This session kicks off a conversation in the American Historical Review under the auspices of the #AHRSyllabus Project, the space in the journal dedicated to exploring teaching and learning. The premise of the Teachers’ Lounge is two-fold: first, to bring teacher voices into a scholarly journal in a lively and organic way, and second, to offer bite-sized discussions on complex topics that teachers can take back to their own professional settings and tailor to their needs. Ultimately, we want the Teachers’ Lounge to be a conversational breathing space, a place for history educators from higher education, high school, and the museum and library worlds to pause, reflect, and think aloud with others who teach.

The topics of the AHR Teachers’ Lounge will be chosen by the participants, but two core themes will shape the conversation. The Lounge will be a space to talk about both teacher practice and professional identity. Most history educators go to conferences seeking new content, methods, or materials. There is often little space to talk about practice and identity in combination, even though that is the way most educators experience change. For example, teaching with AI is not only a conversation about methods, it’s a conversation about how a teacher rethinks their role in the classroom (wherever that may be–high school, higher ed, or museums and archives). A shift in a classroom practice can often mean a shift in identity, and the Teachers’ Lounge wants to make space to talk about that.

The format for the AHR Teachers’ Lounge is simple. Participants will apply in advance, selecting two topics they would like to discuss and offering one of their own. The AHR #Syllabus consulting editor will collate the top three responses, and participants in the Lounge will select one or two (max) to discuss. The conversation will follow a structure: settling on the topic(s); agreeing to discussion values and practices; having the conversation; wrapping up with takeaways and offering topics for future lounges. The consulting editor will moderate, helping to keep the conversation focused, flexible, and inclusive.

To bring the conversation into the journal, the consulting editor will follow up with selected participants to gauge their interest in continuing the conversation in print (and perhaps even on an AHA podcast). The edited version of that discussion would appear in the AHR. Offering the AHR Teachers’ Lounge at the annual meeting and in print means that the dynamism and insights of good teacher conversation can be accessible to any educator on their own time.