Introduction
Chapter 1 — Overview
A — Social Action's Role in U.S. Experiment in Democracy B — US College Social Action C — Benefits of Social Action for Students, Campuses, and Society D — The Vision: Bringing Social Action into the Classroom E — Overcoming Challenges of Teaching Social Action
Chapter 2 — Developing a Social Action Class
A — Academic Course vs Co-Curricular & B — Prerequisites C — Creating a Social Action Syllabus D — Teaching Style & E —Classroom Norms F — The Students G — Building Campus Allies and Community Partners H —The Role of Place & I —Each Semester vs Every Year (or Other Year) J — Using Mural Board (option)
Chapter 3 — Launching Student Campaigns
A — On Your Mark: Preparing Students for the Road Ahead B — Go! Students Choose Their Issue C — Get Set: Setting the Tone D — Change Theory E — Building Power F — Walking Tour G — Research: Historical Overview, Power Mapping, & Target Analysis H — Group Dynamics I — Strategy & Tactics J — Campaign Kickoff
Chapter 4 — Campaign Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation
A — Timeline & Campaign Plan B — Campaign Implementation: "Series of Actions" Begins C — Campaign Execution & Case Studies D — Campaign Evaluation E — Day of the Final: Campaign Notebook & Group Presentation
Chapter 5 — Where to Go From Here
A — Next Semester B — Mainstreaming Social Action C — Social Action Internship Program D — Pipeline to Jobs & Graduate School E — Status of Current Campaigns F — Impact of Social Action on Former Social Action Students
Introduction
This resource is designed as a companion to reading CHANGE! A Guide to Teaching Social Action by Dr. Scott Myers-Lipton to help prepare participants who will be attending one of our virtual or in-person Teaching Social Action Institutes.
The goal of the Institutes and the supporting resources is to introduce faculty and 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.
To participate in an upcoming Institute, please apply by visiting our Events page. The Institute is designed to be a collaborative working space for those who are committed to teaching a social action course or co-curricular workshop series in the near future.
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. 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.
The guides help faculty and staff develop a syllabus and a plan for teaching a course that involves students launching policy-change campaigns by about mid-semester. This is what differentiates this model most courses on change, as most courses have students talk about change, this model has students doing change.
The CHANGE! Companion assumes you are actively reading CHANGE! A Guide to Teaching Social Action/. We have organized this material to mirror the chapters of the book. We include video presentations by Scott from our prior virtual institutes and examples from student campaign activities and actions, portfolio writing assignments, and flyers and other material produced by one student campaign from planning to launch to victory.
For your student readings, we encourage you to consider using CHANGE! A Student Guide to Social Action as one of the key textbooks for your class. It follows the structure of the teaching guide and flow of the first half of the course model which has students launching their campaigns by the ninth week of the class.
In this Change Companion, we include the student reading assignments, writing assignments in response to portfolio questions, and the final group presentation assignment from Scott Myers-Lipton's Sociology 164 Social Action course, which he taught Fall and Spring semester for 17 years at San Jose State University.
Both books cover the stages for developing and launching student campaigns:
- Issue Development & Choosing Campaigns
- Change Theory & Building Power
- Research & Group Dynamics
- Strategy & Tactics
- Campaign Kick-Off
- Campaign Plan & Evaluation
If you want to view a basic introduction to social action, watch this video presentation that Bobby Hackett, President of the Bonner Foundation, and Scott did for Campus Compact National Webinar Series.
We invite you to join our on-going support and networking community of fellow practitioners who are teaching or learning how to teach social action using this experiential, real-world model. This support will feature monthly Zoom meet-ups during the academic year and participation in this Teaching Social Action Group(on the Bonner 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.
Finally, social action is recognized as a pathway of public service and civic engagement. To see other pathways, watch the below video: