National Council for the Social Studies encourages teachers to submit ideas for how LGBTQ issues can be implemented into elementary school curriculum

The National Council for the Social Studies sent out an email on August 1st, 2023 labeled “Call for Content” with the goal of adding LGBTQ issues into the curriculum of elementary schools throughout the country. The organization states that the intent is to uplift “the Wisdom and Insights of the LGBTQ+ Community in the Elementary Curriculum.” The goal is to encourage young children into “critiquing societal norms.” The organization states:

An upcoming special 2024 issue of Social Studies and the Young Learner takes up the NCSS call for including LGBTQ+ content in the elementary curriculum in ways that highlight the wisdom this community can teach young learners as well as the insights this community might provide young learners about questioning and critiquing societal norms, values and institutions.

The organization continues to explain that “we invite articles from elementary teachers, teacher educators, as well as community organizations that teach LGBTQ+ stories using the wisdom and insight within these stories to promote deeper understanding of the disciplinary concepts and skills asked of students within the elementary social studies curriculum.” The Social Studies and the Young Learner is a journal published by the National Council for the Social Studies.

Those willing to enter a submission are told to prepare by “highlighting how social studies standards at the national (NCSS Thematic Strands), state, and/or district level can be taught using exemplary and novel LGBTQ+ content” and by “sharing innovative instructional strategies that provide spaces for elementary students to grapple with and learn from the wisdom and insights of the LGBTQ+ experiences.”