The notion of a community curriculum in Thailand comes from widespread recognition that Thai society has been greatly influenced by the west in its development and modernization. According to many Thais, community curricula are needed to encourage young people to preserve Thai culture and revive local ways of thinking about "development" through gaining respect for local culture and history. This paper discusses an active research project through which Northern Thai teachers conducted research about the local histories of three Tai Yai minority communities. Unlike many multicultural education programs, this one was firmly based on activities that required teachers, members of the majority group, to conduct research about the histories of minority group community members, which included their own students. The active participation of both majority and minority group members encouraged cultural learning. This paper describes the research process, summarizes the teacher-researchers' findings, analyzes participants' learning and shares lessons learned. (Contains 3 footnotes.)