(Radio Iowa) – The University of Northern Iowa is developing a Center for Civic Education after recently receiving approval from the Board of Regents. The head of the Cedar Falls school’s History Department, Jennifer McNabb, helped put together the proposal. “The Center will emphasize the production of educational resources. First, our pre-service teachers at U-N-I will be producing lesson plans and support material for in service teachers across the state, and we will sponsor an annual conference at U-N-I on civic education and free speech,” she says. McNabb says they will also reach out beyond the campus.

“Our public history students will work on public education in civic ed through the creation of traveling exhibits for education and for civic spaces, hoping to draw on our partnership with the Iowa community colleges,” she says. U-N-I already has civic education curriculum in place, created by a team of faculty members after they received National Endowment for the Humanities grant. The new center will build on that curriculum.

Jennifer McNabb, Scott Peters. (photo from Board of Regents meeting)

“The center’s ultimate goal is to help our community develop the civic knowledge, skills and dispositions required for understanding and application the values of free speech, civic leadership, public service and citizenship,” McNabb says. She says the Center for Civic Education is U-N-I’s response to the Board of Regents’ directive in November 2023 for the Regent schools to establish a widespread initiative that includes opportunities for education and research on free speech and civic education.