Teaching
The Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service is committed to the principles of active learning, especially experiential education and community-based learning (CBL). By experiential education we mean “learning activities that engage the learner directly in the phenomena being studied.” (Experiential Education Within Your Institution by Jane Kendall et al. Raleigh, NC: National Society for Internships and Experiential Education, 1986.) Whether through direct or indirect service, we hope to provide experiential learning opportunities that challenge participants’ to question more critically, to reflect more deeply, and to act more creatively and collaboratively in meeting the pressing needs of our day.
By community-based learning, a particular kind of experiential learning, we mean “an academic course-based pedagogy that involves student work with disadvantaged and underserved individuals or groups (or organizations working with and for disadvantaged and underserved individuals or groups) that is structured to meet community-defined needs….”
This deep pedagogy offers students a semester-long way for addressing issues of social justice.
We work with faculty in one-on-one meetings as well as through workshops to help them learn more about these kinds of pedagogies. We offer an annual workshop during the “Teaching, Learning, Innovation Summer Institute (TLISI)” organized by the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship and co-sponsored by CSJ and others.
As the administrative home for the Program on Justice and Peace, CSJ also offers faculty opportunities to learn about that multidisciplinary field.
