Tools for Social Justice is a work of public scholarship that brings SoTL to bear on conversations that take place beyond higher education, perhaps around the dinner table, in communities, and in other public contexts where so many of us are trying to change minds. This project reframes social justice advocacy as a kind of teaching, with the people we hope to reach as learners. It draws on SoTL research about resistance to learning, misconceptions, and empathy to name common forms of resistance, describe their underlying reasons, and offer responsive strategies SoTL scholars will already recognize from their classrooms.
The project is intentionally focused rather than comprehensive: it centers on those in the middle of the continuum between staunch supporters and staunch opposers, people who have the potential to change their minds about a given social justice issue. In the current U.S. moment, where social justice issues are increasingly contested and where SoTL scholars find themselves in public conversations that carry real stakes, the site models what it might look like for SoTL expertise to travel into civic life.
How you might use this resource
- To recognize patterns of resistance encountered in public conversations as familiar from the classroomTo apply teaching strategies that already work
- To prepare for conversations with family, neighbors, or community members where social justice issues are contested
- To think alongside a project that demonstrates how SoTL findings can be translated for non-academic audiences without losing their intellectual grounding
How to cite this resource: Chick, Nancy, Jennifer Friberg, David Giovagnoli, Phillip Motley, and Marian McCarthy. 2023. Tools for Social Justice. https://toolsforsocialjustice.org/
Leave a comment