Structure
Pedagogy
This course is guided by the principles of decolonial, participatory, and critical pedagogies. While activist praxes clearly inform the course subject matter, they also shape how we will learn and collaborate with one another. Each session will be guided by and model different deliberative practices and discussion modes, which are aimed at fostering space for honest communication, collective learning, and the undoing of social hierarchies and un/conscious biases that manifest in the classroom.
Our course materials embrace diverse knowledges, which may take the form of written academic texts, films, podcasts, news articles, think pieces, social media posts, and other popular cultural texts and multimodal ephemera. All materials will be available electronically and it is expected that students will assume an active role in contributing additional resources that are not adequately represented in the syllabus. In the spirit of sharing and building public forms of knowledge, we will make use of the course website, mixtape, podcast, social media, and a public notebook.
Course Requirements
1. Class Participation and Attendance
Prior to class, students are asked to contribute to our:
social media (@actbeyondtheclass on Instagram, @actbeyondclass on Twitter) with at least one post related to Three “Qs” (one question, one quandary, and one quote).
class mixtape with a song or soundscape that relates to your engagement with the weekly readings.
During class, we take turns contributing to our:
public notebook: rather than, or in addition to, taking individual notes, we will experiment with a collective public record of how we are making sense of our class discussions.
social media, as another public-facing archive of the experience of our class sessions. This could include recorded video (when we have consensus to do so), images, quoted dialogue, brief discussion summaries, etc.
2. Working Groups
We will form three working groups that will be responsible for leading two-week units related to the teacher organizing; youth and student organizing; and, processes of change in Philadelphia communities. Each working group will have a space on Canvas and the course website to organize the collaborative inquiry process, and is expected to produce the following over the course of the semester:
a syllabus of texts and resources that are useful for understanding the subject matter and will guide class discussion over two weeks.
web content for the working group pages on the course website, which should include the
syllabus, podcast episode, and any other materials that represent the collective vision and
effort of the group (e.g., discussion questions, images of class sessions, class slides, etc.).
self and peer feedback, which will form the working group participation grade.
3. Individual Community Engagement
All students must attend an event that is community-based and broadly related to the themes of the course. In the past, students attended community town halls, service events, organization meetings, and protests, though other kinds of off-campus engagement related to issues of educational or social justice are welcomed. After the experience, you must write a sort reflection describing the experience and how it relates to the course, which can be shared on the class website. 500 words (max) is appropriate and these reflections can be submitted at any time.
4. Op-Ed Article
Each participant is asked to craft one opinion article of 750-1250 words related to a topic of their choosing and which is broadly related to the themes of the course. These will be peer-reviewed and workshopped. Extra credit will be given if the opinion piece is published.