Civic Learning in the Major by Design Minigrants

Posted by Association of American Colleges and Universities on March 12, 2018

Civic Learning in the Major by Design: An Invitation to Apply for Mini-grants to Support Departmental Discussions and Redesigns

With funding from the Endeavor Foundation, AAC&U invites departments from colleges and universities in the United States to apply for mini-grants ($500–850) by midnight on April 23, 2018, to enhance civic learning and democratic commitments for their majors. We intend these grants to facilitate departmental discussions about how to design pathways through which civic learning and social responsibility are understood as integral parts of students’ majors and dimensions of their disciplinary or interdisciplinary study. Most students have opportunities to hone their knowledge in this regard through the first two years of college, but far less frequently in their majors. While there may be some civic-rich courses and pedagogies, few are laid out deliberately through levels of learning across students’ experiences in the major.

The goal is to have civic learning and social responsibility essential, pervasive, and central to how students understand their major and its engagement with public matters.

For examples of how nine departments have invested in these redesigns, please see the recent Peer Review issue on “Civic Learning in the Major by Design” and the twelve departments highlighted in “Case Studies: Civic Learning in the Major by Design.”

In addition to these newly published resources:

• We invite you to join our upcoming webinar, “Redesigning Majors: Disciplinary Knowledge, Civic Learning, and Public Responsibility,” on Tuesday, April 3, 2018, at 1:00 p.m. ET.
• We invite you to employ the AAC&U resource for organizing departmental discussions found in Civic Prompts: Making Civic Learning Routine Across the Disciplines.

To apply, please visit: https://www.aacu.org/civic/mini-grants.

For questions, contact either Caryn McTighe Musil at musil@aacu.org or Carol-lynn Swol at swol@aacu.org.