Creating and Using Historic Decisions Issue Guides

May 25, 2022

An online introduction

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. ET Panel Discussion via Zoom

3:00- 3:30 p.m. ET Networking among participants

Join the National Issues Forums Institute for an online introduction to naming, framing, and deliberating historic decisions, featuring insights and experiences of educators across the country who have participated in cooperative research projects with the Kettering Foundation over the past seven years.

Historic decisions forums allow participants to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of various approaches to a past problem and to develop new insights into history and to the role of citizens, making these experiences particularly valuable for middle school, high school, and college students as well as the general public.

The workshop panel will be facilitated by Mark Wilson, Director, The Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities, Auburn University, and Cristin Brawner, community engagement consultant and associate, Kettering Foundation.

Panelists include--

Gabrielle Lamplugh

Communications Director, Mikva Challenge & Former Director of Education for the David Mathews Center for Civic Life

Magdalena Mieri

Director, Special Initiatives, and Director, Program in Latino History and Culture, Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Nicole Moore

Director of Education, National Center for Civil and Human Rights

Clare Shubert

Capstone Director, Junior Achievement of the Michigan Great Lakes & Former Director of Engagement and Programming, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation

Sarah S. Wilson

Director of Education, Autry Museum of the American West

To learn more about the historic decisions initiative, click here to read “Historic Decisions: Looking Deliberatively at the Past” by Joni Doherty, Connections 2020.

For examples of historic decisions issue guides, click here.

For information on deliberative forums, click here.

About Deliberation in National Issues Forums

National Issues Forums issue guides are designed to stimulate public deliberation, which is a way of making decisions together that is different from discussion or debate. The purpose of deliberative forums is to inform collective action. As citizens, we have to make decisions together before we can act together, whether with other citizens or through legislative bodies. Acting together is essential for addressing problems that can't be solved by one group of people or one institution. These problems have more than one cause and therefore have to be met by a number of mutually reinforcing initiatives with broad public participation.

About the National Issues Forums Institute

The National Issues Forums Institute's mission is to promote the use of public deliberation in schools, colleges, civic organizations, and religious institutions in the United States. The institute's board members are volunteers drawn from leaders in government, colleges and universities, libraries, civic organizations, the media, and medicine. For more information visit www.nifi.org.