Introducing Our 2023-2024 Teacher Fellows

Eighteen Teacher Fellows have joined the Pulitzer Center's Education team for the 2023-2024 program. These educators were selected from 108 applicants across the U.S. to explore how engagement with underreported global news stories and media literacy skills can support their curricula and communities.

Joining us from 12 different states, this year’s Fellows represent 12 high schools, five middle schools, and one elementary school. They teach in public and public charter schools, and their courses include English, U.S. History, World History, Mexican-American Studies, Civics, IB Design, Visual 3D Art, Spanish, Journalism, Science, Math, and more. 

Learn more about these amazing Fellows in our slideshow below! (Click on the image to advance slides). Their units will be available in our lesson library starting in summer 2024.

Throughout the fellowship, educators will explore the theme, “Asking Critical Questions: Teaching Global Stories and Media Literacy,” by analyzing reporting, connecting with journalists, and brainstorming curricular connections with their cohort.

They will then create, teach, and evaluate standards-aligned units that explore the following questions:

1. What is the role of news? How might underreported news stories differ from what students are used to seeing in the news? 
2. How do journalists utilize critical questions when reporting underreported stories to….

• Evaluate the root causes, historical context, and/or lasting human impacts of pressing issues?
• Elevate voices that have been historically marginalized?
• Analyze how systemic issues are interconnected?
• Make complex issues relevant and inspire action?

3. How can underreported stories inspire students to reflect on their own lives and histories, cultivate curiosity, and evaluate how their lives connect to the lives of others?
4. How can students use the skills of a journalist, including curiosity and critical thinking, to take informed action on important issues?

Fellows met for the first time on October 28, 2023 to begin engaging with these questions while exploring a variety of reporting resources. At the end of their first session, Fellows reflected on how they felt the fellowship program could support their goals as educators. 

“My goal for this fellowship is to inspire curiosity and empathy for the lives of others,” wrote one Fellow. “A goal that I have for the program is to connect with other educators in order to expand my own understanding of teaching and learning, so that I can create a unit that allows my students to see themselves more fully in the world when they read / watch the news.”

Another Fellow wrote, “I want to create a unit that provides [students] with practice using their voices, and also provides space for them to document this life, the world, and their place in it.”

For more information on our Teacher Fellowship program, and to explore units by the 88 amazing educators who have participated in our fellowships, click here.