Making the Framework Fair California History-Social Science Framework Proposed Lgbt Revisions Related to the Fair Education Act
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MAKING THE FRAMEWORK FAIR CALIFORNIA HISTORY-SOCIAL SCIENCE FRAMEWORK PROPOSED LGBT REVISIONS RELATED TO THE FAIR EDUCATION ACT A Report Sponsored by the Committee on LGBT History August 26, 2014 Editors: Don Romesburg, Ph.D., Co-Chair of the Committee on LGBT History and Chair of Women’s and Gender Studies, Sonoma State University Leila J. Rupp, Ph.D., Professor of Feminist Studies and Associate Dean of Social Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara David M. Donahue, Ph.D., Professor of Education and Associate Provost, Mills College Contributors: Peter Boag Michael Bronski Rebecca L. Davis John D’Emilio Estelle Freedman Stephanie Gilmore Richard Godbeer Kwame Holmes Daniel Hurewitz David K. Johnson Priya Kandaswamy Louise W. Knight Mark Rifkin Daniel Rivers Clare Sears Marc Stein Timothy Stewart-Winter Acknowledgements: This report was funded by a generous anonymous donation through the Gay-Straight Alliance Network. Special thanks to Carolyn Laub, former and founding Executive Director of Gay-Straight Alliance Network and Judy Appel, Executive Director of Our Family Coalition. Suggested Citation: Romesburg, D., Rupp, L.J., Donahue, D.M. (2014). Making the Framework FAIR: California History-Social Science Framework Proposed LGBT Revisions Related to the FAIR Education Act. San Francisco, CA: Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History. Main Contact: Don Romesburg, Committee on LGBT History c/o Sonoma State University, RCH 18 1801 E. Cotati Avenue Rohnert Park, CA 94928 (707) 664.2574 [email protected] A Report Sponsored by the Committee on LGBT History 2 CONTENTS Executive Summary ......................................................................................................... 4 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 5 How to Read the Proposed Framework Revisions ........................................................ 10 Proposed Revisions to Framework ................................................................................. 11 Grade 2 ...............................................................................................................................................................11 Grade 4 ................................................................................................................................................................12 Grade 5 ................................................................................................................................................................17 Grade 8 ................................................................................................................................................................22 Grade 11 ..............................................................................................................................................................28 Appendix I: Framework Revision Justifications ............................................................ 40 Grade 2 ...............................................................................................................................................................40 Grade 4 ................................................................................................................................................................41 Grade 5 ................................................................................................................................................................42 Grade 8 ...............................................................................................................................................................43 Grade 11 ..............................................................................................................................................................45 Appendix II: Suggested Revisions to California State History–Social Science Content Standards .................................................................... 51 Grade 2 ...............................................................................................................................................................51 Grade 4 ...............................................................................................................................................................51 Grade 5 ...............................................................................................................................................................53 Grade 8 ................................................................................................................................................................54 Grade 11 .............................................................................................................................................................56 Appendix III: Sources Consulted .................................................................................... 61 Appendix IV: Report Contributors .................................................................................. 66 A Report Sponsored by the Committee on LGBT History 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The California Department of Education will make history by revising its K-12 History-Social Sciences Framework to bring it into compliance with Senate Bill 48, the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act. In 2011, the FAIR Education Act amended the Education Code to ensure that the roles and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and people with disabilities are accurately portrayed in K-12 history instruction. This report, sponsored by the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History (CLGBTH), an affiliated society of the American Historical Association, proposes revisions related to LGBT history. While the narrowest interpretation of law might require addition of a few token LGBT history-making individuals, this report calls for a more transformational approach. Social science education researchers have deemed a transformational approach the best practice for integrating diversity into frameworks and curricula. Such an approach expands students’ abilities to understand gender and sexuality as changing historical categories and as lenses for historical and contemporary analysis. It also reflects accurately the ways that professional historians have come to under- stand historical LGBT roles and contributions. In brief, recommended Framework revisions by grade and theme include: • Grade 2: LGBT families in the context of understanding family diversity as a contemporary and historical reality • Grade 4: Central roles played by gender and sexuality in California’s history as a site of rich, contested, and changing diversity • Grade 5: Variation over time, region, and culture in colonial American practices and laws with regard to gender and sexuality • Grade 8: Fundamental transformations in gender and sexuality in conjunction with nineteenth-century urbanization and industrialization • Grade 11: The evolution of modern LGBT communities and identities; twentieth-century persecution of sexual and gender minorities and the growth of the LGBT civil rights movement Over a dozen historians from around the nation made revision suggestions. They focused on LGBT history but included related material on gender, race, class, and disability. They produced scholarship-supported justifications with suggested resources for teachers. An Executive Committee evaluated revisions and justifications for accuracy, relevance to the U.S. history survey, and grade-appropriate content. The final report had input from 20 leading scholars of LGBT history as well as a number of Californian K-12 educators. Adopting the revisions will make the Framework more accurate, incorporating findings from four decades of professional gender and sexuality history. Related improvements to K-12 curriculum and textbooks will promote an active, responsible citizenry in a diverse society. This report can also serve as a best-practices template for similar efforts toward the inclusion of LGBT history in K-12 education across the country. A Report Sponsored by the Committee on LGBT History 4 INTRODUCTION U.S. lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) history is a thriving field of academic scholarship. Since the 1970s, scholars have created and delved into archives, generating thousands of books and articles, a number of which have earned the historical profession’s top prizes. The field of scholarly LGBT history has, over the past 40 years, established all of the hallmarks of other areas of academic history. It has its own professional organization, the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History (CLGBTH), which is the report’s sponsor. The CLGBTH is an affiliated society of the American Historical Association, the largest professional organization in the United States devoted to the study and promotion of history and historical thinking. In addition, LGBT history has multiple university press book series, peer-reviewed journals, national and international conferences, postdoctoral fellowships, graduate programs, specialized graduate and undergraduate courses, and numerous textbooks geared toward secondary and postsecondary students. Just as February is African American History Month and March is Women’s History Month, October has been established as LGBT History Month. It is increasingly impossible to un- derstand history without