# Grade 12 Curriculum Map

| Week | Unit | Topic | Essential Question | Principal Performance |
|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unit 1 · Senior Inquiry and Political Analysis | **Senior Inquiry and the Social Sciences** | How can a senior distinguish a defensible social-science conclusion from an opinion, slogan, or unsupported prediction? | Senior Inquiry Diagnostic and Research Notebook Charter |
| 2 | Unit 1 · Senior Inquiry and Political Analysis | **Evidence, Methodology, and Academic Integrity** | What procedures make research credible, ethical, reproducible, and honest? | Verified Source Dossier and Academic Integrity Agreement |
| 3 | Unit 2 · Power, Regimes, and Political Ideas | **Power, Authority, Legitimacy, and Sovereignty** | Why do people obey political institutions, and when does power become legitimate authority? | Power and Legitimacy Concept Application Essay |
| 4 | Unit 2 · Power, Regimes, and Political Ideas | **Political Ideologies and Models of Justice** | How do political ideologies define freedom, equality, authority, property, obligation, and justice? | Comparative Ideology and Justice Matrix |
| 5 | Unit 2 · Power, Regimes, and Political Ideas | **Regimes, Democracy, and Authoritarianism** | Which institutional evidence distinguishes democracy, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian rule? | Evidence-Based Regime Classification Brief |
| 6 | Unit 2 · Power, Regimes, and Political Ideas | **Constitutions, Federalism, and Unitary States** | How do constitutional design and territorial organization distribute power and manage diversity? | Comparative Constitutional Design Portfolio |
| 7 | Unit 3 · Comparative Institutions and Participation | **Executives, Legislatures, and Bureaucracies** | How do presidential, parliamentary, and hybrid systems organize leadership, representation, and administration? | Institutional Power Map and Accountability Memo |
| 8 | Unit 3 · Comparative Institutions and Participation | **Courts, Rule of Law, and Accountability** | When can courts constrain political power, and what makes judicial independence credible? | Comparative Legal Case Brief |
| 9 | Unit 3 · Comparative Institutions and Participation | **Parties and Electoral Systems** | How do electoral rules shape parties, representation, coalition building, and accountability? | Electoral-System Simulation and Design Defense |
| 10 | Unit 3 · Comparative Institutions and Participation | **Voting, Representation, and Public Opinion** | How can citizens and analysts determine whether political participation is meaningful, equal, informed, and representative? | Electoral and Public-Opinion Quantitative Analysis |
| 11 | Unit 3 · Comparative Institutions and Participation | **Civil Society, Interest Groups, and Social Movements** | How do people organize outside government to influence law, culture, institutions, and public priorities? | Comparative Social Movement Evidence Dossier |
| 12 | Unit 3 · Comparative Institutions and Participation | **Media, Propaganda, and Political Communication** | How can citizens evaluate political information when governments, parties, platforms, journalists, and networks compete to shape attention? | Media Verification Investigation |
| 13 | Unit 4 · Comparative Country Laboratories | **United Kingdom and Mexico** | How do two electoral democracies with different constitutional histories distribute power, representation, and accountability? | United Kingdom–Mexico Structured Comparison |
| 14 | Unit 4 · Comparative Country Laboratories | **Nigeria and India** | How do large, diverse federal democracies manage identity, development, representation, and uneven state capacity? | Nigeria–India Development and Institutions Comparison |
| 15 | Unit 4 · Comparative Country Laboratories | **China and Russia** | How do major authoritarian states maintain control while adapting institutions, markets, nationalism, and technology? | China–Russia Authority and State-Capacity Analysis |
| 16 | Unit 4 · Comparative Country Laboratories | **Iran, Brazil, and South Africa** | How do constitutional design, identity, inequality, social movements, and political conflict shape different paths of change? | Iran–Brazil–South Africa Political Change Seminar |
| 17 | Unit 4 · Comparative Country Laboratories | **Comparative Political Systems Synthesis** | Which concepts best explain similarities and differences across political systems without erasing history and context? | Comparative Political Systems Portfolio |
| 18 | Unit 4 · Comparative Country Laboratories | **Semester Examination and Capstone Proposal Defense** | Can the student integrate comparative concepts, institutional evidence, country knowledge, and a defensible research plan? | Semester Examination and Capstone Proposal Defense |
| 19 | Unit 5 · International Relations and Global Governance | **International Relations Theories** | How do competing theories explain state behavior, institutions, identity, conflict, and cooperation? | International Relations Theory Application Memorandum |
| 20 | Unit 5 · International Relations and Global Governance | **Foreign Policy and National Interest** | How should governments define national interest when security, prosperity, values, law, and domestic politics conflict? | Foreign-Policy Decision Analysis |
| 21 | Unit 5 · International Relations and Global Governance | **Diplomacy, Negotiation, and Statecraft** | How can actors negotiate durable agreements when interests, power, information, and trust differ? | Diplomatic Negotiation Simulation |
| 22 | Unit 5 · International Relations and Global Governance | **International Organizations and Global Governance** | When can international organizations solve collective problems, and when do power, design, or sovereignty limit them? | International Institution Effectiveness Audit |
| 23 | Unit 6 · International Law, Rights, and Human Mobility | **International Law, Treaties, and Courts** | How does international law create obligations without a single global sovereign? | International-Law Moot Court |
| 24 | Unit 6 · International Law, Rights, and Human Mobility | **Human Rights and Humanitarian Principles** | How should universal rights be interpreted, protected, and enforced across diverse societies and unequal power? | Human Rights Monitoring Report |
| 25 | Unit 6 · International Law, Rights, and Human Mobility | **Migration, Refugees, Citizenship, and Statelessness** | How should states balance borders, sovereignty, labor needs, family unity, humanitarian protection, and equal dignity? | Migration and Protection Policy Analysis |
| 26 | Unit 7 · Development, Political Economy, and Global Challenges | **Development, Poverty, and Global Inequality** | How should development be measured, explained, financed, and evaluated? | Global Development Policy Brief |
| 27 | Unit 7 · Development, Political Economy, and Global Challenges | **Global Political Economy, Trade, and Debt** | Who gains, who loses, and who decides in systems of global trade, finance, investment, taxation, and debt? | Global Political Economy Data Laboratory |
| 28 | Unit 7 · Development, Political Economy, and Global Challenges | **Climate, Resources, and Environmental Justice** | How can political institutions govern environmental risks that cross borders, generations, and unequal communities? | Environmental Governance Case Study |
| 29 | Unit 7 · Development, Political Economy, and Global Challenges | **War, Civil Conflict, and Peacebuilding** | Why do conflicts begin, persist, end, and sometimes recur? | Conflict Early-Warning and Peacebuilding Analysis |
| 30 | Unit 7 · Development, Political Economy, and Global Challenges | **Security, Terrorism, Nuclear Risk, and Cyber Conflict** | How should societies address severe security threats while preserving law, evidence, proportionality, and human rights? | Global Security Council Simulation |
| 31 | Unit 8 · Technology, Health, and Senior Synthesis | **Technology, AI, Surveillance, and Digital Rights** | How should law and democratic governance respond when digital systems redistribute information, power, labor, privacy, and risk? | Technology Governance Public Hearing |
| 32 | Unit 8 · Technology, Health, and Senior Synthesis | **Public Health and Humanitarian Coordination** | What makes collective response legitimate and effective during cross-border health and humanitarian emergencies? | Global Emergency Response Evaluation |
| 33 | Unit 8 · Technology, Health, and Senior Synthesis | **Capstone Evidence and Findings** | Can the student transform a documented body of evidence into transparent, appropriately qualified findings? | Capstone Findings and Limitations Portfolio |
| 34 | Unit 8 · Technology, Health, and Senior Synthesis | **Thesis Drafting and Peer Review** | How can revision improve reasoning, evidence, organization, fairness, and academic integrity? | Complete Thesis Draft and Revision Memorandum |
| 35 | Unit 8 · Technology, Health, and Senior Synthesis | **Political Engagement and Public Communication** | How can a graduate communicate research and engage responsibly without manipulating evidence or compelling political conformity? | Political Engagement Report and Public Presentation |
| 36 | Unit 8 · Technology, Health, and Senior Synthesis | **Senior Thesis, Oral Defense, and Cumulative Final** | Can the student independently defend a rigorous conclusion, acknowledge limits, apply four years of social studies, and satisfy every graduation gate? | Senior Thesis, Oral Defense, Cumulative Final, and Credit Review |

## Required weekly record
Every week contains five daily lessons, one original senior reading, six vocabulary terms, four key understandings, a primary/authoritative source laboratory, a comparative data or case investigation, three principal assignments, a 10-question objective mastery quiz, one constructed response, correction and reassessment, standards evidence, and teacher guidance.

## Major milestones
- Week 18: comparative politics semester examination and capstone proposal defense.
- Weeks 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, 30, 34, and 36: mandatory capstone checkpoints.
- Week 35: political engagement activity and public communication.
- Week 36: 4,000–5,000-word thesis, oral defense, cumulative final examination, portfolio audit, and final-credit decision.