Introduction
Chapter 1 — Social Action: An Overview
Social Action and Its Role on Colleges
Chapter 2 — Developing a Social Action Class
Course vs Co-Curricular & Prerequisites
Creating a Social Action Syllabus
Teaching Style & Classroom Norms
Role of Place & Each Semester v Every Year
Chapter 3 — Teaching Social Action (TSA) Model
Chapter 4 — Where Do We Go From Here?
Introduction
On Class #1, Scott introduced his syllabus and discussed how in this course, students will be doing action, and not just talking about it. SML discussed how the course readings have been reduced by about 1 1/2 hour of reading for the week, so that they can do 1 1/2 hours of week of campaign work.
Check out Scott’s thoughts about Class #1 and On Your Mark:
On the first day, it would be good to ask your students to begin thinking about things that “piss them off” and that they would like to see different, whether that be on campus, in the community (city/county), in the state or nation. They then can bring these ideas to Class #2, when the Issue Identification process starts.
Here is a video of Heather Pollock from University of Akron describing what she says to her students to start off the Issue Identification process:
In this first third of the course, you will have to deal with the question of whether “change is possible”. This is an important question, and Scott addresses it head on. Take a listen:
Please note that everything done in the first 10 days of Scott’s class is to get the students to believe that social action is possible. Scott put the student into a circle to encourage participation, invites student alums to class who have won campaigns to talk to the new students (sometimes on Zoom), has the students read about former student social action campaigns that have been victorious, and gives them specific examples of change that have happened on the campus.
Interestingly, Rashida, from the University or Rochester, thought that change was possible, but only for people in positions of power. Rashida states:
"Before taking this class, I did think that change was possible, but just if you are in a position of power in some ways. And I think through this class, I kind of learned that even a small group of people can create power, as long as people are willing to be organized, build relations, and take actions."
One more thing: to prepare yourself to teach a social action course, you have to be aware that things can get a bit messy. Of course, we all want to be prepared to teach the material that is on the docket for the day. However, in a social action course, you need to be flexible, as things come up, as the students are trying to solve real problems in real time. This can take your course plans and “mess them up”! So be flexible, and respond accordingly when challenges arise.
Watch Dr. Travis Cronin from Fresno State University discuss this point about how messy teaching social action can be:
One other thing: as a faculty member, you are there to help the students work through the challenges and to make recommendations, but ultimately it is up to the students to make the final decisions about their campaigns.
As the students begin there jouney, you might want to discuss with them the importance of perseverance. Here is Lily from Students for Sanctuary Campus at the University of Delaware explaining her thoughts about perseverance:
“What this really taught me about myself is that I'm very perseverant... We faced a lot of pushback, but we just kept going... It's kind of getting back up after you've been pushed down.”
Continue to Students Choose Their Issue