The Making Teaching Matter for Civic and Intellectual Life (MTM) Project

About the Project

In an era of heightened polarization, young people often face challenges that require civic and intellectual competencies. Civic engagement, navigating discourse across differences, and making ethical decisions are crucial for personal growth and responsible participation in a diverse society. Developing curiosity, open-mindedness, and intellectual humility are also essential competencies for adult life. Universities, particularly instructors, are well positioned to support the cultivation of these competencies among undergraduate students. The Making Teaching Matter for Civic and Intellectual Life (MTM) project is a year-long effort in the School of Education and Human Development (EHD) at the University of Virginia, aimed at building capacity among EHD faculty to cultivate civic and intellectual capacities among their undergraduate students.

The Funding

This work is funded by the Educating Character Initiative at Wake Forest University and the Lilly Endowment.

 
 

Our Study

The MTM project aims to spark interest in character development among faculty and students in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Virginia. The work, led by Drs. Sara Rimm-Kaufman, Jamie Jirout, Rachel Wahl, and Jim Soland, has focused on the cultivation of civic capacities including civic engagement, discourse across differences, and ethical decision-making as well as intellectual capacities such as curiosity, open-mindedness, and intellectual humility.

In our 2024-2025 capacity building year, we had three major aims.

Research Aims

  1. Institute a year-long professional learning community (PLC) among university faculty focused on cultivating civic and intellectual competencies among undergraduate students;

  2. Elevate student voice to describe ethical struggles that they face so that faculty can meet student needs; and

  3. Engage in pilot work evaluating change in faculty’s efficacy in teaching civic and intellectual competencies in their classrooms, given their participation in our year-long PLC.

Current Products

Students from the Youth & Social Innovation (YSI) concentration at EHD developed a collection of essays with advice for instructors on cultivating civic engagement, ethical decision-making, and more. You can read this collection on our UVA Center for Teaching Excellence Teaching Hub site.

We have a research brief that outlines some findings about faculty efficacy in teaching civic and intellectual competencies. You can read more about our results here.