This two-day, in-person institute at the St. John Fisher University in Rochester, New York introduced 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.
Hosts
Anthony Siracusa
Assistant Professor of History and Community Engagement
St. John Fisher University
This Institute is hosted in partnership with Nazareth University and the University of Rochester.
Institute Participants
Carly Fox
Student Union, Leadership & Activities (SULA)
SUNY Brockport
Craig Talmage
Business Management & Entrepreneurship
Hobart & William Smith Colleges
Diane Bessel
Social Work & Sociology
Daemen University
Divya Gupta
Environmental Studies
Binghamton University
Frances Garrett
Dept for the Study of Religion
University of Toronto
Gretchen Purser
Sociology
Maxwell School of Syracuse University
Jeremy Smith
Warner School of Education
University of Rochester
Kathryn Cilano
Center for Leadership & Civic Engagement
RIT
Katie Hagstrom
Bachelor of Social Work
Roberts Wesleyan University
Kelvin Sanchez-Orona
Freedom Scholars Learning Center
N/A
Kristen Driskill
Department of Inclusive Education
St. John Fisher University
Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp
Program of Dance & Movement
University of Rochester
Sebastien Lazardeux
Political Science and Legal Studies
St John Fisher 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. Below is the Institute agenda:
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 attendees to participate in our networking community of fellow practitioners who are teaching or learning how to teach social action using this experiential, real-world model. The Teaching Social Action Group is hosted by the Bonner Foundation on the Bonner Learning Community Platform 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.