Assignment Design for Social Justice Education

The work of social justice requires you to get proximate. Nothing done in the abstract will create anything mindful of change.

Dr. Victoria Robinson speaking on 'Just Mercy' by Brian Stevensen

Event Description:

In this discussion, Berkeley faculty from a variety of disciplines talk about instructional strategies and assignments they’ve developed to help students understand and confront contemporary concerns, and shared their experiences tackling thorny topics. Professors interested in bringing social issues into their course(s) but not sure how or where to start or professors already teaching about social justice looking for ideas and support attended.

Questions explored:

What does social justice pedagogy mean?
How does one design for social justice?
What does this look like across different disciplines?

Panelists:

Moderator:

Dr. Ula Taylor, African American Studies

Topics

In terms of us thinking about social justice education. How do we make this happen in our classrooms... not just in terms of material that we're thinking about and that we're teaching but also [through] the students in our class... [How] do we find a middle ground what to teach, what can be explosive if its not done well.

Dr. Ula Taylor

ACES Student Projects

Find on our Student Projects page a collection of the powerful projects growing from the collaborative understanding and effort developed in UC Berkeley's ACES courses to inspire you to create thought-provoking assignments in your courses. Many of the panelists' courses and projects, as well as many other courses, are listed on the page as well.

Assignment Design Tips

Bring in different forms of knowledge and media. Introduce students to different knowledge sources and pathways. Music, news clips, or other nontraditional forms, help connect the conversation with different media. Pairing traditionally used journals and texts from academia with other forms allows students to reflect on how the different sources interact and speak on the same things. [minute 38]
Think about the assignments and courses ahead of time. The more structure you have in place before the semester, the smoother the semester will be. [sometime after minute 27 and before 30]
Create thoughtful assignments. Brainstorm with community partners, think about what the course revolves around and think about what is possible, what you want to achieve, and where this will take you and your students after the semester. [1:04:50]
Think about "Stickiness": Try to involve a concept called sticky education. Bring in different aspects that might reel in students like topics on current events, society, or personal interests to have students engaged and thinking about the project and the course beyond just the assignment.

Community & Classroom Environments

Connect with other instructors around you. We are an interactive community of practice and deep thought, and it can be helpful to seek insight from other voices. [8:02]
Work closely with your GSI or TAs. Be clear about communication and operational structures to not lose too much time or value in conversations throughout the semester. [sometime after minute 27 and before 30]
Be vulnerable. "the work of social justice requires you to get proximate. Nothing done in the abstract will create anything mindful of change." Be vulnerable with your students and provide a safe space where they can be as well. Understand that change doesn't happen in smooth circumstances, and no work with social justice has been easy.
Bring in the voices of the community. Shift the narrative and dialogue by bringing in these new voices and histories. These new voices can become future reference points for these dialogues.
Take advantage of the diverse skills in the classroom. Having students put their skills together can help create a strong, significant project with great impact. [1:11:30]

Working in Groups or Large Lectures

Consider a hybrid conversation structure. Leave voice comments on reflections, host individual office hour reflections, or invite small groups of students to walk with you and have a conversation throughout the semester. These conversation spaces will allow comfortable and personable engagement their way, whether that be through a screen, in person, or small groups. [30-37]
Be careful of "common blind spots" when working with groups. In large classes, it can be difficult to manage individual students. When group work rises as an opportunity in the classroom, try to introduce differential perspectives and diversity. Work against "divide and conquer" mentalities and get everyone engaged in the process. [30-37]
Use discussion questions as a tool in your classrooms, even large ones. Ask students to submit a question to discuss at the start of the next week after a week's lecture. Doing so allows you to check in on your students and also give them an opportunity to share their insights on social justice matters. Teachable moments may arise with these questions, where you can introduce additional facts and history as to why these issues are hard to solve and grapple with or debunk a myth. It also allows the opportunity for students to join in on the conversation, where all students have the opportunity to ask and answer important questions even in a large classroom setting.
For large lectures, grade reflections, or submissions at random. Have multiple assignments throughout the semester, but grade a random selection of two or three for each student. Doing so lessens the work for you as an instructor but holds them accountable each week because they don't know which will be graded and submit their best work for each one. [54]

Example Assignments from this Session

Dr. Smith and Stakeholder Analysis through supplemental media sources: Students in the Drinking Water and Health class are assigned a water contaminant and asked to present to the rest of the class the stakeholders that are involved. Through texts, viewings, listenings, as well as local sources like journals and news clips, students learn the roles of different stakeholders differently. [16:00]
Dr. Kadir and reflections: Dr. Kadir focuses on bringing moments of tough encounters and following reflection for students. Providing these encounters with difference - with poverty, life experiences, orientations to community work, class, and racial positions among others- and a sanctioned, incentivized space for students to process these encounters helps grow perspective and frames they use to understand these situations. Encounter reflections are not only about an external situation but also about the students themselves. Often, it helps to start with the student and the self, to build trust and relationship as well as the crucial understanding that who the students are- in terms of social position, understandings, what they bring to the table- is a part of the encounter itself.[19:50-22:29]
- Example encounter: Dr. Kadir's students insisted that they survey residents of the Greenway, one of the most impoverished regions of the United States, what their income was despite Khalid and the community partner's reluctances on the idea. Students upon asking what local incomes were felt instant tension when asking these questions and experienced how their understanding of the Greenway wasn't how residents experienced it. [27:00]
Dr. Jones-Rogers and weekly discussion questions submitted by students: Dr. Jones-Roger's class has a lecture section dedicated to student-question driven discussion. She assigns them a discussion question to be asked in class, which they submit over bCourses. Such questions serve as discussion starters. They also help gauge where students are in their understanding of the course, or of relevant themes.
Dr. Jones-Rogers, History and Hip-hop: Dr.Jones-Rogers brings in different forms of narratives by bringing in academic texts as well as hip-hop and rap songs centered around Africa and the African American struggles. They are paired with each other. Students are asked to give a summary of readings and reflect on how readings shape their understanding of the text, through the song, and vice versa. The songs are also considered as texts because students have to read the lyrics.
Dr. Robinson and DACA: Students were introduced to DACA and assigned to create an informational flyer on it. They were asked to think about what information needs to be on the page, which it will apply to, what political context they would need to consider. The posters have been placed up in most student affairs offices, and students took the initiative past the classroom. They posted it on the internet, printed posters and stickers, and spread the information to communities beyond our campus.
Dr. Robinson, Data Science and Detention Center Invisibility: Dr. Robinson was aware that undocumented individuals are captured, and we don't really know much about their conditions because of their civil status. Revolving around the central question, "Why are some deported faster than others?", students were able to work with a data science team to analyze and visualize data from various detention centers around the United States. Students came up with the hypothesis that the more rural the individuals, the faster you were deported due to lack of connections and networks.
Dr. Robinson and the Prison Industrial Complex: Students were given the assignment to create basic annotated bibliographies on a deep topic within the larger themes of the course, as well as particular issues brought by Critical Resistance, a community partner. In 2012, when there was a lot of discussion in the political landscape on prison reform, students were assigned these bibliographies but made to be public information. They were able to get this information to policymakers and the general public, with almost 27 million hits on the website.