TPS Spotlight: Minnesota Historical Society
The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) leads the Inquiry in the Upper Midwest (IUM) project, which delivers professional development for teachers in Minnesota and Wisconsin and primary-source based curriculum resources for teachers throughout the country, with a particular focus on inquiry, primary sources and culturally relevant pedagogy. View their archived professional development webinars and stay connected with future MNHS opportunities and new resources by following them on Facebook or Twitter, or by subscribing to their History Education e-Newsletter.
A premier resource of MNHS is the Culturally Relevant Pedagogy with Primary Sources collection. Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) is a teaching framework established by Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Each set linked to below includes video modules that demonstrate how primary sources can provide an effective vehicle for students to engage in culturally relevant learning using footage of exemplar classroom teachers and their students. They also provide links to related resources, including video guides, lesson plans, primary source sets and analysis tools, as well as relevant articles.
- Introduction to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Support students with primary sources
- Tenet 1: Motivate Students to Choose Academic Success
- Tenet 2: Tap students’ cultural competence
- Tenet 3: : Examine the Status Quo
MNHS also provides compelling primary source sets that strengthen social studies lessons for students of all grade levels. Each includes a brief paragraph on the sources’ historical context and ideas to reflect upon related to culturally relevant pedagogy.
Additionally, MNHS offers distance learning resources, which include both online and low-tech educational resources.