Motivation to Teach Social Action:
I have been using related approaches in Sociology, Geography, and General Education courses and hope to continue to expand and improve my practice. Thus far I have focused primarily on Service Learning frameworks and social justice pedagogy. In our capstone General Education course, all students participate in a semester-long Service Learning project, often in partnership with a local nonprofit. We hope to expand this approach to involve more content and opportunity related to activism, policy, and advocacy, and the Teaching Social Action approach sounds perfectly aligned.
Course Description:
Innovating to Impact: Your Engagement with the Community invites students to examine complex problems that directly impact our communities. These concepts are investigated through cross discipline communication utilizing service learning and/or design thinking approaches. This is the culminating course in the Russell Sage College General Education Program. Students will develop meaningful connections between disciplinary knowledge, personal and professional experiences, and community context as students develop social, civic, and professional interests for a fuller life.
Taught By:
Ali Schaeffing
Assistant Professor of Geography
Director, Service Learning
Russell Sage College
Read profile here.