators learned more about the official music of D.C. through our Teach the Beat program. Eighth-grade students at Browne Education Campus gathered for a special music class featuring Teach the Beat and The Uncle Devin Show.
We continued the partnership with the basketball team, Capital City Go-Go — coordinating go-go educational programs at their games and for their team and staff.
D.C. Area Educators
Our three D.C. area teacher-led working groups (early childhood, elementary, and middle/high school) met throughout the year. They helped plan for the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action and Teach Central America Week, presented workshops and hosted an information table at the Social Justice Curriculum Fair, and hosted Teach Truth Day of Action events.
For the 14th year, we brought filmmakers to D.C. schools during International Filmfest DC. We facilitated classroom visits on documentaries about immigration, D.C., gentrification, and Latin America.
We continue to partner with Busboys and Poets to host the free Beyond Heroes & Holidays Series. This series offers the opportunity to engage with authors, scholars, people’s historians, films, and peers on social justice education and fugitive pedagogy. This year we hosted a panel of children′s book authors; a fun-filled people’s history trivia night; book talks on reparations, Guatemalan genocide, Black communities during the Civil War; and more.
Eighth Annual D.C. Area Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action
Our D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice (DCAESJ) held the 8th annual Black Lives Matter at School virtual curriculum fair. Hundreds of people from across the country gathered to prepare for the February Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action and the Year of Purpose. There was a rousing keynote by Jesse Hagopian followed by grade level gallery walks and ten interactive curriculum workshops, including: Do Black Lives Matter in the Spanish Speaking World?; Global Histories, Local Classrooms: Teaching Radical Black Movements in the U.K.; Empowering Change: Educators as Architects of Justice and Democracy; and What Color is Your Clock? An Afrofuturist Perspective on Spacetime, Power, & Identity.
The impact of the curriculum fair was evident in classrooms throughout the D.C. area. Thomas Elementary School students from each grade presented performances about Black activists and staff were honored with awards celebrating Black women; fifth graders at Langley Elementary explored Black excellence in food and agriculture; and pre-K students at Tubman Elementary explore the guiding principles through storytelling.
Fourth Annual Social Justice Curriculum Fair
In August, our D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice (DCAESJ) hosted the fourth annual Social Justice Curriculum Fair. Educators from the D.C. metro area gathered to learn about local organizations supporting social justice education, participate in workshops across subjects and grade levels, and learn about DCAESJ in preparation for the 2025-2026 school year.
This year’s fair honored the radical, everyday love that educators show by teaching truth, affirming students’ identities, and refusing to let injustice go unchallenged in their classrooms. Attendees participated in workshops on activist art, family, SNCC, fugitive pedagogy, D.C. history, and more. In between the workshops, teachers visited tables from dozens of local organizations. Every participant left with a social justice book of their choice. Read more.
Zinn Education Project
Our Zinn Education Project (with Rethinking Schools) reached the milestone of 177,000 teachers registered to use our people’s history lessons.
We led a national campaign to Teach Truth on Constitution Day (September 17) as an invitation to think critically about the rights the Constitution guarantees — and the ones it doesn’t.
We developed new lessons on the history of Black education, queer liberation, the American Revolution, the Constitution, and Reconstruction. We celebrated our 5th anniversary of the Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online series, with 60 classes offered in the first five years. We formed and supported a 6th round of 58 Teaching for Black Lives teacher study groups, coordinated the 5th annual Teach Truth Day of Action, and more.
Civil Rights Teaching
We distributed copies of the new edition of Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching to educators in summer institutes and added new titles to our recommended collection of pre-K-12 books on the Civil Rights Movement.
Virginia Interscholastic Association
We digitized the Virginia Interscholastic Association archives held at Virginia State University in preparation for providing public access in 2026.
Please make a donation to ensure we can continue this work in 2026 and beyond.
Howard Zinn Legacy
We had a table for the Howard Zinn website at four conferences: the American Historical Association (New York), the Northwest Teachers for Social Justice (Portland), the National Council for the Social Studies (Washington, D.C.), and the Howard Zinn Book Fair (San Francisco). We invited other groups to join us, expanding our display to feature people’s history in the digital age.
Staff and Interns
During the 2025 summer, Teaching for Change was joined by three interns with an interest in public policy, education, and history. Sarah Goodman Duffy (rising senior, Connecticut College), Bitaniya Giday (University of Washington graduate, 2025 Truman Scholar), and Camila Rios Picorelli (University of Puerto Rico – Piedras graduate, 2025 Truman Scholar) worked on a variety of our projects. Here are weekly accounts of their activities.
In the News
Teaching for Change was featured in Forbes.com, USA Today, Washington Informer, WHUR, and Word In Black.
The Zinn Education Project was featured in the LA Times, NEA Today, Truthout, and Word In Black.
In Memory
We mourn the many people who have informed and inspired our work who died in 2025, including Jamil Al-Amin, Wade Boykin, Olivia Cadaval, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Jules Feiffer, Jane Goodall, Nelson Johnson, Worth Long, Bill Moyers, Assata Shakur, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Betty Reid Soskin, Maurice Sykes, Cora Weiss, Grey Wolfe, and Alice Wong.
Early childhood educator Lindsey Allard Agnamba launched an equity fund at Teaching for Change in memory of Maurice Sykes (1945–2025).
Our work is made possible by the ongoing support of allies like you.
Please make a donation to ensure we can continue this work in 2026 and beyond.
Posted: December 19, 2025