Professional Learning Overview
The Democratic Knowledge Project (DKP) 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.
The Civic Learning Institute offers 4-week online mini-courses on critical concepts and content in US history and civics, aligned with the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap.
The Educating for American Democracy Roadmap is framework to guide the design of high-quality history and civics learning experiences. It was created through the collaborative effort of more than 300 educators, scholars, and practitioners–a group whose members hail from all corners of the US and who represent a broad diversity of roles, perspectives, and ideologies. Six organizations, including the Democratic Knowledge Project, formed the core of this collaborative, and all six organizations offer professional development resources and learning experiences that align with EAD. Click below to see a catalog of those resources and professional development opportunities.
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, 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.
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.
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.
Past Opportunities
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.