Professional Learning Overview
The Democratic Knowledge Project (DKP) at the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics offers research-based curricular materials and professional learning opportunities that support educating for constitutional democracy. We have partnered with Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education to design and deliver high quality, engaging opportunities to delve into civic education that is grounded in the day-to-day work of teachers.
Past to Present is a week-long summer institute that aims to support K-12 educators in teaching about the history of enslavement, its legacies and related contemporary controversies in the classroom. The institute is co-designed and presented by the Democratic Knowledge Project, Project Zero, and Educational Ethics.
The Civic Summer Institute for Learning and Teaching aims to create a powerful learning community of civics teachers from across the country who share effective practices and distill guiding principles that help to inform and enrich civic learning for educators nationwide.
This in-person institute provides Massachusetts educators with an introduction to the DKP’s 8th grade civics curriculum, including a focus on its core pedagogies and the instructional strategies embedded within it.
The DKP team has multiple examples of student-led civic projects implemented in classrooms in Massachusetts. We offer a multi-district approach for professional development and supports that combines both virtual and in-person opportunities at Harvard University, as well as approaches that bring the DKP team to a district with more local opportunities for in-person supports.
The DKP’s onling learning course, “We the People: Civic Engagement in a Constitutional Democracy”, is freely available to any learner anywhere in the world. Through this course, participants will gain a foundational knowledge of American constitutional democracy and understand how to encourage others to explore their own civic paths, while in parallel crafting one’s own civic voice and identity.
DKP curricular materials and professional learning opportunities are aligned with the Educating for American Democracy (EAD) Roadmap
The DKP, in partnership with Project Zero and the MA Dept of Elementary and Secondary Education, are supporting teacher-designed and led K-12 Civics Pathways in Massachusetts. These new civics professional learning opportunities will let MA educators personalize participation according to needs, learning preferences, and schedules.