Summer Institute for Educators: Teaching Human Rights in a Global Context (Day 1 of 2)

“Human rights education is much more than a lesson in schools or a theme for a day; it is a process to equip people with the tools they need to live lives of security and dignity.”
– Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, Nobel Peace Prize winner

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The National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library

in partnership with

The University of Iowa College of Education

presents a

 Summer Institute for Educators: Teaching Human Rights in a Global Context

Sponsored by AEGON Transamerica Foundation 

The Institute will serve teachers who want to integrate a human rights perspective into their courses and classrooms. New ideas and resources will be presented by the NCSML, which is increasing its focus on human rights education by connecting the lessons of Czech and Slovak history to contemporary issues.  In partnership with faculty at the University of Iowa College of Education, unique insights about freedom, identity, human rights and human dignity will be explored. Professors Greg Hamot and Jason Harshman, and PhD student Andrea Cohen at UI and NCSML human rights educator Nicholas Hartmann will lead the instruction plus guest lecturers will explore specific issues. Attendees will take home many exciting new resources and easily accessible materials, and will finish with a ready-to-go curriculum for their classrooms.

[su_box title=”Details:”]Date: Wednesday, June 8 and Thursday June 9, 2016
Registration deadline: May 9, 2016
Time: June 8, 8:30 am – 7:30 pm; June 9, 8:30 am – 2:00 pm
For: 7th to 12th grade teachers in all disciplines
Place: National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, 1400 Inspiration Place SW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
License Renewal Credit: 1
Cost: All costs are being covered by a major grant from the Aegon Transamerica Foundation. [/su_box] 

The course will:

• Support creation of curriculum and materials to infuse human rights education into the classroom.
• Focus on including global perspectives in teaching and learning.
• Develop lesson plans that incorporate experiences of the past to inform the present by integrating the resources of the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library and its collections, including 300 oral histories of Cold War emigrés.
• Include work with primary and secondary sources for teaching about human rights protections, violations, and challenges across the world.
• Promote the goal of “bringing it home” to daily lives and personal behavior through lessons that help expand and deepen critical thinking, and encourage conversations about contemporary local and global human rights issues that are meaningful to students.
• Promote engagement in citizenship in a global age.
• Include how to teach for global competence and 21st century skills through human rights issues.
• Include large and small group discussions and working sessions.

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Thirty middle, junior, and high school teachers will be selected to attend the Institute and will receive free tuition, meals and license renewal credit. The first 10 teachers to register who live outside a 25-mile radius of Cedar Rapids will receive free housing. Participants will be asked to seek the endorsement of their school principal in the expectation that the principal will facilitate the attending teacher’s presentation to the faculty at their school following completion of the Summer Institute.

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Facilitator Profiles

Greg Hamot, PhD
Gregory E. Hamot is professor of social studies education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at The University of Iowa College of Education. He is also the associate director of the The University of Iowa Center for Human Rights. His work on cross-cultural citizenship education includes collaborations with Poland, the Czech Republic, Armenia, Bulgaria, Kyrgyzstan, and Latvia. Hamot taught secondary social studies for 15 years in the Chicago area before moving into the field of teacher education.

Jason Harshman, PhD
Jason Harshman is an Assistant Professor of Social Studies and Global Education in the Department of Teaching and learning at the University of Iowa. A National Board Certified educator in AYA Social Studies, he has received travel grants to study and teach in South Korea, Japan, Turkey, and Spain and is a regular contributor to Global Teacher Education. Jason co-edited the volume Research in Global Citizenship Education and his research examines intersections of geography, citizenship, and global education in teaching and learning.

Andrea Cohen
Andrea Cohen is a PhD student In the University of Iowa’s College Education Social Studies Education Program. Her research focus is human rights and human rights education. She has been a human rights education consultant for more than 10 years both here and in The Netherlands, where she was also a Social Studies, Civics, and Human Rights teacher. Andrea is currently leading a committee for Human Rights Educators USA, a national network of human rights educators, preparing a national survey on human rights and human rights education. Andrea is a Commissioner on the Iowa City Human Rights Commission and a Board Member of the Iowa United Nations Association.

Nicholas Hartmann, PhD
Nicholas Hartmann is the Human Rights Education Specialist at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library. Hartmann has a PhD in Folklore from Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada, and was most recently folklorist-in-residence at the Southwest Folklife Alliance in Tucson. He was awarded the Archie Green Fellowship at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, and the Folklife Initiatives Fellowship at the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Arizona, among others. His research interest is in public folklore and social justice with folklife education as a tool for community-based social justice initiatives.

Questions about Institute content: andrea-m-cohen@uiowa.edu
Questions about NCSML and logistics: nhartmann@ncsml.org