Motivation to Teach Social Action:
For the last fifteen years I have used action-based teaching in and outside of classroom settings, yet I have no formal training in social movement campaign organizing or social action as a specific pedagogical practice. My research program addresses anti-racist and decolonial approaches to organizational change in agri-food systems higher education, and my teaching philosophy and practices aim to create such change. I completed my doctorate in May 2025 and am currently pursuing professorial positions. I am developing new courses that I look forward to offering as an assistant professor, and thus it is a perfect time to learn social action pedagogy in community with other educators. I am excited for both the 2-day workshop and post-workshop ongoing community of practice.
Course Description:
This advanced undergraduate/graduate seminar invites majors in agriculture and food systems-related programs (including adjacent fields such as environmental sciences and public health) to turn a critical lens on our own knowledge production. The course will draw on academic literature and participants' collective experiential knowledge to co-build the conceptual framing for the course topic—namely, how do we define/understand/recognize anti-racist agri-food systems education, and why do we need it? What experiences have we had of what anti-racist agri-food systems education is not that inform our knowledge of what it might be? In the context of intersectional oppressions, how and why might we forefront racism? This praxis-based course will use social action to organize for anti-racist changes students want to see in agri-food systems programs on campus and/or in our broader academic disciplines.
Taught By:
Rosalie Zdzienicka Fanshel
Postdoctoral Scholar; Co-Director, HBCU-Berkeley Environmental Scholars for Change
Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
University of California, Berkeley
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