Projects
The Social Studies Network leads professional learning and other opportunities for P-20 social studies teachers to learn about, and prepare for inquiry-based and justice-centered practices.
In 2022, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign joined together under the leadership of Dr. Asif Wilson and a steering committee of K-12 teachers, administrators, and university researchers to launch I3: Inclusive, Inquiry-Based Social Studies for Illinois. The five-year project aims to create and implement professional learning for every K-12 Social Studies teacher in Illinois related to inquiry-based and justice-centered teaching and learning.
In the initiative’s second year, nearly 500 teachers have participated.
Download the Social Studies Standards and the Illinois Inclusive Mandates.
Read about I3 in the news: Faculty Viewpoint, Inquire-Ed.
Interested in learning more about I3? Contact us.
In 2022, over 20 social studies educators from across the state of Illinois participated in Envisioning Justice, Imagining Freedom. The five-part professional learning series, designed by Drs. Asif Wilson, Rachel McMillian, and Jon Hale, led participating educators through an exploration of the school to prison nexus, justice-centered pedagogical praxes, and P-20 teaching and learning. After exploring the concepts in their practices, and the structures of their schools, each educator created and implemented an action plan to dismantle carcerality and center justice in their pedagogical and curricular praxes.
Learn more about Envisioning Justice, Imagining Freedom by watching this summary video.
This project was sponsored by Illinois Humanities. Visit the Illinois Humanities website to learn more about their sponsored program, Envisioning Justice.
.webp?sfvrsn=442651ee_1 "Untitled design (3)")
In October 2022, the Social Studies Network collaborated with El Griot and Areito Project to bring together over 30 educators in Chicago to learn about, and create curriculum related to the Young Lords Organization. Over the course of two weekends the participating educators heard stories from YLO members Omar López and José “Cha Cha” Jiménez, explored primary and secondary resources related the organization, heard from teachers and students teaching and learning about YLO, and designed curricular experiences to integrate into their K-12 classrooms.
Learn more about the two-day workshop by watching this summary video.
This project was sponsored by the Crossroads Fund’s Chicago Racial Justice Pooled Fund and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Chancellors Call to Action to Address Racism and Social Injustice
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Asif Wilson teamed up with Ms. Irene Robinson, Women and Mothers of Multiple Colors, and roughly 20 other parents and students to create a social studies curriculum titled kNOw Your History kNOw Yourself. The curriculum was designed to create inquiry-based and justice-centered learning experiences for K-12 students and their families to explore Black history in Chicago.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, a coalition of Chicago high school students, community activists, scholars, teachers and professors (through the Black Congress) launched the Communiversity (Aviles et al., 2019). The communiversity model launched in Chicago gained traction throughout communities across the U.S. as a tool to bring collectives of people together to both critically read and rewrite their worlds. During the summer of 2023, Drs. Aja Reynolds, Asif Wilson and Rachel McMillian partnered with local organizations to (re)launch Communiversity sites in three U.S. cities. Watch a recap video of all three Communiversity sites.
In Chicago ten families came together across six weeks to explore restorative justice, social movements, and leather crafting. Watch a video about the Chicago Communiversity.
In Cincinnati, 6 exonerees gathered to engage in curriculum deliberation—the process through which educators, students, families, and community members decide what is most worth knowing in schooling and education. Watch a video about the Cincinnati Communiversity.
In Detroit, youth from D.A.Y.U.M. (Detroit Area Youth Uniting Michigan) came together to explore abolition, education, and Black life. As a result of their project, they created an Abolition Zine (with an amazing playlist). Watch a video about the Detroit Communiversity.
This project was supported by the Humanities Without Walls consortium and funded by the Mellon Foundation.