The fourth annual Hatton W. Sumners Foundations of Democracy Institute was held June 13-17, 2011, at the National Center for Employee Development in Norman. The 19 Oklahoma teachers in attendance were joined by three Slovakian educators. The institute highlighted the four essential concepts essential for establishing and maintaining a democracy: Responsibility, Privacy, Authority, and Justice.

The first session began with OU Assistant Professor of Political Science Dr. Margaret Ellis covering the topic of Responsibility. On day two, OU Professor of Law Dr. Mary Sue Backus lectured on the concept of Privacy. Renowned civic education author and scholar Dr. John Patrick finished the Foundations of Democracy lectures with Authority and Justice. Afternoon sessions were conducted by national trainers Sandy Baker and Melissa Bell, who provided classroom applications and activities relevant to the pre-K – high school State of Oklahoma PASS-correlated curriculum.

Members of the Oklahoma Writing Project worked in partnership with our international Civitas grant to develop lesson plans based on the concepts of Justice and Responsibility. Monday Audra Plummer and Amy Carruth presented two lesson plans for Responsibility. On Thursday Ann Rosales and Kara Newton presented the two lesson plans written for Justice. The lesson plans were translated into the Slovakian language by attendee Dr. Klaudia Lorinczova for use in Slovakian classrooms. The lesson plans will be published online for public use.

The Institute concluded with Charles Haskell Elementary Media Specialist Becky Walderbach providing training on the Representative Democracy in America Program. This session was available by video conference to educators at the Texas Bar Association. Those attending received access to a multitude of multimedia supplemental resources for teaching American representative democracy.

Educators left with a wealth of civic education classroom resources. Each participant will receive a classroom set of Foundations of Democracy textbooks to enhance citizenship education within their schools.