Introduction
Chapter 1 — Social Action: An Overview
Social Action’s Role & US College Social Action
Chapter 2 — Developing a Social Action Class
Course vs Co-Curricular & Prerequisites
Creating a Social Action Syllabus
Role of Place & Each Semester v Every Year
Chapter 3 — Teaching Social Action (TSA) Model
Chapter 5 — Where Do We Go From Here?
Teaching Style
Teaching style focuses on what happens in a classroom, and how it happens. The goal of the teaching style for social action is an engaged classroom; thus, a social action teacher is more “a guide on the side rather than a sage on the stage." The professor in this model yields the central role by having students practice their organizational raps, giving mini-lectures, providing them time to work on their campaigns (with you being available to help address problems that have come up in real time), and bringing in speakers (both alumni and from the community).
This is a democratic education model grounded in an engaged or Freirien pedagogy where students and teachers are co-creators of knowledge and where students have agency. Listen to SML discuss this teaching style:
Listen to Sydney Rittershaus from Northern Arizona University discuss how she balances her faculty role to encourage a democratic classroom:
Listen to Heather Pollock from University of Akron discuss how she has her students lead group discussions:
Class Format
To create a participatory, engaged classroom, the class structure has to be changed from the professor up front, and the students in rows, which is that old style of "the sage on the stage" to where the teacher is the "guide on the side". Thus, the physical setting changes (students are in a circle), and the class format is different too.
Below is Scott’s class format features that he used to create an engaged social action class. Feel free to adopt some of these, as well as create your own.
- 5 min: Business & Social Action Activities (with a focus on youth, both nation & world)
- 5-7 min: Quizzes (on reading)
- 7-10 min: Organization Raps (start on Class 10)
- 15 min: Mini Lectures
- 20-30 min: Campaign Work in Teams (sometimes this needs to happen at beginning of class)
- 10-15 min: Speakers (both alumni & local social action folks)
- 5-10 min: Videos
Examples of the Class Format
- 7-10 min: Organizational Raps
- 15 min: Mini Lectures
- 20-30 min: Campaign Work in Teams
- 10-15 min: Speakers: Alumni on Zoom
- 5-10 min: Videos
Classroom Norms
The text discusses the following classroom norms:
- Co-creators of knowledge
- Teacher is guide on the side, not sage on the state
- Actively listen
- Participate in-class and outside of class
- Read
- Follow through
But what if the students don't believe social change is possible? Helping students to understand that change is possible is key. Everything done in the first third of the class is to help students believe change is possible and to encourage engagement.
Check out Scott’s discussion of what to do if students don’t believe change is possible:
Question:
- How many ways can you identify in the CHANGE books where it is shown that change is possible and where an active learning stance is supported?
Continue to The Students