College of Education Dives into Memphis 13 Curriculum with MSCS Teachers

November 3, 2024 – The University of Memphis College of Education (COE), in collaboration with the Memphis 13 Foundation, hosted a professional development (PD) session for social studies teachers in the Memphis Shelby County Schools (MSCS) district. The focus of the session was on effectively teaching the newly implemented Memphis 13 curriculum, which was integrated into the MSCS social studies curriculum in May 2023.

“I did not learn about the Memphis 13 when I was in school,” said Chunmeka Wayne, a lifelong Memphian, who now serves as MSCS’s social studies advisor for grades K-5 and 9-12. “Allowing us the opportunity to better share that information with students, I think it’s great, and as a mother, I’m so grateful that my daughter will know more about them.”

Nearly 30 social studies teachers attended the PD session to learn how they can more effectively teach this segment on the localized Civil Rights Movement story. Over the last several weeks, virtual PDs have been held, as well, with as many as 60 participants at a time. One of the Memphis 13, Dwania Kyles, who attended the PD session and helped shape the curriculum through listening sessions with the remaining members of the Memphis 13, said this idea coming to fruition is a great thing for Memphis.

“It’s very important how we are teaching this,” said Kyles. “We are teaching this from a place of love. We were traumatized; our city was traumatized. We never really dealt with that trauma. We’re teaching this to really bring more unity because it is extremely healing for the city and for the Memphis 13 to tell their story.”

In October of 1961, 13 African American children made local history by enrolling across four different Memphis elementary schools that, up until that point, were all-white. The second and fifth grade social studies curriculum that helps tell that story began development in 2021, led by COE’s Dr. Gina Tillis and Dr. Anna Falkner. They’ve since brought their colleague Dr. Crystal Cook onboard to implement an English Language Arts (ELA) aspect to the curriculum.

“There’s so much research about the benefits of when we (implement ELA into social studies) and how it can benefit students,” Cook said. “Social studies is the perfect avenue to (teach ELA) because the content is so rich. It’s not isolated in the ELA block. (The curriculum) helps with building vocabulary and background knowledge.”

Tillis and Falkner say they plan to have more PD sessions in the future.

“What we’re trying to do is inspire more teachers to be part of this collective movement around engaging conversations about our lived and learned school experiences,” said Tillis. It doesn’t matter what grade you teach, but we specifically are looking for second and fifth and grade teachers.”

“I love just how eager the teachers are as they engage and ask all these questions to try and learn about the history of their community,” Falkner added. “Teachers taking these ideas and really thinking about what it looks like in their classroom for students, it’s gorgeous.”

Teachers who attended were paid for their participation, thanks to a grant the group acquired in August from Humanities Tennessee.

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