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
Every campus has some history that can be tapped to highlight how social action has or could play a role in its history. Below is the Social Action Campus Tour at San José State University. Students walk to: (1) a memorial on the side of a building dedicated to an SJSU alum who wrote a famous poem about the working class rising up against elite; (2) a building where 600 Japanese Americans were processed in 1941, and then incarcerated; (3) Farmworkers Memorial statue (was named after Cesar Chavez, and a final name is forthcoming), and (4) the Tommie Smith and John Carlos Statues.
Scott created this campus map to show you the campus tour spots:
Before the campus tour, Scott had his students read a few articles to prepare them. After researching what social action events have happened on your campus or in the surrounding community, you might want to choose a few articles highlighting these events. In fact, Scott wrote up the information he discovered about the campus social actions at SJSU, and created a small booklet entitled "Racial and Social Justice at San José State University", which was published by the SJSU Human Rights Institute (2021).
For Scott’s tour, the readings included:
- Myers-Lipton, “Edwin Markham: The Man with the Hoe and Tower Hall”
- Myers-Lipton: “Japanese American Internment at Men’s Gym”
- Notice: Headquarters Western Defense Command
- Seib, “Uchida Hall was Once a Transfer Point…” (bottom of page 1, Spartan Daily)
- Baca, “The Arch of Dignity, Equality, and Justice”
- Myers-Lipton: “Gaylord Nelson’s Earth Day & Burying of a New Ford Maverick”
- Myers-Lipton, “Tommy Smith, John Carlos, and the Statues”
- Walker, “It is Finished”
Here is Scott discussing how you can design a social action tour on your campus or local community. Note that the campus tour was originally called a Walking Tour, but a TSA faculty member pointed out that not everyone can walk, and encouraged TSA to make our language more inclusive. TSA now uses Social Action Campus Tour in its Institutes.
Here is Dr. Arun Argawal talking about how he created a Social Action Tour for this students at the University of Michigan:
Questions
- What did you learn from the SJSU Campus Tour and Dr. Argawal that can be applied to your campus?
- What sites on your campus or local community have been the site of social action? What would your Campus Tour look like?
Continue to Research