1996-2000

 
 

  • After a year together at the Stanford Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, William Damon, and Howard Gardner co-found “The Humane Creativity Project,” the forerunner of The Good Project.

  • The Humane Creativity Project changes its name to the Good Work Project and expands to involve 50 researchers on five different campuses. The teams conduct interviews with workers from 9 domains: journalism, genetics, theater, business, K-12 education, higher education, law, medicine, and philanthropy. Individuals range in age and professional stage.

  • Hans Henrik Knoop of the Royal Danish School of Educational Studies joins the Good Work Project and completes pilot studies in Latvia, our first international partner.

2001-2005

  • Our first book-length publication, Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet, is published in September 2001. To date, it has been translated into ten languages.

  • We first posit our theory of “Good Work” that is composed of three elements: excellence, ethics, and engagement.

  • The Good Work Toolkit is developed to encourage young people to reflect on issues of “Good Work.” Researchers pilot the curriculum with individual teachers and ultimately deploy the curriculum in a variety of different school environments.

  • Howard Gardner first teachers his class “Good Work in Education: When Excellence, Engagement, and Ethics Meet” at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

  • The Traveling Curriculum in Journalism, a series of training workshops for mid-career journalists, is developed by William Damon and colleagues in collaboration with the Committee of Concerned Journalists.

  • Two Good Work Project conferences are held in Copenhagen at the Royal Danish School of Educational Studies, in participation with William Damon, Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and Jeanne Nakamura.

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2006-2010

 
 
 

  • The Good Work Project expands at Harvard and changes its name to The Good Project. Several initiatives are spawned that build upon theories of “Good Work,” including:

    • The Good Collaboration Project, a study of effective collaborative endeavors.

    • The Good Play Project, a study of youth and digital ethics.

    • The Developing Minds and Digital Media Project, a study of how young people use new digital media and the cognitive effects of such media.

    • The Good Participation Project, a study of how youth participate in political and civic life.

    • The Trust & Trustworthiness Project, a study of young people’s trust conceptions.

    • The Quality Project, a study of how people around the world conceptualize “quality.”

  • Our website is first launched, giving our project a digital footprint.

  • Meanwhile, William Damon continues his work at Stanford University on the development of a sense of purpose, while Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Jeanne Nakamura of the Claremont Graduate University establish the Quality of Life Research Center.

  • “Reflecting on Your Life” is launched, a collaboration between the The Good Project, Harvard Freshman Dean’s Office, and HGSE Professor Richard Light. These reflective sessions, offered to first-year Harvard students, touch on questions of purpose, values, and responsibilities, and eventually the program spreads to several other institutions of higher education.

 
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2011-2015

  • The Good Project engages in several meaningful collaborations, including:

    • Project New Media Literacies, resulting in the creation of a digital media ethics curriculum.

    • The Global Leadership and Education Foundation, resulting in a year-long Good Work certification program and professional development for teachers in India.

    • Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, resulting in a campus-wide Good Work Initiative.

    • Common Sense Media, resulting in a K-12 digital citizenship curriculum.

    • The Professional Honor Foundation in the Netherlands, resulting in numerous sessions and publications focused on Dutch professional identity and policy.

  • The Good Project’s conference is held in March 2013 at the Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, MA. Speakers include Danielle Allen, Ron Berger, William Damon, Eric Liu, John Palfrey, Esa Saarinen, Kiran Sethi, Rick Weissbourd, and Damian Woetzel. (At Stanford University, a similar conference was held in 2012, with attendees including Anne Colby, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Eric Liu, Jeanne Nakamura, and Henry Timms.)

  • The Good Collaboration Toolkit is launched as a free, online resource.

  • Howard Gardner’s blog “The Professional Ethicist” is launched, focusing on ethical issues in the professions.

 
 
Our three co-founders: Gardner, Damon, and Csikszentmihalyi

Our three co-founders: Gardner, Damon, and Csikszentmihalyi

 
 
 
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2016-2020

  • The Good Project team continues to develop research endeavors informed by the original investigation of “Good Work,” including:

    • Higher Education in the 21st Century, a study of how different stakeholders view the purposes of traditional college education in the United States.

    • Investigating Impacts of Educational Experiences, a study evaluating the effects of educational programs on students at the United World Colleges and eleven other mission-oriented schools.

  • Materials intended to facilitate reflection about the nature of “good work” continue to be developed, including an online module with two animated dilemmas and a series of new lesson plans for educators.

  • To be continued!