This two-day, in-person institute on the campus of the University of Alabama will introduce faculty and teaching staff to an experiential learning approach for incorporating social action campaigns into either a semester-long course or co-curricular workshop series. In this transformative experiential learning model, students develop and launch a social action campaign of their choosing during the semester the course is taught.
Our long-term goal is to mainstream this model for teaching active democracy. The world needs more citizens who have developed their knowledge and skills in bringing about positive change through real world experience.
Note: we ask that attendees fully participate in our community of practice by making the following commitments.
Host
Cassandra Simon
Associate Professor, School of Social Work
University of Alabama, csimon@ua.edu
Read profile here.
Dr. Simon’s Social Action Course
Institute Participants
Tiffany Hoard-Aaron
Criminal Justice & Sociology
Jackson State University
Mila Turner
Sociology and Criminal Justice
Clark Atlanta University
Bonfas Owinga
Political Science
Clark Atlanta University
Jenna DePasquale
Sociology, Criminology, and Social Work
Mississippi State University
Kennedy Offei-Nelson
Social Science
Stillman College
Tim Williams
Kinesiology
Stillman College
Dongwook Kim
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work
University of South Alabama
Marie des Neiges Léonard
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work
The University of South Alabama
Charity White
Political Science and Criminal Justice
University of South Alabama
Adrian Popan
Department of Psychology and Sociology
The University of West Alabama
Keya Saxena
Department of Communication
University of South Alabama
April Taylor
Communication
University of South Alabama
Kayla Bohannon
Politics, Justice, Law, and Philosophy
University of North Alabama
Eunika Simons
Social Work
Benedict College
Liz Hutchison
Gender Studies
Mississippi State University
Institute Preparation
During the two-day Institute, participants will begin to develop a teaching plan to support student campaigns to be launched mid-semester. The Institute sessions will be led by Dr. Scott Myers-Lipton, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at San José State University. In preparation for the Institute, participants will read two textbooks — CHANGE! A Student Guide to Social Action and CHANGE! A Guide to Teaching Social Action — as well as CHANGE! A Companion Guide to Teaching Social Action.
These resources address all aspects of teaching a social action course, including:
- An Overview of Teaching Social Action
- Organizing Your Class
- Issue Development & Choosing Campaigns
- Change Theory & Building Power
- Research & Group Dynamics
- Strategy & Tactics
- Campaign Kick-Off
- Campaign Plan & Evaluation
Here is a graph of how these course topics flow in Scott’s social action course:
Over the two-days, participants will meet each day for discussions about your goals, course models, teaching approach, and sharing examples and exercises that will help you plan your social action course or workshop series. Institute participants will work with this course planning worksheet (below), which explores many of the issues that arise when teaching social action.
At the conclusion of the institute, we will invite participants to join a year-long support and networking community of fellow practitioners who are teaching or learning how to teach social action using this experiential, real-world model. You will also be added to the Teaching Social Action Email Discussion Group to give faculty, staff, and students a forum for asking questions, discussing active student campaigns, sharing successes and challenges, and announcing future opportunities for training, education, and reflection.