Memphis ‘25 Institute on Teaching Social Action - Tennessee

This two-day, in-person Institute in Memphis 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.

Institute Co-Host

Dr. Austin Harrison

Rhodes, Urban Studies

Institute Co-Host

Dr. Anthony Stone

U. of Memphis, Sociology

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Submit your application here (deadline: February 21, 2025)

There is no cost to attend the Institute. In return, we ask that attendees pledge themselves to complete these commitments. 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).

Institute Preparation

There is no registration fee for the Spring ‘25 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.

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 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.

At the Institute, 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. Participants will leave the Institute with an overview for their syllabus.

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.