Tracing Center Programs for Educational Settings
Our educational programs help students, staff and teachers in elementary, middle and high schools, colleges and universities, explore the history and legacy of race and more effectively address issues of race and identity today.
These programs may be offered individually, or in any combination, and can easily be tailored to the needs of individual instructors or institutions:
- Film screening and facilitated dialogue
Screening of our PBS documentary, Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North (either the 86-min. theatrical release or the 51-min., discussion-length version), followed by facilitated dialogue led by a speaker who appears in the film. Suitable for a campus-wide event, a school assembly, or for classroom visits or other small-group settings.
- Lecture or presentation
We are available for lectures and presentations on topics including historical complicity in slavery, the connections between that history and the present, and the myriad ways in which race impacts our contemporary society. We strongly encourage formats which allow for robust dialogue during the program.
- Classroom visit
Rather than offering lectures and question-and-answer sessions, we generally recommend that our visits to individual classrooms center around facilitated dialogue, in which students are encouraged to share their own knowledge and perspectives, while trained facilitators introduce new information and perspectives into the conversation in organic and respectful ways. The subject matter of each visit can be tailored for the particular class or the interests of individual faculty members, such as appropriate topics in history or civics, more advanced subjects such as social science or psychology, or any combination of issues of race, privilege, class, or diversity more broadly.
- Professional development workshop for educators
This workshop provides educators with information about the history of race in the United States, and to issues of privilege, race, and class; offers specific tools for facilitating sensitive classroom dialogues; helps instructors to become comfortable themselves in addressing these issues in the classroom; and inspires educators to include these issues and https://www.tracingcenter.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=3336&action=editdialogues in their own curricula with diversity in mind.
- “From Emancipation to Equality: The Unfinished Business of Civil War and Civil Rights”
This program commemorates the 150th anniversary of Emancipation and the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement, and explores our nation’s racial progress and the work that remains to be done, featuring a multimedia presentation and facilitated audience discussion. How can we better understand the role of the North, and indeed the entire nation, in slavery, the Civil War, and the civil rights movement? How can we overcome enduring obstacles to racial healing and equity, and address critical social issues today?
- Training in diversity for leadership
This workshop provides boards of education or educational administrators and staff at any level with training in issues of diversity, privilege, race, and class. The focus is on understanding important concepts as well as becoming comfortable with one’s own issues of identity and with interacting with others on sensitive matters touching on identity and privilege.
- Advanced workshop on diversity and privilege
This workshop is aimed at students, faculty, and/or staff who already have a basic understanding of issues of race, privilege, and diversity and wish to work further on these issues. One goal of the session is to allow participants to go further in unpacking their own issues related to diversity and privilege, with the aid of trained facilitators. Another goal is to learn about powerful stumbling blocks to teaching diversity, such as common public misconceptions and countervailing narratives, and how these challenges can be met with effective messaging and other techniques.
“Thank you for sharing your family’s story about the slave trade. It was an inspirational experience. You engaged us with the power and personal meaning of the account with the video and then made it human with your sensitive, intelligent, compassionate, and courageous dialogue. You helped us see a familiar historical event from a new perspective and helped us see its impact on our lives today and what we might do to address the inequities it created.”
“Your presentation was one of the most moving I have ever attended.”
— David Costello, Head of School, St. Peter’s School, Philadelphia
