Reclaiming Democracy: Engaging Students and Communities Through the Social Sciences

Posted by on April 15, 2005

On May 23-25, 2005, Campus Compact for New Hampshire, along with the Campus Compacts of Maine and Vermont, will offer the second in our series of Democracy Institutes.

Reclaiming Democracy: Engaging Students and Communities Through the Social Sciences, will take place in Manchester, New Hampshire and aims to engage social science faculty in discussions on how they can work with students and communities to reclaim and reinvigorate a global democracy.

While cultivating good citizens with democratic skills has always been a significant component of the American education system, this goal has been especially important for the Social Sciences. In addition, the Social Sciences have a long, respected tradition of equipping students with the skills and knowledge they need to examine a world with many countries, cultures, histories, and institutions. Motivating students to see beyond the confines of their classroom can be challenging, but well worth it. Perhaps the most exciting moments for any teacher occur when students thoughtfully connect course material with real world experiences and events. Service-learning is a teaching approach that fosters these connections while promoting citizenship knowledge and democratic skills.

This three-day institute will provide resources and practices for incorporating service-learning and other civic engagement practices into social science courses of higher education, and much more. During this highly interactive institute, you will also analyze documents/data and work briefly with a community-based partner. You will additionally be given the opportunity to reflect on these experiences and discuss them with others in order to develop ideas for promoting civic engagement among your students.

Rick Battistoni, author of Civic Engagement Across the Curriculum, and Political Science Faculty member at Providence College is one of the Institute?s faculty facilitators, along with faculty from Sociology, Psychology and Economics.

I hope that you will take advantage of this exciting professional development opportunity or to pass this brochure to a colleague in the Social Sciences. An application is enclosed with the brochure or may be downloaded from our website, http://www.compactnh.org/ (materials will be online by late March). This Institute is open to all Social Science faculty, though northern New England participants will be given first priority if there are more applicants than there are spaces available.