University of Michigan ‘24 Institute on Teaching Social Action-Ann Arbor

This two-day, in-person Institute at the University of Michigan will introduce faculty and staff to an experiential learning approach for incorporating social action campaigns into either a semester-long course or co-curricular workshop series. In this transformative experiential learning model, students develop and launch a social action campaign of their choosing during the semester the course is taught. The student campaigns seek to change a rule, regulation, norm, or practice of an institution, whether on campus or in the community.

Our long-term goal is to mainstream this model for teaching active democracy. The world needs more citizens who have developed their knowledge and skills in bringing about positive change through real world experience. While not all of the student campaigns are successful, many have been and those that haven’t succeeded have still taught valuable lessons to those who led them and those who were engaged in one form or another.

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Submit your application here

Application Deadline: September 20, 2024

Institute Host

Dr. Arun Argawal

U. of Michigan Professor, School for Environment and Sustainability

“Teaching social action has been one of the highlights of my career, as it provides students with concrete tools with which to organize social action campaigns.”

Institute Participants (Accepted To Date)

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Activism/Organizing

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Archaelology

Archaeology for the Future: Ancient Solutions to Modern Problems

Anna Antoniou

Dept of Anthropology, Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledge and Science

University of Massachusetts - Amherst

Archaelology

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Design

Design Justice in Practice

Vyta Pivo

School of Architecture

University of Miami

Design

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Environment & Sustainability

Environmental Justice

Elaine Hsiao

School of Peace and Conflict Studies

Kent State University

Environment & Sustainability

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Food

Food systems thinking

Marcela Cely-Santos

Department of Integrative and Global Studies

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Food

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Health

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Humanities

Community based research: Intergenerational dialogues within Lansing communities

Estrella Torrez

Residential College in the Arts and Humanities

Michigan State University

Humanities

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Social Justice

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Social Science

Minority Groups in America right off hand but I have other course ideas as well.

Timothy Raymond

Human Studies

Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College

Social Science

Institute Preparation

During the two-day Institute, participants will begin drafting a syllabus and develop a teaching plan to support student campaigns which are launched by mid-semester. The Institute sessions will be led by Dr. Scott Myers-Lipton, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at San José State University.

Participants will be asked to prepare for the Institute by reading CHANGE! A Student Guide to Social Action (2nd edition) and CHANGE! A Guide to Teaching Social Action. In addition, participants read the Companion Guide, which is a multimedia media presentation of the teaching guide. In the Companion Guide, there are "mini-lectures" of Scott speaking about each topic, as well as articles, in-class videos, and portfolios that Scott uses. The hope is that with the two books and Companion Guide, the Institute can be interactive with you and the other participants grappling with the challenges of doing a social action course, rather than just being taught the material.

Participants will work with a syllabus template which includes guiding questions. We will discuss the pros and cons of revising a course to incorporate social action campaigns or develop a new course that complements an existing course, concentration, minor, major, or certificate program. We will also share the process and lessons learned from prior student campaigns. We welcome participants who want to explore developing a co-curricular social action workshop series embedded into a fellowship or co-curricular or integrated program.

Over the two-days participants will break into smaller groups for discussions about your goals, course models, teaching approach, and sharing examples and exercises that will help you plan your social action course or workshop series.

At the conclusion of the Institute, we invite participants to join a year-long support and networking community of fellow practitioners who are teaching or learning how to teach social action using this experiential, real-world model.

When you apply to the Institute, we will automatically add you to the socialaction@bonner.org email discussion list where we discuss active student campaigns, share successes and challenges, and announce future opportunities for training, education, and reflection.

Application

As stated above,, there is no cost to attend the Institute. In return, we ask that attendees pledge themselves to complete these commitments.

There is no registration fee for the Fall ‘24 Institute on Teaching Social Action. However, we want to restrict participation in the Institute to those faculty, staff or students who are committed to implementing this experiential social action course model. Please note that preparing and supporting students to launch their social action campaigns generally takes at least half of the course content and assignments. Some courses are directly on social action and change, while others address a societal issue (e.g., climate change, housing, poverty, etc.) around which students develop their campaigns; importantly, these courses come from a variety of disciplines. From experience, the social action campaign dimension of these courses takes up roughly half of the course work (readings, assignments, and in-class teaching and group work).

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Submit your application here

Application Deadline: September 20, 2024