From late January through early March, ALBA faculty once again partnered with the Massachusetts-based Collaborative for Educational Services to offer a five-week, online professional development institute for teachers. The workshop drew an enthusiastic and committed group of teachers from the United States and Spain, who developed engaging lesson plans to incorporate the history of anti-fascism into their curricula and establish meaningful links with the present.

ALBA is offering another five-week online teacher workshop this summer. Details below; register here by June 28.

ALBA’s New York Workshop, 2017.

The United States and World Fascism: Human Rights from the Spanish Civil War to Nuremberg and Beyond

A five-week online teacher workshop

What is fascism? Where did it come from? How does it impact human rights? What is anti-fascism and how did it arise? How did ideology shape the Spanish Civil War and WWII? What legacies did they pass on in the decades since–in Spain, the U.S., Europe, and globally?

Examine the history of world fascism from its peak in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and WWII in Europe (1939-1945) through the Nuremberg Trials (1945-1946) to today. Study and discuss the impact of fascist thought and action on human rights through that decade of war, to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the post-WWII era, with effects that reach into neo-Nazi, White Supremacist, and other present-day far-right movements in Europe, America, and around the globe.

Participants will:

• Delve into a compelling mix of primary sources: letters, propaganda posters, photographs, film, literature, and including trial documents and laws
• Experience hands-on, inquiry-based activities to engage students with this powerful political and philosophical subject
• Utilize practical tools to facilitate classroom discussion and student analysis of controversial topics and of bias
• Trace links throughout U.S. and World History, Civics and Government, with a particular focus on Spanish language and culture (around the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath)
• Create standards-based classroom activities to engage students with this unique and compelling era and its enormous impact
• Learn powerful strategies to teach content and literacy

This fully online workshop runs for five weeks, during which participants will read and view primary and secondary source material and post regularly in a discussion forum. We will meet in four live webinars (July 8, 15, 29, and August 5, 2021, 4:00pm – 5:15pm; there will be a fifth optional webinar in Spanish (August 5, 2021, 5:15pm – 6:30pm). Participants will also research and create a lesson plan or course syllabus to apply learning. Live webinar sessions. All sessions will be recorded.

This workshop, offered in English with Spanish-language breakout sessions, features resources and free curriculum from the Library of Congress and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. For Social Studies Teachers, and Spanish and other World Language Teachers, Grades 4-12. 22.5 PDPs or 1 graduate credit will be awarded to participants upon completion of this training, in addition to outside readings and assignments (as per DESE regulations). Graduate credit is available through Westfield State University at an additional cost of $125. The cost of the training is $42.50 for member districts and $50 for non-member districts. Registration Deadline: June 28. Register at www.collaborative.org/events-and-courses/america-and-world-fascism