MODEL CURRICULUM

​The Refugee San Diego Model Curriculum is currently under development. Unit 1 is available and we invite educators, students, and community members to share feedback. You do not need to implement the curriculum in your classroom to participate, we simply ask that you review the unit and let us know what you think!

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Are you a high school teacher who is interested in teaching about migration, displacement, and refugee place-making in San Diego? 

 

The Refugee San Diego Model Curriculum is a student-guided workbook, consisting of four independent study units and Zine-making activities that combine critical inquiry with creative learning.

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Guiding Questions 

 

1. How do US economic, political, and military policies and interventions produce displacement, return migrations, and transform San Diego into a refugee city? 

2. How have refugees and migrants constructed refuge for themselves and transformed the landscape of San Diego in the process? 

 

These questions shift the focus from refugee resettlement as a purely humanitarian issue to the larger historical and political forces that produce displacement. By drawing students' attention to refugees’ creative and beautiful experiments in worldbuilding and refuge-making in San Diego, students learn to see refugees as social actors with knowledge, creativity, and agency. 

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Learning Approach

Rather than treating students as passive receivers of information, this curriculum combines:

 

• Critical analysis of migration, displacement, and global systems

• Creative production through a collaborative zine project

• Local learning grounded in refugee sites of transformation across San Diego​

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​Curriculum Design

 

• 4 independent units that can be taught together or separately

• 45-minute lesson segments that fit typical class periods

• Minimal preparation required with all materials included

• Flexible implementation for Ethnic Studies classes or post-AP exam modules