These were the questions Elizabeth Burbridge, AP U.S. history teacher at Woodward Academy (GA), asked her colleagues as part of an opportunity to relearn U.S. history. Burbridge, who also teaches courses in modern world history and multiethnic diversity studies, has been working since 2016 to decolonize and diversify her curriculum and wanted to share what she was learning with her colleagues. So she developed a course, much like the one she was teaching her 10th and 11th grade students, for her fellow teachers and administrators. To publicize the course and solicit participation, she sent an announcement through an app the school uses for community events.
In January 2021, she started teaching AP U.S. history to 56 of her colleagues—including math, world languages, and English teachers as well as college counselors, advancement officers, and other administrators. Participants earn professional development points—and points toward gift cards and other rewards. The class, which highlights material in Burbridge’s AP course—but condensed and modified for adults—met via Zoom nine times every two weeks for an hour on Monday evenings. It included assigned readings on settler colonialism; podcast episodes from The New York Times’ 1619 Project and Burbridge’s own podcast, Footnoting History; and homework assignments posted to a PowerSchool discussion forum or on a group Padlet.
“We are creating a community within our community of adults educated in that inclusive education that we didn’t have,” says Burbridge, who plans to teach the course again next year.
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