SMC Core Curriculum Course Proposal Form for
Comm 161: Communication & Social Justice
Electronically submit this course form and attachments to the Chair of the CCC by
October 1. Please submit a separate proposal for each desired learning goal.
1. Name of Proposer: Scott M. Schönfeldt-Aultman
2. Email address: sschonfe@stmarys-ca.edu
3. Department/Program of Proposer: Communication
4. Name of Department/Program housing the course: Communication
5. Name(s) of Program Director/Department Chair (if not the proposer): Dan
Leopard
6. Course Acronym, Number and Title: Comm 161: Communication & Social Justice
7. Proposal is for All Sections of the course: Yes
Proposal is for instructor’s section(s) (Pathways to Knowledge only): _____
8. Course Prerequisites (if any): None
9. Unit Value of Course: 1
10. Mark with an X the Learning Goal for which the course is being proposed.
(Please submit a separate proposal for each desired goal.)
Pathways to Knowledge (at most one)
Artistic Understanding – Artistic Analysis only: ____
Artistic Understanding – Creative Practice only: ____
Artistic Understanding – Both Artistic Analysis and Creative Practice: ____
Mathematical Understanding: ____
Scientific Understanding: ____
Social, Historical, Cultural Understanding: ____
Christian Foundations: ____
Theological Explorations: ____
Engaging the World (as appropriate, generally zero to two)
American Diversity: ____
Common Good: ____
Community Engagement: X
Global Perspectives: ____
11. Expected Attachments:
a) Syllabus: Current course syllabus containing a course description and a list of
learning outcomes. The course’s learning outcomes must include coverage of
the Learning Outcomes associated with the Core Curriculum Learning Goal
for which the course is being proposed.
CCC Course Proposal Form2013-2014September 4th, 2013
b) Teaching and Learning: A narrative that explains how the course will guide
students toward achieving each Learning Outcome and how coursework
(e.g., papers, exams, videotaped presentations) will be used to measure
student achievement of each Learning Outcome. Please address the outcomes
directly and one by one.
Notes:
a) While courses and individual sections within courses may vary, the Core should
provide relatively consistent experiences. Thus our expectation is that each
section of a course designated for a Pathways to Knowledge goal will satisfy all
the corresponding learning outcomes. Further, that the features of any syllabus
submitted are sufficiently generic to faithfully represent all sections of the
course. The CCC relies on department chairs and program directors to oversee a
reasonable degree of uniformity in how its courses address the learning
outcomes.
b) We encourage departments and programs to develop courses so that an
Engaging the World goal can apply to all sections (in which case we will expect a
representative syllabus). We also welcome proposals from individual
instructors.
c) Any course approved for the Core must provide data for the assessment of Core
Curriculum learning goals at an institutional level. Via this proposal a
chair/program director agrees to oversee the submission of the student work
necessary for the assessment of the learning goals, and that his/her instructors
of Core courses will participate in assessment exercises, if asked. Similarly, if the
proposal is from an instructor, that individual agrees to oversee submission of
work from appropriate sections of their course.
d) (Legal and Logistical Workshop) Each instructor of a Community Engagement
(CE) course must participate in a workshop each year before the course is
taught. This workshop will outline the logistical and pedagogical support the
College will be providing to CE courses, as well as provide updates on any legal
or regulatory requirements of community-involved courses. At the workshops,
instructors will be provided information about legal and logistical paperwork
that must be completed by stated deadlines in order to ensure that each CE
course / experience can run safely and effectively.
e) (Pedagogical Workshops) Each instructor of a Community Engagement (CE)
course is required to have training in the pedagogy of Community Engagement,
as few faculty are trained in their disciplines to educate students outside of the
traditional classroom. Faculty who have studied the pedagogy of CE or taught
such courses in the past are invited to submit those experiences to the
Community Engagement Working Group as evidence of qualification. For faculty
without previous CE experience or training, CILSA will provide two two-hour
CCC Course Proposal Form2013-2014September 4th, 2013
workshops that will assist the instructor in integrating the community
engagement learning outcomes into their course. (These workshops are also
available for faculty who wish a refresher.
Context
Comm 161: Communication and Social Justice is a topics based class focused on the
intersection between communication/communicative practices and social justice.
Different instructors use different sites or topics for illustrating this intersection, for
example past versions of this class have used food justice, hip-hop, and
consumerism. Despite these differences, all versions of this course employ a
significant service-learning project with mutual benefit for the students and
community partner(s) and with on-going reflection as integral to the teaching and
learning. We are proposing the following as standard features of this course
regardless of the instructor or semester so that it will meet CE designation.
Moreover, the three CE learning outcomes will appear on all syllabi, to emphasize
how CE works in our classes (see, e.g., Schönfeldt-Aultman’s syllabus).
In addition to a significant service-learning project (mutually benefitting students
and community partners) requiring 20-30 hours of work per student during the
semester and ongoing reflection (including the Community Engagement Journal and
in-class/oral and/or written reflection), all sections of this course will include the
following two Learning Outcomes:
1) Be able to analyze the role of ______ (e.g. food, drag/gender performance, etc), as a
communicative practice, in creating social justice as well as what social justice
means in this context.
2) Recognize, through reflection (a) how our ______ (e.g., food choices, gender
performances, etc.), as communicative practices, intersect with larger social,
cultural, economic, and/or political systems, as well as (b) the responsibilities we
have for creating social justice through these practices.
These learning outcomes are designed to encapsulate the three CE designation
outcomes in ways appropriate to the field of Communication and to the individual
course topics within the larger framework of communication and social justice.
Teaching
1)
Apply academic methods and/or theories in a way that promotes
collaboration and mutual benefit in a community setting; and
Instructor will include reading and provide opportunities for class discussion of
reading that helps students understand and apply community engagement
experience, as evidenced in Learning Outcome 1 and 2 listed above.
CCC Course Proposal Form2013-2014September 4th, 2013
2)
Demonstrate critical reflection throughout their experience; and
The course incorporates instructor-generated reflection prompts throughout the
semester, including in-class/oral and/or written, that helps students draw
connections between community engagement experiences and course concepts.
This is also evidenced in the standard course Learning Outcome 1 and 2 above.
3)
Express their understanding of the interconnections between their
experience and their responsibilities as members of social or professional
communities
The course includes a Community Engagement Journal, on-going reflection, and
both standard course learning outcomes listed above (in addition to other sectionspecific ones).
Learning
1)
Apply academic methods and/or theories in a way that promotes
collaboration and mutual benefit in a community setting; and
Community Engagement Journal shows links to reading and discussion of
reading and community engagement. This is also reflected in both standard
course learning outcomes above.
2)
Demonstrate critical reflection throughout their experience; and
Ongoing in-class reflections (either written or oral) and CE Journal will allow
students to fulfill this goal, and as evidenced in standard course Learning
Outcomes 1 and 2.
3)
Express their understanding of the interconnections between their
experience and their responsibilities as members of social or professional
communities
The Community Engagement Journal and ongoing in-class reflections allows for
this, as do the two standard course learning outcomes listed above. The CE
Journal, for example, could include the prompt, “How has community experience
and reading shaped how you conceive of your responsibility as a human being, as
a student at SMC, as a citizen of the communities of which you are a part?”
CCC Course Proposal Form2013-2014September 4th, 2013