Toolbox Project
Many Facing History educators, as well as scholars and activists, refer to the “tools” that individuals, groups and institutions use to create change - to further civil rights or prevent genocide, for example. These tools might be political, economic, social or psychological in nature, and we often study how people have used them to create positive and negative change. For example, marches and rallies were used by the Nazis to garner support and loyalty. Yet, leaders of the civil rights movements also used marches, such as the March on Washington, to attract attention to their cause.
The scholar Samantha Power, author of A Problem from Hell: America & the Age of Genocide, has suggested that, in dealing with foreign policy and, in particular, genocide, governments imagine a toolbox at their disposal. Each tool in this toolbox would represent a different kind of intervention at the disposal of that government: economic sanctions, condemnation of the genocidaires, military intervention, etc. The problem has been, however, that too often governments and international bodies fail to open these toolboxes. According to Power, the systems, or toolboxes, that may have been designed to prevent genocide far too often "shut down" at precisely the moment when they need to operate. For Power,
You would think that the bigger the crime, you know, the more you would move along this continuum towards the more robust options. But it's almost as though (it's very human in fact, sort of anthropomorphized at the governmental level), it's almost as though the worse the crime, the more likely we are to say, 'Ugh, who can even begin to go there,' and begin to think about making a difference when you have, you know, 8,000 people being murdered a day and bodies, like piling up around the US embassy and other outposts. So if the toolbox--if you think of foreign policy as a toolbox, where you've got all these instruments that you use at difference circumstances, different times, and it's not all or nothing--the toolbox stays shut again and again in the face of genocide.
According to one Facing History teacher, the "image of a toolbox makes real the choices that governments have in dealing with these seemingly overwhelming atrocities and suggests that by carrying a toolbox, we are required to use the tools at our disposal." The toolbox metaphor can be used to represent the resources institutions, governments, communities and/or individuals, including themselves, have to make a difference in society.
There are many ways to incorporate toolboxes in the classroom. Students can “build” toolboxes as a brainstorming activity, providing a stepping-stone to an essay or class discussion. Students can actually construct 3-dimensional toolboxes as well. Toolbox projects can be based on content covered in class and/or additional research. When students are asked to explain, using evidence, how particular tools can help achieve specific goals (e.g. preventing genocide, nurturing citizenship, strengthening democracy, advancing civil rights, etc.), Toolbox Projects provide an effective way to evaluate student learning at the end of a Facing History unit or course.
Step One: Introduce the toolbox metaphor
The toolbox metaphor is particularly effective with students because it is easy for most of them to imagine a physical toolbox. You might begin by asking students to brainstorm the purpose of a toolbox and the items that typically are placed inside of one. After students consider how toolboxes are used to build and fix physical structures, ask them to imagine a figurative toolbox that includes tools that can be used to build and fix our communities – local, global and national. You can make this point more specific by linking it to the particular content you are studying.
Step Two: Decide the kind of toolbox that students will be building
Different tools are needed to address different goals. You might align the toolbox with a specific purpose. For examples, students can consider the different tools that may go into each of these toolboxes:
Toolbox for Justice
Toolbox for Democracy
Toolbox for Citizenship
Toolbox for Responding to Difference
Toolbox for Participation
Toolbox for Genocide Prevention
Toolbox for Social Responsibility
Toolbox for Upstanders
Depending on your unit of study, exploring some of these toolboxes may be more appropriate than others. You might focus on only one, such as “Toolbox for Justice,” or you might allow your students to decide the toolbox that is most needed for a given situation or most important to them.
Step Three: Define key term (focus of the toolbox)
A beginning step should include having students clearly define the purpose of their toolbox. In other words, if students are building a “Toolbox for Citizenship” they need to be able to define what citizenship means to them (hopefully building on the definitions of others). This definition step can be done as an individual or whole class activity.
Step four: Identifying tools
Once students have a clear focus for their toolbox, they can begin identifying tools that can help work toward this goal. Depending on how much time you have and the scale of this project, this can be done as a brief brainstorming exercise. Or, students could spend days or weeks researching the tools that have been used during particular periods of history to achieve this goal. For example, if students are creating a “Toolbox for Civil Rights,” they might explore what individuals, groups and institutions did during the Civil Rights Movement.
Step five: Building the toolbox
After students have a list of potential tools, you might ask them to prioritize by having them select a certain number (5-10) that they would put in their toolbox. For each tool they include you might ask them to define the tool, explain its purpose, provide evidence of its usefulness, and describe how it might be used effectively. They might also present cautions or warnings for how the tool could be misused.
Toolboxes can be presented in many formats. They can be as simple as a list of items that students explain to the class. Or, they can be actual 3-dimensional structures with physical items representing each tool. Some teachers may ask students to write an essay to accompany their toolbox.
Step six: Sharing toolboxes
Students can learn a great deal from seeing each other’s toolboxes. You might have students pair up to discuss their choices with a partner. Or, students could showcase their toolboxes to the whole class, as an exhibit or oral presentations. You might use a graphic organizer or prompts to help students compare and contrast the different toolboxes.
Step seven: Debriefing and building new knowledge
What tools are the most popular? Why might that be the case?
What stands out to them about a particular toolbox?
What questions do the toolboxes raise for them? Which tools seem most accessible? To whom? Who might not have access to these tools? Why?
Which tools seem out of their reach at the moment and what could be done to gain access to them?
After viewing other toolboxes, what changes, if any, would they make to their own?
These are examples of questions that can be used to structure a conversation about the toolboxes. Before the discussion, students can reflect in their journals about what they observed. One way to conclude this activity is to have the whole class build a toolbox together, selecting tools from the different student-created toolboxes.
“Building a Toolbox for Difference” is an example of a lesson plan that incorporates the toolbox project.
To see toolboxes created by Facing History students, click here.
