Advocacy for social studies has never been more important. The combination of a deeply polarized country and the continued marginalization of social studies is a recipe for disaster. Although we could argue the continued marginalization of social studies has led to a deeply polarized country but, I digress.

Recently, NCSS released an advocacy toolkit to support social studies educators in purposeful and strategic advocacy for social studies in their district/organization, state, and at the federal level. The toolkit includes six modules. Each module includes a set of slides, a notes document and a collection of resources (templates, flyers, etc.). They are:

• Module 1: Advocacy 101
• Module 2: Building Your Message 
• Module 3: Creating Your Advocacy Plan
• Module 4: Advocacy at the State/Local Level
• Module 5: Advocacy at the Federal Level
• Module 6: Sustaining Your Advocacy Plan

As you dive in you may think, "this is a lot" and it is. So, I want to help unpack the “big ideas” in the first module- Advocacy 101. I will continue to do this in a few of my upcoming TSSP articles. 

1. Use the Three Ps of Advocacy to Focus Your Efforts
They are:

• Purpose - The Why. Have a clear understanding of what is needed. 
• Preparation - You must know the issue and have data to back up the why.
• Persistence - Accomplishing advocacy goals takes time- sometimes a lot of time. As you begin to work towards bringing awareness to your goals, it is essential that you understand that change rarely happens overnight. Being an advocate requires developing interpersonal relationships and a variety of communication mediums to garner support.

2. Understand the concept of Little a versus Big A advocacy
We often think of advocacy as synonymous with lobbying, but this is far from true. Big A advocacy is all about formal advocacy- meeting with your legislator, reaching out to Department of Education personnel, etc. Little a advocacy is about organizing social media campaigns, writing op-eds in the paper, building relationships with other groups, etc. Both little a and Big A advocacy are critical in order to impact change over time. 

3. Effective advocacy is about creating transformational change 
In Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail, John P. Kotter outlines eight key steps for transformational change. If you think back to the three Ps of advocacy, you will notice a theme. Change takes time and our advocacy efforts must be purposeful and strategic in order to accomplish our long-term goals. You can see an overview of these steps here.

4. My Own Observations
In Module 1, I offer my own observations based on my personal and professional advocacy journey. They are:

• Things that stick are almost always based on both the carrot and the stick. 
• Individuals/organizations who are organized and persistent get their way.
• Individuals/organizations who understand all aspects of “the system” are the most successful. 
• Individuals/organizations who have a consistent message, use consistent vocabulary, and connect to other initiatives are most successful.
• State government agencies hate when it looks like they are behind other states. Have data to show comparisons. 

As you begin your own advocacy journey, I hope the NCSS Advocacy Toolkit is helpful. I will focus on Module 2- Building Your Message, in my next TSSP message. Share your own advocacy story by tweeting me @srwteacher or NCSS @NCSSNetwork.