The model for teaching social action we’re using is based on the Sociology 164: Social Action class that Dr. Scott Myers-Lipton taught at San José State University in the Fall and Spring semester for 18 years.
The approach to teaching social action we are advocating for is an experiential learning model where students develop and launch policy-change campaigns of their choosing as part of a course. The student campaigns seek to change a policy (i.e., a rule, law, regulation, norm, or practice of an institution) on campus or in the community.
In this social action model, students choose the campaigns to work on, and they can be from a conservative, liberal, or no ideological perspective. The campaigns must be non-violent and cannot break the UN Declaration of Human Rights. The key is that students learn to do democracy, which is a goal of higher education.
There are several key components of the social action model. First, students do social action rather than just learn about it. In a traditional course, students read about theories of social change, analyze social problems, read about campaigns, develop an abstract understanding of concepts, all with the professor being the “sage on the stage”.
In this experiential social action model, students read about theories of social change and apply it to real world campaigns, as well as define a social problem and develop concrete, quantifiable solutions (i.e., demands). In the process of choosing and leading campaigns students are transformed through a direct experience of democracy, all with the professor being a “guide on the side” where they are de-centered and co-creators of knowledge.
A key feature of this social action model is the topic and flow of the course. The motto of this model is “On Your Mark, Go!, Get Set.” In order to launch their campaigns by mid-semester, students go through the issue development process (identifying demands and targets) in the opening days of the class. By choosing their campaigns by the 4th or 5th class (sometimes continuing a campaign from a prior semester), students have enough time to learn about all of the necessary aspects of social change, and then they launch their campaign by the ninth week, and still have almost half a semester to do several actions, as well as to cover the academic course material.
The Learning Outcomes for social action courses described here.