About
The Listening with Curiosity Project, initially developed as an initiative of the Project for the Advancement of our Common Humanity (pach.org), was created to address the crisis of connection in schools.
As a 5-phase curriculum, it was implemented in 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-grade English, Humanities, and Social Studies classes for over five years. Through the Social Health Institute, it is now being adapted for implementation in a variety of settings in schools and other youth-serving organizations.
Our Method
Transformative Interviewing:
Transformative Interviewing is our method of disruption that allows participants to see themselves and others outside of a set of stereotypes. Interviewers employ a set of practices that allow the interviewee to reveal how they see and understand the world. The interviewer is thus able to see the interviewee as the interviewee sees themselves, and see themselves in the interviewee. In this way, connections deepen—between interviewer and interviewee, and as each feels more connected to themselves with the recognition that they are not alone in the ways in which they think, feel and understand the world.
According to our evaluation in middle schools and universities, this method fosters connection, belongingness, curiosity, listening skills, and a sense of common humanity. Our research also indicates additional individual and classroom-level outcomes. Learn more about our research methods, results, and evaluation here.
We believe that if we change the way we see each other, we change the way we treat each other. By creating such psychological change, we make possible the structural change necessary for a more just and humane society.