For the first time ever, the Human Dignity Curriculum has been featured in an external research publication.
Dr. Moira Law—an assistant professor at Saint Mary’s University in Canada—conducted this first formal evaluation of the HDC. Her focus was on educators’ experience teaching the Curriculum.
Her findings have been published in an article on Frontiers entitled “Human Dignity Curriculum: Teachers’ comfort, commitment, and perceived support teaching a new socioemotional learning curriculum.”
The study took place in two small schools—a public school in America and a private, faith-based one in Canada. Teachers and administrators from both institutions were interviewed about different aspects of teaching the HDC to middle school students.
The study arrived at five key conclusions about the Human Dignity Curriculum.
1. The Human Dignity Curriculum is User-Friendly
Over and over, the teachers in the study said that they appreciated how easy it was to implement the Human Dignity Curriculum in their classes. They shared that the material was straightforward and the lesson plans were simple and clear, with plenty of prompts and activities.
At the same time, teachers loved how flexible the curriculum was. They were able to bring their own creativity into the classroom as they presented the material. They enjoyed having opportunities to incorporate fun activities that helped convey the lessons and fit their students’ particular needs.
This flexibility makes HDC stand out.
As the article notes, “This [flexibility] is important as previous research on SELs [social and emotional learning] have identified rigidity of curriculum to be a common barrier to effective program implementation.”
2. The Human Dignity Curriculum is High-Value
So HDC is easy to introduce into the classroom. But is the actual material worthwhile?
The answer from both teachers and school administrators was a resounding yes.
“I would recommend this to everyone … hopefully, we keep using it…” one teacher said.
An administrator remarked:
“The high bar for behavior comes with teaching children what it means to be a human being, what it means to be valuable, what it means to not always be thinking that the world revolves around you … [HDC] just teaches that in a very beautiful way, in a way that the children love to listen to. It’s not just a lecture, it’s the little activities that go with it. They get it.”
All the administrators interviewed hope to bring HDC back to their schools next year—and they have already recommended the Curriculum to other schools. All teachers agreed that they would recommend the HDC to fellow educators.
3. School Administrators Whole-Heartedly Supported HDC
The study also found that teachers felt supported by their school principals as they taught the Human Dignity Curriculum. This support manifested itself in three particular ways.
First, administrators trusted teachers to steer their HDC classes and didn’t try to micromanage them. As one teacher put it, “We would tell [the administrator] things that we were doing, and they’d get excited. They trusted us, and they knew we would use it in a way that would be beneficial to the children.”
Secondly, administrators took an active interest in what was going on in class, often dropping in to watch. Sometimes, they’d contribute to discussions themselves.
A teacher shared:
“My principal on more than one occasion, asked ‘Oh, can I say something?’ and wanted to define something or highlight something. . . It gets you excited . . . HDC elicits that type of response…”
Finally, administrators also helped to reinforce HDC outside of the classroom. They would reference concepts the children were learning, and use points from the curriculum during everyday interactions with students.
4. HDC Promotes a Shared Language Between Students and Teachers
As students and teachers learned the concepts presented in HDC, they developed a shared vocabulary for talking about certain experiences and problems. Teachers have used this shared vocabulary effectively to correct students’ behavioral issues and also praise positive actions.
One teacher said:
“The curriculum’s been very useful . . . when I say, ‘You’re not really treating that person with dignity,’ students know exactly what you mean, instead of, ‘Oh, you are bullying them, or you are being mean to them,’ which can mean so many things.”
5. The Shared Student-Teacher Experience Evolved
The HDC puts a strong emphasis on self-reflection, authenticity, and honesty. Exercising these traits, especially in classroom discussions, brought students and teachers closer and fostered an environment of openness, kindness, and understanding. Everyone experienced personal transformation over the course of the class.
“I enjoyed teaching [the Curriculum] because I could relate to it just as much as the students,” one teacher noted. “I got to think about these things in a new way.”
Another teacher said: “I could see that there’s a change in the way that people view each other and treat each other. This program centers it back to we are all the same, we all struggle, we all go through things.”
Takeaways
The study concludes that the teachers and school administrators in both schools had a positive experience with the Human Dignity Curriculum.
As the study notes: “They endorsed HDC characterizing it as ‘straightforward,’ ‘simple to learn and to teach and to grasp,’ ‘easy to implement,’ with well organized, teacher-friendly lesson plans that contain clear directions, prompts, and highly engaging activities.”
Moreover, teachers asserted that, “HDC works ‘very well’ with students struggling with behavioral/learning difficulties, as well as those who do not share those difficulties.”
The paper goes on to suggest that, considering these positive results, it’s well worth studying HDC further in other types of school and community settings.
Dr. Law also notes that the Human Dignity Curriculum could be a useful tool in “addressing broader social issues involving conflict and social upheaval” such as bullying, prejudices attitudes towards newcomers, and the stigmatization of underserved groups.
As more young people struggle with anxiety, loneliness, and a lack of purpose, programs like the Human Dignity Curriculum will become ever more important. This study is hopefully just the first of many highlighting the benefits of the HDC.