Summer 2023 Virtual Institute on Teaching Social Action, Bonner Foundation – May 15

Posted by Bonner Foundation on March 28, 2023

This three-day virtual institute will 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 actioncampaign 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.

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.

Dates and Times: JUNE 6 – 8, 2023, 12:00 PM TO 4:00 PM EST EACH DAY

APPLICATION

There is no cost to join the Summer ‘23 Institute on Teaching Social Action. However, we want to restrict participation in the institute to those faculty, staff or students who are committed to implementing this experiential social action course model. Please note that preparing and supporting students to launch their social action campaigns generally takes at least half of the course content and assignments. Some courses are directly on social action and change, while others address a societal issue (e.g., climate change, housing, poverty, etc.) around which students develop their campaigns. From experience, the social action campaign dimension of these courses takes up roughly half of the course work (readings, assignments, and in-class teaching and group work).

Application Deadline: May 15, 2023

Learn more.

In addition to the Institute, there are several other ways to participate in the Teaching Social Action Initiative:

• Join the Teaching Social Action Group to receive updates about our collective social action work;
• Attend our virtual “monthly meetups” of our Community of Practice, where we explore best practices and lessons learned from folks who are currently teaching it; the next meetup is Friday, April 7th at 3:30-5 pm EST: (Passcode: action);
• Attend the National College Summit on Social Action on Thursday, May 11th at 8-9:30 pm EST to hear from students around the nation discuss their campaigns.