Jordan
 Starting in 2005, Touchstones began work in Jordan in response to the Jordanian national Education Reform Movement (ERFKE). While MaHakkaat at-Tafkir (translated as “The Touchstones Way of Thinking”) follows the same methodology and stages as Touchstones school programs do in English, the texts used in MaHakkaat at-Tafkir all from come from Arabic, classical Greek or Roman sources.
 Under the guidance of Touchstones volunteer, Dr. Graham Leonard, a life-long educator and expert in the Middle East, the first 12 teachers were trained in the Touchstones method in the spring of 2007. Impressed with both the training and the program, the Director of the Curriculum Department for the Ministry of Education decided to expand implementation to involve all 6th and 7th grade students in the country. Over the next year and half a core team of trainers from the Ministry of Education were trained by Dr. Leonard and other Touchstones volunteers. In turn, that core team began the ambitious task of training nearly 10,000 Jordanian teachers. In 2008, the Ministry of Education adopted Touchstones for use in all middle and high school Arabic curriculum, and goals were set to expand the program to include a new grade each year—so that all teachers of Arabic classes in grades 6 through 10 could implement MaHakkaat in their classes by the close of the academic year 2012. To meet this goal, in the fall of 2009, an additional training initiative began that continues the professional development of Jordan’s teachers but that focuses specifically on the teachers of Arabic. Led by Dr. Leonard and Ryan Phillips, Touchstones’ Director of School Programs, a second core team of trainers was put in place to supervise the training approximately 8,500 teachers of Arabic.
To further support and facilitate the training of these teachers, for 2010, the Ministry of Education has mandated regularly held peer-teacher meetings so teachers are able to practice this new methodology together as they are implementing it in their classes. At the core of the peer-teacher effort is a translation of Touchstones’ Getting Started, which outlines the Touchstones discussion method and strategies for successful implementation. Beginnings, as the book is know in Arabic, will be used throughout the 2010 academic year, along with a training course designed by Touchstones President Howard Zeiderman.
In addition to the immediate educational benefits that students experience through Touchstones programming, this project has great potential over time to increase understanding and cooperation between Jordan, its neighbors in the region, and within the global community. The need for such mutual understanding can be neither overstated nor ignored. Participating in Touchstones requires the identification and evaluation of one’s assumptions, presuppositions, and values. While Touchstones develops critical thinking in the individual participant, it simultaneously fosters collaborative leadership in the emerging Touchstones community. Touchstones in the Jordan provides an opportunity for education to be used as a vehicle for building communication, cooperation, tolerance, and understanding.
Touchstones is honored to have received funding from the following foundations, in addition to generous support from individual donors: The Institute for Intercultural Studies, The Farouk Shami Foundation, and The Appleby Foundation.
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