photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World photo

Dole Institute of Politics Nov. 11, 2021.

A partnership between The Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas and the National Council for History Education (NCHE) earned a federal grant that aims to support Kansas elementary and middle school history teachers.

The council, with the help of the Dole Institute, received a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education that will support teachers who teach third to eighth graders over the next three years. The grant was one of 85 specific grants awarded by the Department of Education that are intended to support seminars for students and educators ahead of the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding.

The specific project in Kansas, known as Learning Independence and Nationhood in Kansas Schools, or LINKS, will support 50 teachers across the state, according to Dalton Savage, the project director and education coordinator at NCHE. As part of the program, Savage said the council will coordinate with the Dole Institute, the Kansas State Department of Education and the Kansas Council for History Education to help educators better connect the role of Kansans in the country’s history.

Over the next three years, Savage said teachers will be paired with scholars and other organizations who will “share innovative pedagogy” to help them better share some of the guiding principles that reflect the founding of the country — liberty, self governance and national unity, according to Savage.

The Dole Institute would provide resources for the cohort of teachers in the program, with a major focus on adding context to the civic component of history, Savage said, along with visits to Lawrence every summer and the ability for teachers to use the Institute’s archives.

In a statement, the Institute said it was excited to be a partner with the NCHE and the counterparts with the state Department of Education, and its team of public educators will “develop history programming to deliver to teachers across Kansas” over the course of the three years.

Each year, the teachers will focus on different portions of American history, Savage said. The first year of the program will highlight the colonial era to the American Revolution, the second will cover nationhood through the Civil War and the last year will focus on the results of Reconstruction up to the present day.

Across those years, Savage said the project will take teachers on “field experiences” that relate to the topic of the year, including historic sites in Boston and a bus tour around Kansas. He said the tour in Kansas would highlight key sites along the Santa Fe trail, and how the founding principles helped guide the settlement across Kansas.

Savage said the council hopes the program can build a network for teachers that empowers educators to share what they learned through this program to help foster collaboration in teaching history across Kansas.

Savage said the council also hopes the program can help teachers build a community and create a network across the state and empower educators to share what they learned through the program with their peers within the school setting or at a state-level conference.

“We are looking forward to continuing to work in Kansas and expand our network of learning,” Savage said.

Teachers interested in the program can reach out to NHCE or the Kansas State Department of Education for an application, Savage said.