In partnership with other international centers across the university, the Davis Center will offer a 4-day summer workshop for educators devoted to the production and consumption of journalism across the globe. Journalism, now more than ever, is a field and a concept characterized by continuity and change. In recognition of the larger tensions and questions raised by its dynamic nature, this workshop will ask participants to explore the field from perspectives as teachers whose students encounter journalism in school and life, as scholars of journalism, as consumers of journalism, and as producers of journalism.

Geared toward middle school, high school, and community college educators in the humanities and social sciences (but open to educators in all subjects), this workshop will:

feature presentations by scholars, experts, and journalists on the production and consumption of journalism and media throughout the word;
explore pedagogy and skill-building techniques to help educators and students become better consumers and producers of journalism; and
provide an introduction to relevant classroom resources.

Educators will explore the intersection of journalism and global studies from two major vantage points:

The ways journalism produced in US contexts and from US perspectives shapes understanding of events and communities inside and outside the US.
The ways journalism differs and remains the same in diverse global contexts

The following questions will guide participants’ exploration:

How do the stories we tell, the forms and methods we use to tell them, and the contexts in which we tell them influence our worldview and the worldview of others?
What understandings of the purpose of journalism, if any, are shared worldwide? How do the purposes, methods, knowledge, and forms associated with journalism vary from place to place globally?
How does journalism empower and disempower people in different contexts, both global and local? As consumers and producers of journalism, how do we understand our potentialities, responsibilities, and vulnerabilities?
As teachers, how can we better prepare our students to engage with journalism as the “literature of civic life”?

To support deep conversations around curriculum and pedagogy as well as content, we have partnered with Project Zero, a research group based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Guided by its mission to understand and enhance high-level thinking and learning across disciplines and cultures in schools internationally, Project Zero will help to provide the pedagogical underpinning for this year’s workshop, drawing upon its diverse research-based initiatives, including “Educating for Global Competence,” “Teaching for Understanding,” “Making Learning Visible” and “Making Thinking Visible.”

The cost of participation in the workshop is $50. Unfortunately, the Davis Center and our partnering centers cannot provide financial assistance for travel or lodging to workshop participants.

Participation in this program is determined through an application-based selection process. Applications are due on March 31, 2016 and can be accessed here.

Sponsored by the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies in collaboration with the Asia Center, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the Center for African Studies, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator, and Project Zero.

For more information, please email Cris Martin at clmartin@fas.harvard.edu.