PRIMED for Character Education Capacity Building: Developing the Expert Facilitator Certification System
TWCF Project Number: 33443
Project Duration: July 1, 2025 – December 31, 2026
As interest in the PRIMED framework continues to grow across the Americas, the Center for Character and Citizenship is working to expand the capacity of educators and organizations to implement PRIMED with quality, consistency, and cultural responsiveness.
PRIMED is a research-based approach to school transformation developed through more than 25 years of work at the Center for Character and Citizenship. Rather than functioning as a prescribed curriculum, PRIMED provides a framework for cultivating thriving school communities through six design principles:
P – Prioritization
R – Relationships
I – Intrinsic Motivation
M – Modeling
E – Empowerment
D – Developmental Pedagogy
Led by Dr. Marvin Berkowitz, Dr. Melinda Bier, and Dr. Juan Pablo Dabdoub, this project seeks to develop and launch the first PRIMED Expert Facilitator Certification System. The initiative is designed to prepare a network of highly trained bilingual facilitators who can support schools and educational organizations in implementing PRIMED throughout the Americas.
The project brings together partner organizations from countries including Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, and the United States to collaboratively develop certification standards, training protocols, and implementation resources. Through this process, the team is creating a comprehensive bilingual toolkit and facilitator guide that will support high-quality implementation while remaining responsive to local cultural contexts.
A central goal of the project is to build sustainable leadership capacity within partner organizations. By training and certifying expert facilitators, the initiative aims to expand access to evidence-based character education and strengthen the ability of schools and educational systems to cultivate cultures that support both academic excellence and human flourishing.
Building a Global PRIMED Network
This initiative represents an important next step in the evolution of PRIMED. Through partnerships with educational organizations across multiple countries, the Center for Character and Citizenship is working to create a sustainable network of certified facilitators capable of supporting character education implementation at scale.
By investing in local expertise and culturally responsive adaptation, the project seeks to ensure that schools across diverse contexts have access to high-quality professional development and implementation support. The long-term vision is to build a community of PRIMED leaders who can help schools create environments where students, educators, and entire school communities can flourish.
Resources
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