Notre Dame ‘25 Institute on Teaching Social Action

This two-day, in-person institute at the University of Notre Dame 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.

The student campaigns seek to change a rule, regulation, norm, or practice of an institution, whether on campus or in the community. While not all of the student campaigns are successful, many have been and those that haven’t succeeded have still taught valuable lessons to those who led them and those who were engaged in one form or another.

Our long-term goal is to mainstream this model for teaching active democracy. The world needs more people 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.

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, 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.

Institute Host

Dr. Arun Agrawal

Pulte Family Professor of Development Policy

Keough School of Global Affairs

Inaugural Director, Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative

University of Notre Dame

“Teaching social action has been one of the highlights of my career, as it provides students with concrete tools with which to organize social action campaigns.

The 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

Participants will work individually and in groups to discuss the possible ordering of course topics listed bellow. We will share the process and lessons learned from prior student campaigns. We will discuss the pros and cons of revising a course to incorporate social action campaigns or develop a new course that complements an existing course, concentration, minor, major, or certificate program. We welcome participants who want to explore developing a co-curricular social action workshop series.

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.

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.

There is no registration fee for the Indiana ‘25 Institute on Teaching Social Action. However, we want to restrict participation in the institute to those faculty, staff or students who are committed to implementing this experiential social action course model. Please note that preparing and supporting students to launch their social action campaigns generally takes at least half of the course content and assignments. Some courses are directly on social action and change, while others address a societal issue (e.g., climate change, housing, poverty, etc.) around which students develop their campaigns. From experience, the social action campaign dimension of these courses takes up roughly half of the course work (readings, assignments, and in-class teaching and group work).