Teaching About the 2026 Elections

David T. Canon is a professor emeritus in the political science department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He retired in 2023 to spend more time with his family (and especially, his new granddaughters). He served as chair of the department from 2014-2017 and in Fall, 2020. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and previously taught at Duke University. He also served as the Distinguished Fulbright Chair in Tübingen, Germany in 2011-2012 and Debrecen, Hungary in 2003-2004. His teaching and research interests are in American political institutions, especially Congress. His more specific research interests include election administration, racial representation, redistricting, political careers, and the historical study of Congress. He is author of Race, Redistricting, and Representation (University of Chicago Press, 1999, winner of the Richard F. Fenno award for the best book on legislative politics), The Dysfunctional Congress? The Individual Roots of an Institutional Dilemma (with Ken Mayer; Westview Press, 1999), Actors, Athletes, and Astronauts: Political Amateurs in the U.S. Congress (University of Chicago Press, 1990), American Politics Today (with William Bianco, WW Norton, 2025, 8th edition), several edited books, and various journal articles and book chapters. He co-edited a book series on legislative politics with the University of Michigan Press and also served as the Congress editor of Legislative Studies Quarterly and the Election Law Journal.  

Title:  The 2026 Midterm Elections: Historical Context, Forecasts, and Why They Matter 

Description: In this talk, Professor Emeritus David Canon will provide background on the historical pattern of losses in the national midterm elections for the president’s party, present the up-to-date forecasts on whether those patterns will hold in 2026, and explore the impact the midterms will have on President Trump’s last two years in office. He will also discuss the Wisconsin gubernatorial election. 

Wayne Journell is Professor of social studies education and associate chair of the Teacher Education and Higher Education department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His research focuses on the teaching of politics and controversial issues in secondary education. 

Title: Villainification, heroification, and political polarization: Implications for thinking politically about U.S. politics and elections.

Description: This presentation will introduce the concepts of villainification and heroification, which have traditionally been used within the context of history education, as a way to help students make sense of contemporary politics. These concepts are useful for students’ understanding of politics within the current polarized political landscape and, as such, can aid in the development of nuanced political thinking about the upcoming elections. The presentation will discuss ways in which villainification and heroification can be operationalized in the classroom and leveraged for political thinking. 

Sergio M. González is Associate Professor of History at Marquette University. A historian of twentieth-century U.S. migration, labor, and religion, his scholarship explores the intersections between faith and social movements as well as the development of Latino communities in the U.S. Midwest. He is the author of Mexicans in Wisconsin (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2017) and the co-editor of Faith and Power: Latino Religious Politics Since 1945 (New York University Press, 2022) with Felipe Hinojosa and Maggie Elmore. His most recently published book, Strangers No Longer: Latino Belonging and Faith in Twentieth-Century Wisconsin (University of Illinois Press, 2024), explores the relationship between Latino communities, religion, and social movements in the twentieth century Midwest. González’s current research examines the contentious battles over sanctuary movements in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, exploring the pivotal role people of faith have played in developing contemporary social movements for immigrant and refugee justice as well as the opposing political movements that have risen to criminalize these forms of solidarity. That work has produced two forthcoming manuscripts with co-author Lloyd Barba – Sanctuary in America: How Activists Defied the Federal Government—And Why It Still Matters (Oxford University Press, 2026) and Sacred Refuge: New Histories of the US Sanctuary Movement (New York University Press, 2026). Along with his academic scholarship, González is a committed public historian. He’s engaged in several public humanities projects, including co-writing and co-hosting The Look Back, a social studies show for middle school students on PBS Wisconsin; serving as a founding member of the Wisconsin Latinx History Collective; and, co-writing and co-hosting Sanctuary: On the Border Between Church and State, a limited podcast series with Axis Mundi Media.

Title: Latino Wisconsin and the Politics of Integration

Description: This session surveys methods of integrating the century-long history of Latino migration to Wisconsin into discussions of contemporary electoral politics in the secondary school classroom. Participants will discuss the central themes of citizenship, assimilation, exclusion, and incorporation that have framed the settlement experience of Latinos to this state, and the way in which these topics continue to influence contemporary questions of political engagement and civic education.

Jami Hoekstra Collins is an Early Learning Engagement Specialist with PBS Wisconsin Education and a Tier 3 Registry Trainer. Jami is committed to promoting developmentally appropriate play-based learning where every child and family experience wonder and joy while learning together. Prior to her work with PBS Wisconsin Education, Jami taught Kindergarten in Peterborough, England as well as Marshall and Madison, Wisconsin. 

Title: Cultivating Civic Engagement and News Literacy with Younger Learners

Description: As we approach the fall election, news stories are swirling and questions from learners are too! If you’re wondering what to do, how to engage young learners, and resources that can support both, we’ve got you! Join this session to explore inquiry practices as well as local and national multimedia resources to share with 4K-5th graders in your learning spaces.

Slides for Session: 2026_Teaching the Election Conference_Civic Engagement News

Carrie Ray-Hill, Senior Director of Digital Learning, iCivics. Carrie Ray-Hill has spent over15 years bringing playful learning to classrooms. She’s credited on more than 20 games and interactives, serving as lead game producer for iCivics. Carrie collaborates with both institutional partners (Council on Foreign Relations, Colonial Williamsburg) and government entities (Department of Defense, National Endowment for the Humanities) to create award-winning projects for classrooms across the United States. Before joining iCivics in 2010, Carrie taught humanities courses across grades 4-12. 

Title:  Relevant Enough to Matter, Careful Enough to Assign — The tightrope walk of updating civic ed for a polarized world 

Description: Civic education doesn’t happen in a vacuum–it happens in the middle of a polarized, ever-changing political world. This session uses the update of the educational video game Win the White House as a window into how iCivics navigates the tension between staying relevant and staying in classrooms. 

David Olson serves as the Director of Education at Retro Report, a non-profit media company dedicated to connecting history to today’s news. In his capacity, David designs Retro Report’s free curriculum and professional development. Prior to joining Retro Report, David taught for more than a decade at Memorial High School in Madison, WI and has taught Political Science courses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. David spreads his passion for civic education by serving on the executive committee for the Civics Renewal Network, the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Public Education and the executive board for the Wisconsin Council for the Social Studies. 

Title:  Mud-Slinging to Midterms: Teaching Elections with Retro Report 

Description: From 19th-century smear campaigns to the high-stakes midterms of 1966 and 1994, this session uses Retro Report’s free short films and classroom resources to bring the drama and stakes of American elections into your classroom. Explore Retro Report’s five-part “Politicking” series alongside standalone films on historical midterms, with a brief look at America 250 resources on the nation’s founding. Leave with standards-aligned, ready-to-teach materials connecting the roots of political campaigning to the elections your students will one day vote in.

Yubing is a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research examines how students make sense of citizenship and belonging across different social and curricular contexts. Drawing on experience teaching in middle and secondary levels, Yubing works with educators to develop inquiry-based learning that connects historical issues to present-day topics. 

Title:  It’s not just chocolate chip voting: Reconstructing elementary critical civics for deeper learning around voting and voting rights. 

Description: Traditional models of elementary civics education often frame democracy as a completed project. Curricular materials frequently erase issues of marginalization and minimize the intricacies of voting rights struggles, which continue today. In this session, we will collectively examine how these issues operate and then recreate lesson ideas together to work for more complex (and age-appropriate) understandings of the processes and history of voting, as well as voting rights. Participants will leave with a framework for evaluating curricular materials and/or materials found online, a handful of lesson plan ideas and outlines (tailorable for K-5), and select social studies resources by the presenters. 

Mia Forslund is an Education Engagement Specialist with PBS Wisconsin Education. In her role, she collaborates with team members, partner organizations, and educators to develop and share educational media resources. She grew up in Wisconsin and loves that she now gets to work on projects that spark curiosity and creativity in classrooms and communities in her home state and beyond and offer opportunities to learn something new every day. 

Title: Cultivating Civic Engagement and News Literacy with Younger Learners

Description: As we approach the fall election, news stories are swirling and questions from learners are too! If you’re wondering what to do, how to engage young learners, and resources that can support both, we’ve got you! Join this session to explore inquiry practices as well as local and national multimedia resources to share with 4K-5th graders in your learning spaces.

Slides for Session: 2026_Teaching the Election Conference_Civic Engagement News

Suzanne Eckes is the Susan S. Engeleiter Professor of Education Law, Policy, and Practice at the University of Wisconsin School of Education. Much of her research focuses on how civil rights laws impact education policies in K-12 public schools. She is a co-author or co-editor of several articles and books, including Legal Rights of School Leaders, Teachers and Students (9th ed., Pearson). She is a faculty affiliate with the University of Wisconsin Law School and also affiliated with the Center for Law, Society, & Justice. Prior to becoming a professor, she was a lawyer and a public high school teacher. 

Title: When Do Educators Have Free Speech Rights? First Amendment Protections Inside and Outside the Classroom 

Description: What First Amendment protections do educators have inside and outside the classroom? This session explores the legal principles that govern educator speech, including classroom expression, public advocacy, social media activity, and off-duty speech. Attendees will gain a practical understanding of their rights and responsibilities, informed by recent cases and emerging issues affecting schools.

Yoojin is a current doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is currently interested in social justice-oriented civic education, with a focus on whose voices are marginalized in the cultivation of democratic citizenship within social studies classroom. With ten years of experience as a high school teacher in Seoul, South Korea, advocating for youth activism, her work centers on social studies and teacher education. 

Title:  It’s not just chocolate chip voting: Reconstructing elementary critical civics for deeper learning around voting and voting rights. 

Description: Traditional models of elementary civics education often frame democracy as a completed project. Curricular materials frequently erase issues of marginalization and minimize the intricacies of voting rights struggles, which continue today. In this session, we will collectively examine how these issues operate and then recreate lesson ideas together to work for more complex (and age-appropriate) understandings of the processes and history of voting, as well as voting rights. Participants will leave with a framework for evaluating curricular materials and/or materials found online, a handful of lesson plan ideas and outlines (tailorable for K-5), and select social studies resources by the presenters. 

Emily is a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is currently interested in novice teacher social justice praxis and activism. Prior to starting her Ph.D., Emily was a fourth grade teacher in Michigan.

Title:  It’s not just chocolate chip voting: Reconstructing elementary critical civics for deeper learning around voting and voting rights. 

Description: Traditional models of elementary civics education often frame democracy as a completed project. Curricular materials frequently erase issues of marginalization and minimize the intricacies of voting rights struggles, which continue today. In this session, we will collectively examine how these issues operate and then recreate lesson ideas together to work for more complex (and age-appropriate) understandings of the processes and history of voting, as well as voting rights. Participants will leave with a framework for evaluating curricular materials and/or materials found online, a handful of lesson plan ideas and outlines (tailorable for K-5), and select social studies resources by the presenters.