Exciting new course for Spring 2008: "Education for Social Change"

hiya,

as i mentioned yesterday, i'm teaching a class next semester!

and as excited as i am, i'm also struggling with ideas for how to market it to a broad base of students. obviously, i'd like to have a class size of more than 3, which is the current tally of committed persons (not too bad though, considering it became official just this afternoon).

i drafted up this general email that i suppose i'll forward around to departments and see if i can recruit people that way. i'm not sure how much i like the last paragraph, about wanting to "change the world," but i felt it was necessary to explain that this is a radical posture, without explicitly stating it.

let me know what you think?
-stef

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Hi everyone -

Do you dream of changing the world? Do you want to meet other people who do? Do you want to get course credit for pursuing your dream?

As you prepare to register for Spring semester classes (priority registration begins Oct. 11 at 7 am!), I hope you will consider taking the student-initiated Interdisciplinary Advanced Seminar: "Education for Social Change."

I am working with Dr. Nick Longo, of the American Studies/ Educational Leadership departments and director of the Wilks Leadership Institute, to develop an exciting new class that will focus on democratic and popular education, their histories, theories, philosophies, practices, and applications. We will look at the role of education in society, examine and reflect on our own educational experiences (through multi-genre and multi-media projects), and use this as an entry point to engaging in social change.

I started this class out of my own desire to "change the world," and because I believe that significant social progress can take place in our lifetime, if the leaders of tomorrow are empowered and encouraged to create it. I believe education provides this hope, and I believe the critical-democratic practices of popular education in particular will free students to pursue their dreams. This class will thus aim to practice democratic educational theory in the study of it.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

-Stephanie Lee
WCP 2008