Fall 2023 and Winter 2024 Teaching Social Action Institutes

Posted by Corella & Bertram F. Bonner Foundation on August 15, 2023

The Fall ’23 or Winter ’24 Teaching Social Action Institutes are designed to give instructors the tools and knowledge to incorporate student-led social action campaigns by modifying a current course or developing a new one. Social action is a transformative experiential learning model where students launch their own campaign or join a community organization’s campaign. Over the past year, faculty and staff have created over 25 courses using social action.

• The Fall ’23 Teaching Social Action Institute will be held in person on October 28-29, 2023 at the University of Michigan, hosted by the Pathways Alliance at the School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS). To register for the Fall ‘23 Institute, click here; applications are due October 10th. Space is limited. There is no fee to participate, meals will be provided, and the training will run from 9am-5:30pm on the 28th, and 9am-12:30pm on the 29th. If you have any questions, please contact Professor Arun Agrawal and Cristy Watkins, Fall ’23 Institute organizers at the University of Michigan.
• The Winter ‘24 Teaching Social Action Institute will be held on-line on January 3-5, 2024. Click here to learn more and apply for this cost-free Institute; applications are due by December 15th. The training occurs over three days from 12-4 pm EST. Both trainings will be led by Dr. Scott Myers-Lipton, Director of the Teaching Social Action Initiative. If you have any questions about the Winter ’24 Institute, please contact Scott.

The students’ social action campaigns seek to change a rule, regulation, norm, policy, or practice of an institution, on campus or in the community. This social action model requires teachers to devote about one-half of the time to the social action campaign-related assignments and class time (e.g., to explore issue development, building power, tactics, and campaign implementation). Generally, the course reading is also reduced so that the 1.5 hours per week that students devote to their campaign work is not burdensome.

Please share this opportunity with faculty and staff colleagues at your institution and beyond. You can help us achieve the Teaching Social Action Initiative mission, which is to have on every U.S. campus, every semester, a course where students learn social action by doing it.