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?
After the students develop a Campaign Plan and Timeline, it is time to “implement and execute” their plans by doing Campaign Activities and Actions. Thus, Campaign Implementation and Execution marks the beginning of implementing the Campaign Plan of the student groups. In the CHANGE book (Teaching Guide), Scott separated Implementation and Execution into two sections, but they really are the same thing, so when the 2nd edition is written, this will be combined into one section under Campaign Implementation.
Readings
Once you get to Campaign Actions that time is freed up to do other readings. You may want to include readings from your field that is tied directly to the topic of the class. For example, if you were teaching an course on the environment, you may want to include readings about climate change. As Scott’s class was focused on social action, he used this time to introduce readings from national campaigns that are focused on issue development, building power, tactics, etc. Click here to see those national campaign readings. To help the students apply these national campaigns to their campaigns, Scott had them fill out Portfolio 9.
Three Campaign Possibilities
At this time, it is good to discuss the three campaign possibilities. As discussed in CHANGE, students can win their campaign, lose their campaign, or if they haven’t won or lost it, they can continue the campaign in the following semester by working on it themselves (not required or expected) or by encouraging a social action class in the following semester to continue the campaign. If the students win, I recommend that the students celebrate for the reasons discussed in the text. Below is the group, Students Against Sexual Harassment, celebrating their victory at an evening event, which was highlighted in a NBC news story.
Public Narratives
During the spring 2020 Covid semester, Scott pivoted and tried to use Dr. Marshall Ganz’s "public narrative" as a tool to frame the students’ social action campaigns. The students found it very engaging. If you have the time, you may consider having students create a public narrative. However, public narratives is really a class into itself, and Marshall teaches it this way. Below are some resources Marshall has created:
Questions
- What will you do with the last one-third of the class? (i.e., case studies, course material from your discipline, or something else?)
- Will you teach public narratives? Why or why not? If yes, will you teach a short or long version of it?
- Our democracy is being threatened. We live in a world where authoritarianism and oligarchy are on the rise. How has what you learned in this book provided you with information to strengthen it, and perhaps even help save democracy?
- What do you think about the “cookie for a call” and “post-it notes” events as ways to keep a campaign moving?
- What reflections do you have about the second and third event after the campaign kickoff?
- What are your thoughts about the three ways a social action class can end?
Case Study
After they learned about how to do a press release, the Students for Filipino Farmworkers created this press release for their campaign launch, and emailed it to the Assignment Desks of the Bay Area newspapers and TV News programs. A press conference and rally is a bit higher heat the two actions described above, and can be described as moderate heat.
Watch the Campaign Launch of the Students for Filipino Farmworkers, which was covered by CBS News below.
Below is an image from the above CBS story:
Below is Kayla from Students for Filipino Farmworkers being interviewed by ABC news, in front of the Cesar Chavez statue on the campus of San José State:
After holding a press conference, the second action taken by the Students for Filipino Farmworkers was a Target Meeting with the campus President, which resulted in her agreeing to the demands of the students. As this Campaign Action approached, the Students for Filipino Farmworkers launched a letter writing campaign on social media.
Positively, the President agreed to meet the demands of the students and build a public installation for the Filipino Farmers near the Farmworkers Statue.
Continue to Campaign Evaluation