By Alex Remmel, UNA-NCA Human Rights Committee Co-Chair
For the past 35 years, Teaching for Change and its Executive Director, Deborah Menkart, have pioneered innovative learning that extends beyond the classroom, challenging traditional curricula. The DC-based organization is committed to inspiring critical thinking. It provides tools for teachers and parents to create transformative schools, helping students learn to "read, write, and change the world." Teaching for Change offers vital resources for K-12 educators nationwide, aligning with the organization’s vision of reinventing the U.S. education system. The goal is to make it more inclusive, accessible, and reflective of diverse lived experiences and “people’s histories,” changing perspectives on established topics.
The organization provides numerous programs to help achieve its mission. Core to it work is a focus on picture books and YA literature. Their Social Justice Books program provides carefully selected pre-K-12 booklists and critical reviews. Their other programs all provide free lessons, professional development, free books, and documentation of participant teaching stories. These include: Teaching Central America, Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching: D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice, and the Zinn Education Project (coordinated with Rethinking Schools). They facilitate connections with field experts and host dynamic in-person experiences collaborating with institutions such as the Smithsonian, the International Filmfest DC, and the African American Civil War Museum. Menkart began her career in education as a high school teacher in Prince George’s County, Maryland, with a keen interest in social justice. After learning about educator committees focused on U.S. involvement in Central America, she began as a volunteer with the D.C. committee.
The committees developed unique resources about Central America. They aimed to help refugees from the region see themselves in the curriculum and to help students understand their new peers' culture and history.
A teaching tour to El Salvador inspired Menkart. Expecting anti-American sentiment, she found that people were critical of the U.S. government, but not all Americans. And despite the extreme hardships they faced, many people in rural communities in El Salvador remained hopeful for the future. This was the type of critical analysis and optimism that Menkart hoped to see generated from curriculum in the United States.
Menkart and other members of the DC committee on Central America formed a 501-c-3. They expanded the work to include other domestic and international issues, changing the organization’s name to Teaching for Change.
Before her educational endeavors, Menkart worked as an electrician in San Diego and was active in the labor movement. She noticed that co-workers who had grown up outside the United States were often better prepared to address the working conditions and to organize. She recognized that addressing any social issue in the United States would require changes in K-12 education so that young people could learn from history to shape a more just future.
Teaching for Change faces challenges including attacks on public education, anti-history education laws, and book bans. These pressures encourage school districts to return to conventional textbooks. The organization counters this by offering resources and events for educators. For example, last year they hosted a Black Lives Matter at School curriculum fair, a Social Justice Curriculum Fair, and an Indigenous Peoples’ Day Teach-In. These events provide a learning opportunity while fostering mutual accountability and a joyful community among teachers.
The right accuses any groups that teach honestly about U.S. history of fomenting hatred towards the country, but Menkart argues that learning about the role ordinary people have played in shaping U.S. history makes students more interested and engaged in current events. Inspired by the work of the UNWRA and figures like UN Secretary-General António Guterres, she seeks greater integration with the UN to contextualize the U.S. more globally in educational content. Menkart advises young human rights professionals to remember the importance of education and to connect with supportive networks. She says we must learn from history and continue to defend human rights. We should not wait for a hero to solve the crises in the world.
Her proudest achievement with Teaching for Change is her team’s thorough vetting of every educational resource they share, alongside forming strong partnerships with institutions like the Smithsonian, the International Film Fest DC, Africa Access, the SNCC Legacy Project, Rethinking Schools, the National Education Association, area school districts, the Phillips Collection, American Indians in Children’s Literature, Empower Ed, and other cultural and educational organizations.
For all of these reasons, we are proud to award Deborah Menkart and Teaching for Change the 2024 Community Human Rights Award, and are excited to see the continued impact of their activism.
