Activist groups are quietly building and placing curricula and teacher training inside K–12 settings that recast history and contemporary disputes through an explicitly activist lens, often blaming broad social forces and urging students to view identity and power through a partisan frame; this piece examines who is behind those programs, what they teach and how those lessons are finding their way into classrooms.
Two organizations at the center of this effort present themselves as education-focused but push a clear narrative. PARCEO “is a research, resource and education center” and Project48 “was created to center Palestinians in the telling of their own history,” and together they have produced teaching materials aimed at reshaping how young people understand Palestine, Zionism and antisemitism.
The joint Palestinian Nakba Curriculum describes the Nakba as “the creation of Israel in 1948” and offers modules meant for single lessons, semester-long study, presentations or workshops. One session titled “Nakba in Practice” instructs participants to “consider the history and material consequences of the Nakba, including what’s been hidden and erased, what’s been built over, stolen, destroyed, and what remains,” guiding learners toward a specific interpretation of displacement and dispossession.
Other sections attack Zionism directly, promising to expose “the pervasive Zionist narrative” with slideshows and lessons about settler colonialism and intentionality. The material frames Israel’s founding and subsequent events through a vocabulary of colonization and erasure, which steers classroom conversations away from neutral historical inquiry and toward advocacy.
PARCEO has also published a Curriculum on Antisemitism from a Framework of Collective Liberation that locates anti-Jewish hostility primarily in the rise of “white nationalism” and links antisemitism to other forms of racism. That curriculum and related guides encourage teachers and students to assess their own identities and power, aiming to center lived experience and solidarity in how antisemitism is discussed.
Several of the resources promote introspective exercises. The “Positionality” curriculum asks participants to reflect on their status in relation to “race, class, power, gender, privilege, role and position” and to “Consider an experience … where you were conscious of your race, class, gender, migration status, sexual identity, or any other part of your identity(ies).” Advocates say, “This is important for creating an inclusive environment,” but critics warn that such exercises push political self-identification into the classroom.
Outside funding has supported these efforts. The organizations involved have accepted substantial grants from major philanthropic sources tied to the Open Society network, raising questions about outside influence shaping local school content. That cash flow can accelerate the spread of these materials into teacher trainings, union workshops and classroom units without robust local oversight.
There are already concrete instances of this curriculum being shared with educators. Educator collectives and district events have hosted sessions exploring the programs, and emails show some school-affiliated staff have invited board members to presentations framing the use of the term antisemitism as a tool to silence discussion about Gaza and Palestine. Those inside-school connections make the transition from activist training to classroom practice easy.
The materials go further, recommending readings like a “Phenomenology of Whiteness” paper that “considers how whiteness functions as a habit, even a bad habit,” and a “White Awareness Handbook For Anti-Racism Training.” At the same time, one explainer bluntly states that “[W]hite nationalist violence has been on the rise in the U.S., fueled by anti-immigrant and racist manifestos, sentiments, and conspiracy theories, such as the great replacement theory,” and it continues, “Jews are among the targets of white nationalist violence along with Black people, immigrants, Muslims, and trans and queer people, among others. Our safety is bound together with the safety of all people, and none of us is free if we aren’t all free.”
Parents and local leaders who want public schools to focus on core academics and neutral civic education should be alert to how activist curricula and trainings can reframe classrooms. The debate over what belongs in K–12 history and social studies is local by nature, and communities should insist on transparency about who is writing lesson plans, how materials were funded and whether alternative perspectives are allowed in the classroom.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators release green smoke as they rally near the White House in Washington, DC, on June 8, 2024 to protest against Israel’s actions in Gaza. (Photo by Mandel Ngan / AFP)
