This three-day, virtual Institute (June 12-14 from 1:00 pm - 5:30 pm EST) 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 Participants
By Breakout Group
List
Beth Godett
Lynch School of Education at Boston College and Department of Education at Rider University
Boston College and Rider University
Kelisha Graves
Educational Leadership
Virginia State University
Justin Hill
Nonprofit Partner
Philadelphia School District - Community Schools
Meg du Bray
Geography, GIS, & Sustainability
University of Northern Colorado
Julia Cantzler
Sociology
University of San Diego
La-Neka Brown
School of Education and Professional Studies (ODU)/ School of Education, Leadership, Policy and Justice (VCU)
Old Dominion University (ODU) and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)
Janet Glover-Kerkvliet
Art Therapy (Graduate Program)
Notre Dame University of Maryland
Johanna Phelps
English, Technical Writing
Washington State University Vancouver
Lealle Ruhl
History, Latin, Political Science and Interdisciplinary Studies
Langara College
Alfredo Toro Carnevali
Political Science and Law
Montclair State University
Sarah Federman
Conflict Resolution
University of San Diego
Stephanie Knox Steiner
Peace and Conflict Studies
University for Peace
Amy Black
Economics and Business Administration
Hastings College
Kevin Lynch
Justice Studies
San Jose State University
Michael Stephens
Sociology / College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Lenoir-Rhyne University
Institute Preparation
During the three-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.
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 three-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
There is no cost to join the Summer ‘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).
As stated above,, there is no cost to attend the Institute. In return, we ask that attendees pledge themselves to complete these commitments.
Application Deadline: June 1, 2024