K-12 Outreach

Photo: "Fourth-grade classroom" by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages. CC BY-NC 2.0.

Harvard University’s Project on Shi’ism and Global Affairs at Harvard Divinity School proudly hosts an interdisciplinary and pedagogically innovative K-12 outreach program. The Project on Shi’ism and Global Affairs seeks to promote a broader, more inclusive understanding and teaching of Islam in classrooms and beyond by working with teachers, school districts, and local communities. In an increasingly globalized and interconnected world, we recognize the importance of providing an accurate academic description of pluralism in Islam to students. To this end, the Project provides workshops for educators, learning resources, readings, and much more for teaching and learning about diversity within Islam.

The current curriculum for Islamic education in schools across the United States largely fails to address the rich diversity and pluralism within the Islamic tradition. Instead, secondary and primary educational institutions tend to focus on a particular reading of one Sunni tradition, perpetuating a monologue that marginalizes other Sunni traditions as well as Shi’ism and other Islamic traditions either in their complexity or, more often than not, in their entirety. To combat this inaccurate portrayal, we seek to expand the scope of these classrooms to include the other prominent modes of thought under the Islamic umbrella, including Shi’ism and its diverse manifestations such as Twelver Shi’ism, Alevism, and Ismailism.

The goal of our K-12 outreach program is to broaden the perspective on Islam from every grade level, to present a complete picture of religion. We provide teaching materials for a multifaceted narrative of Islam in the United States, for a transformation of the pedagogy surrounding Islam in order to enable students to appreciate Islam in its full breadth and complexity.

For more information on our K-12 outreach program, see the contact information at the bottom of this page, or email email project director Payam Mohseni.