Our Work

Professional Learning in Inquiry Communities

The Initiative works with educators across grade levels and content areas to explore difficult issues through a framework of practitioner inquiry. Our programming fosters a community of learners committed to cultivating student agency and curiosity, centers educators as professionals and provides them with practical classroom strategies and personalized support. Through a collaborative community with their colleagues, participants are supported in implementing strategies and insights into their classrooms. In addition, critical thinking and empathy, their students develop voice and agency in their learning and an ability to problem-solve, all while understanding a difficult issue from multiple perspectives.

The Initiative’s flagship programs engage teachers in a year of inquiry-based professional learning, informed by the latest research and scholarship.

The Initiative’s programs integrate core characteristics of effective professional learning, including:

• Content-rich learning linked directly to classroom application
• Participation in collaborative groups facilitated by professional learning experts
• Explicit connections to the real-world needs of teachers, students, and local contexts
• Positioning of teachers as knowledge creators with agency in their practice

"[This] process is difficult, yet rewarding, because it forces you to think deeply and intentionally about your approach. It’s affecting my teaching by fostering reflection, which then directly impacts student learning."

– Angela Masser, Teacher, Red Lion Area School District, Red Lion, PA

Year and Semester-long Cohort Programs

Our flagship program is our sustained year or semester-long educator cohort centered on difficult issues and student learning, gathering educators across grade levels, content areas, and years of experience in the classroom.

The Initiative partners with educational entities, such as school districts, to offer customized professional learning to meet the varied needs of urban, suburban and rural communities across the country. Our programs include year and semester-long cohorts, workshops and online modules. Participation helps in fulfilling district and state professional requirements, including the awarding of continuing education units. Initiative programming sessions are designed and led by the Initiative’s facilitator team, all with their own K-12 classroom experience.

The Initiative’s yearlong programs involve one cycle of inquiry. Participating educators refine their pedagogical skills, while engaging in critical reflection to analyze their students, classrooms and communities through trauma-informed, asset-based, and contextually responsive lenses. Through engaging in this collaborative professional learning, educators bolster classroom learning environments, supporting students in developing their own inquiry mindset and constructing a more holistic understanding of difficult issues, thus empowering students to sharpen their perspectives while respecting others’.

Activities were student-centered and focused on discussion and reflection, empowering students in their learning.

– Alyssa Hockensmith, Teacher, in Jensen Beach, Florida

Workshops

The Initiative offers specialized workshops tailored to a school’s needs, presented as a brief series or standalones. These workshops focus on various topics relevant to today’s educational landscape. 

Online Professional Learning Modules

We offer a series of free, online learning modules designed to provide flexible and accessible opportunities for all educators:
Trauma-Informed Practices- Learn strategies to recognize and respond to the impact of trauma on students and educators.

Teaching Difficult Issues- Gain tools and approaches for addressing sensitive and challenging topics in the classroom.

Using Media to Facilitate Difficult Discussions- Discover how to effectively use media as a tool for engaging students in difficult discussions.

You can access all three of our modules in our professional learning suite. 

The modules also connect educators with a wealth of resources to use and share. Certified Pennsylvania educators who complete the Initiative’s modules and provide their PPIDs earn continuing education units that satisfy Act 48 requirements.

Research 

Four peer-reviewed journals have published research papers by Penn State’s Hammel Family Human Rights Initiative. The papers illustrate how the Initiative’s programs help K-12 educators address difficult issues such as racism.

The four journals that published the Initiative's papers are School-University Partnerships, Journal of Practitioner Research, Action in Teacher Education and Journal of Teacher Education (JTE). JTE, as it’s known, is widely considered the top-ranked research journal in the field of teacher education. Some of the scholars who independently reviewed the papers described the Initiative’s research-based, nonpartisan approach, which combines practitioner inquiry with trauma-informed and asset-based practices, as novel, innovative and widely needed.

You can access our research at the links below.

• Partnering to support K-12 instruction of difficult topics through inquiry-based professional learning 
• Practitioner Inquiry for Turbulent Times: Learning to Take an Inquiry Stance Toward Teaching Difficult Topics Through a Teacher Inquiry Community
  
• Leaning Into Difficult Topics: Inquiry Communities as Teacher Professional Learning for Turbulent Times 
• When Difficult Topics Bubble Up: How K-12 Teachers Understand Unplanned Difficult-Topics Moment
• Noticing, interpreting, deciding: How elementary teachers address unplanned difficult-topics moments in educational practice

Teacher Advisory Council

The Hammel Family Human Rights Initiative at Penn State is a national leader in creating transformative professional learning experiences for pK-12 educators. The aim of these experiences is to support educators as they responsibly navigate contemporary and historical difficult issues. The Initiative collaborates with the Teacher Advisory Council (TAC) to refine its innovative approach to professional learning in ways that are relevant to pK-12 teachers across the United States and beyond.

The TAC serves as a distinctive platform from which pK-12 educators can influence practices and policies pertaining to professional learning. TAC offers opportunities to share valuable insights about the challenges that teachers and their students are facing, collaborate with other educators who are passionate about teaching difficult issues, and provide incisive feedback on the Initiative’s programming. In participating, teachers help the Initiative develop relevant and responsive professional learning programs and online modules.

Activities:

• Learn about the latest work of the Initiative
• Provide insights and feedback for refining and expanding the Initiative’s programs with teachers, schools, and districts

• Analyze problems of practice using structured discussion protocols

• Engage in book clubs to gain insight into the latest in the field

Benefits:

• Resource sharing with other educators

• Community building across geographical and educational contexts

• Opportunities to present with Initiative staff at local and national conferences

• Support from colleagues to navigate shared dilemmas

Time commitment:

• 3-4 virtual meetings (1 hour each) with TAC members and Initiative facilitator

• Email check-ins as necessary

• Time spent reviewing, providing feedback on materials as needed

• Sharing opportunities with other educators

Presentations

Educators in the Initiative's programs connect with Penn State faculty members and internal partners from the College of Education, the College of Liberal Arts, Penn State Law, the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, the Jewish Studies Program, the Center for Science and the Schools, and the Humanities Institute. These experts contribute content and pedagogy sessions related to difficult topics that participants teach or encounter in their practice. Click here for recordings of presentations by the Initiative's affiliated faculty and internal partners.