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Looking Back to Go Forward: Essential Elements of the Facing History & Ourselves Approach to Moral Development and Civic Learning

The international educational nonprofit organization, Facing History & Ourselves, “...envisions a world where students and teachers realize the power of their decision-making to promote a more humane and informed citizenry. Together, we are strengthening democracy by preparing the next generation to build more just and civil societies based on knowledge and compassion” (www.facinghistory.org).  Since its inception in 1976, the program has provided curricular resources and professional learning to support secondary level humanities teachers and school leaders in reaching this vision. This session will highlight how Facing History’s approach is grounded in moral development theory and practice, including video clips of the founder describing essential elements of the approach and teaching a lesson. We will then engage in an activity that illuminates how the approach integrates ethical, emotional, intellectual and social dimensions of learning to meaningfully inform students’ moral decision-making and civic involvement. Next, we will share results from several program evaluations that speak to its effectiveness. Finally, we will zoom out to describe the current state and scope of the organization’s work with teachers, schools and districts. There will be time for discussion and Q&A.

Dennis J. Barr Ed.D., is the Senior Director of Evaluation for Facing History & Ourselves, an international nonprofit organization that supports humanities educators in preparing their middle and high school students to be informed and ethical civic participants. In his role, Dennis has conducted and supervised dozens of evaluations to support program improvement and investigate program outcomes. He was the Principal Investigator for a study published in Teachers College Record: A randomized controlled trial of professional development for interdisciplinary civic education: Impacts on humanities teachers and their students. Dennis has co-developed theory-driven measures of adolescent social and ethical awareness and teacher development. For nearly 20 years, Dr. Barr taught courses on educational approaches designed to promote adolescent social and civic development as an adjunct faculty member for the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dennis is also a licensed clinical psychologist.

Phredd MatthewsWall is a Senior Associate Program Director for Staff Development at Facing History & Ourselves. In this role, he works to maintain the high level of quality of Facing History’s professional development offerings, especially for events put on in the summer months. Currently based in the Chicago office, Phredd is familiar with many aspects of Facing History, having spent the past 37 years at the organization. He also has a wealth of education-related experience from his time as a classroom teacher, program coordinator, and curriculum and educational consultant. Phredd holds a B.A. in Education and Curriculum Development from Tufts University.