Introduction
Chapter 1 — Overview
A — Social Action's Role in U.S. Experiment in Democracy B — US College Social Action C — Benefits of Social Action for Students Campuses, and Society D — The Vision: Bringing Social Action into the Classroom E — Overcoming Challenges of Teaching Social Action
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
Most syllabi include the below five areas. Please take a few minutes and begin filling out each area; this will help you draft your syllabus:
- Course Description: you may want to include a discussion of campaign activities & actions
- Course Learning Outcomes
- Required Texts & Readings (see below for more info)
- Assignments and Grading Policy (see below for more info)
- Readings schedule (you may want to use the Course Plan Template under Session 4: Class Format to begin to think about how the readings, assignments, and reading schedule flow together).
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.
When creating your syllabus, the key things is to have the students start their campaign activities (i.e., naming their group, refining their demands, tabling, 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.
Remember, a social action course must at a minimum explore:
- issue development (i.e., demands and a target),
- building power,
- campaign launch (includes a discussion of tactics)
And while your course can explore other topics as well, the above four topics are required for it to be considered a social action class..
Faculty Advice
Listen to Dr. Arun Argawal, University of Notre Dame, discuss how he created his syllabus from the Institute.
Readings
"CHANGE! A Student Guide to Social Action" was written for faculty and staff 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). Lastly, you may want to use articles that you know about as well.
Assignments
a) Portfolios
b) Quizzes (samples)
c) Campaign Log
d) Participation
e) Campaign Binder and Final Presentation
Syllabus Planning Resources
- Social Action Course Model — This three-page reference document condenses the essential elements from our model social action course.
- Course Planning Document - Click link below to download this course planning worksheet.