Introduction
A — Social Action’s Role & B – US College Social Action
C — Benefits of Social Action & D – Bringing into Classroom
Chapter 2 — Developing a Social Action Class
A — Academic Course vs Co-Curricular / B — Prerequisites C — Creating a Social Action Syllabus D — Teaching Style / E — Classroom Norms F — The Students G — Building Campus Allies and Community Partners H —The Role of Place / I —Each Semester vs Every Year (or Other Year) J — Maintaining Momentum
Chapter 3 — Launching Student Campaigns
A — On Your Mark: Preparing Students for the Road Ahead B — Students Choose Their Issue - GO! C — Group Dynamics, part 1-Setting the Tone (Get Set) D — Change Theory E — Building Power F — Social Action Campus Tour G — Research: Historical Overview, Power Mapping, & Target Analysis H — Group Dynamics, part 2 I — Strategy & Tactics J — Campaign Kickoff
Chapter 4 — Campaign Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation
A — Timeline & Campaign Plan B — Campaign Implementation: "Series of Actions" Begins C — Campaign Execution & Case Studies D — Campaign Evaluation E — Day of the Final: Campaign Notebook & Group Presentation
Chapter 5 — Where to Go From Here
A — Next Semester B — Mainstreaming Social Action C — Social Action Internship Program D — Pipeline to Jobs & Graduate School E — Status of Current Campaigns F — Impact of Social Action on Former Social Action Students
CHANGE! A Guide to Teaching Social Action
- Chapter 2C: Creating a Social Action Syllabus (p. 32-42)
DISCUSSION: Creating a Social Action Syllabus
A social action course must include: (1) Issue Development (i.e., demands and a target); (2) Building Power; (3) Campaign Launch (includes a discussion of tactics). While your course can explore other topics, the above three topics are required for it to be considered a social action class.
When creating your syllabus, the key things is to have the students start their campaign activities (i.e., naming their group, developing and refining their demands, meeting with stakeholders, etc) by the 2nd or 3rd week of the class. This is in line with our overall teaching social action philosophy of On Your Mark, GO, Get Set. This will make sure that students have the opportunity TO DO action, rather than just talk about change.
As you create your syllabus, feel free to borrow from SML’s Sociology 164: Social Action syllabus. Some Institute participants use the format from this syllabus for their classes. Feel free to do this, or you may want to add/subtract from it. In addition, you might want to review the syllabi from over 100+ courses that have been created by Institute participants from a variety of disciplines.
The key part of this model is that students do “policy change” through a campaign. Listen to Scott discuss how policy change requires students to make a demand of a decision-maker:
Listen to Dr. Arun Argawal, University of Notre Dame, discuss how he created his social action syllabus after participating in an Institute.
Listen to to Scott discuss how students should complete 1.5 hours of camapign work each week:
As you create you syllabus, you will want to address:
- Required Texts & Readings (see below for more info)
- Assignments and Grading Policy (see below)
- Readings schedule (check out 7 Weeks and Go below)
Required Texts and Readings
"CHANGE! A Student Guide to Social Action" was written for faculty to use in social action classes. You can use this text, or you can use some other social action book here. Also, feel free to use the readings from SML’s Social Action course reader. The reader includes case studies of previous student social action campaigns, student reflections from previous social action courses, as well as readings about social action and various case studies (ACT-UP, NRA, Parkland students, Occupy, BLM, Green New Deal, and more). In addition, you may want to use articles that you know about.
Assignments and Grading Policy
a) Portfolios
b) Quizzes (samples)
c) Campaign Log
d) Participation
e) Campaign Binder and Final Presentation
Syllabus Planning Resources
- Course Planning Document - Click link below to download this course planning worksheet.
- Seven Weeks and Go! - This documents shows how you might organize the flow of your class to get students to launch their campaign in seven weeks.
- Social Action Course Model — This three-page reference document condenses the essential elements from our model social action course.
- Student Campaign Implementation Worksheet - This is a useful worksheet to give your students to help them develop and manage their campaigns.