The Adoption History Project by Ellen Herman
This website introduces the history of child adoption in the United States by profiling people, organizations, topics, and studies that shaped adoption during the twentieth century.
Alternative Strategies for Family History Projects by Meredith McCoy, Leilani Sabzalian, & Tommy Ender for The History Teacher
Genealogy and family history projects can be an excellent way to foster students’ sense of identity, connect them to their heritage and relatives, and invite students to think about the kind of ancestor they want to be for future generations. However, current iterations of K-12 classroom family history projects often present a less expansive version of family connection that privileges Eurocentric, nuclear, and heteronormative expectations. This article explores how these projects can inadvertently marginalize and exclude students from a variety of backgrounds, including Indigenous students, students whose ancestors were enslaved, adopted students, and refugee students.
Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences from the Heard Museum, edited by Margaret Archuleta, Brenda J. Child, and K. Tsianina Lomawaima
This online exhibit examines the U.S. government aimed to assimilate American Indians into “civilized” society by placing Native children in government-operated boarding schools, far-away institutions where students were trained for servitude and many went for years without familial contact. These events that still have an impact on Native communities today.
Dancing Our Own Steps: A Queer Families' Project by Kath Reid for The International Journal of Narrative Therapy & Community Work
This paper examines the Queer Families project, which sought to explore diverse meanings of ‘family’, and ways of ‘living’ family. It draws on the history of the skills, practices, hopes, and dreams that family members brought to their versions of ‘family’, and uses the metaphor of ‘family as a verb’ to explore alternatives ways of doing ‘families of choice.’
Disarming the Nuclear Family by Willow McCormick for A. Butler-Wall, K.Cosier, R. Harper, J. Sapp, J. Sokolower, & M. Bollow Tempel’s (Eds.) Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality
This essay is about creating a classroom book that reflects the diverse range of students' families using Families by Susan Kuklin as a mentor text.
First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage (Equality): Welcoming Diverse Families in the Elementary Classroom by Selena E. VanHorn & Andrea Hawkman for Social Studies & the Young Learner
The use of trade books to foster discussion of historical events and major Supreme Court decisions in the elementary classroom can serve as a powerful method through which elementary students can begin to see themselves as active contributors to the communities and worlds in which they live. In this article and the accompanying lesson plan, researchers share ways to teach about Supreme Court decisions, specifically the decisions that have affected marriage equality.
Funds of Knowledge for Teaching: Using a Qualitative Approach to Connect Homes and Classrooms by Luis C. Moll, Cathy Amanti, Deborah Neff and Norma Gonzalez for Theory Into Practice
This classic article explores teaching in ways that draw upon the knowledge and skills found in local households. Researchers' claim is that by capitalizing on household and other community resources, teachers can organize classroom instruction that far exceeds in quality the rote-like instruction children commonly encounter in schools.
Making Up for Lost Time: The Experience of Separation and Reunification Among Immigrant Families by Cerola Suårez‐Orozco, Irina L.G., Todorova, & Josephine Louie for Family Process
In the process of migration, families undergo profound transformations that are often complicated by extended periods of separation between loved ones—not only from extended family members, but also from the nuclear family. Qualitative data from youth, parent, and teacher perspectives of separation and reunification provide evidence that the circumstances and contexts of the separations lead to a variety of outcomes.
Queer Decisions in Early Childhood Teacher Education: Teachers as Advocates for Gender Non-Conforming and Sexual Minority Young Children and Families by Janice Kroeger & Lis Regula for International Critical Childhood Policy Studies Journal
This article discusses the use of biological knowledge(s) and fuller understandings of sexuality versus gender as fluid constructs. Reseachers focus on the current challenges for full inclusion as well as anti-bias responses, rather than bully prevention, to support LGBT+ young children and/or their families as well as current advocacy skills that teachers need in order to support children and their families reach their fullest potential.
Queer Families: Valuing Stories of Adversity, Diversity and Belongingby Christy E. Newman for Culture, Health & Sexuality
This commentary proposes three new ways of understanding and valuing accounts of what family means to LGBTQ communities, based on emerging findings from social research studies. It argues that in post-marriage equality contexts, teachers should help students celebrate the differences that exist within every community, including within diverse forms of families.