About our founder
Genevieve Erker Caffrey, Ed.D.
Elementary educator, researcher, and curriculum developer—and founder of OPALIS Curriculum House.
Where it began
It started in third grade.
In third grade, Genevieve took part in a lesson about global poverty in which students randomly received different amounts of food—or none at all. She still remembers the powerful emotions that experience evoked, and how it began to change her understanding of the world and her place within it.
It was an early lesson in the extraordinary influence elementary social studies can have on how children see themselves, others, and the world.
In the classroom
Twelve years of seeing what teachers were missing.
Years later, as an elementary teacher in St. Louis, Chicago, and Guadalajara, Mexico, Genevieve experienced a different side of that influence: the enormous responsibility of introducing children to some of humanity’s most complex and difficult histories—often without adequate curriculum, instructional time, professional development, or guidance.
Across twelve years of teaching kindergarten through sixth grade, she grew increasingly frustrated by how consistently social studies was marginalized, and by how often teachers were expected to build meaningful instruction on difficult histories and contemporary issues on their own.
From questions to research
Building the P.O.W.E.R. Framework.
Those experiences led Genevieve to doctoral study at the University of Missouri, where she also taught elementary social studies methods to future teachers. Her research synthesized 38 critical theories and 105 curricular frameworks, through a participatory process with educators, into the P.O.W.E.R. Framework—and she facilitated a district-wide overhaul of K–5 social studies curriculum along the way.
OPALIS grew from a simple conviction: elementary social studies is too consequential to be treated as an afterthought, and teachers should not have to navigate its most challenging responsibilities alone.
“We are building the conceptual architecture that helps teachers teach with greater clarity and students understand the world with greater coherence.”
Genevieve Erker Caffrey, Ed.D.
Education & experience
Credentials
Ed.D., Learning, Teaching & Curriculum
University of Missouri, 2025 · Social Studies Education emphasis
M.A., Instructional Leadership & Elementary Education
University of Illinois Chicago, 2009
B.A., Psychology & Political Science
Washington University in St. Louis, 2005
Elementary classroom teacher
12 years, grades K–6 · St. Louis, Chicago, and Guadalajara, Mexico
University instructor
University of Missouri, 2018–2023 · Social studies methods and elementary teaching courses
Doctoral research
Designing Critical Social Studies Curriculum: How the Synthesis of Critical Theories, Curricular Frameworks, and Teacher Practice Generated the P.O.W.E.R. Framework (2025)