1st Edition
Doing Social Justice Education A Practitioner's Guide for Workshops and Structured Conversations
This book is principally written for entry-level student affairs and non-profit staff who develop and facilitate social justice education workshops and structured conversations, as well as for student peer educators who are often employed to assist in the facilitation of such workshops for their peers. It is suitable for anyone starting out to do such work.It provides readers with a practical framework and hands-on tools to craft effective and positive interventions and workshops that are relevant to context and are true to the facilitator’s own circumstances.It offers a succinct but comprehensive introduction to the planning, design, and facilitation of social justice experiences, grounding readers in relevant theory, taking into account participants’ prior understandings of issues of race and privilege, institutional environment and campus climate, and the facilitator’s positionality. It provides guidance on defining outcomes and developing content and exercises to achieve workshop goals.Starting from the premise that the facilitation and delivery of social justice education experiences should be grounded in scholarship and that such experiences can only achieve their ends if crafted to meet the unique characteristics and circumstances of the institution and workshop participants, the authors begin by synthesizing current theory on social justice education and cultural competence, and then guiding readers on analyzing the context and purpose of their workshop. They provide readers with an easy to follow five-part framework to systematically design social justice education workshops and structured conversations and to assess the resulting learning. Particularly valuable for those starting out in this work is guidance on facilitation and on the use and selection of exercises to align with goals and participants' characteristics and social identities.
Foreword—Rev. Dr. Jamie Washington Acknowledgments Introduction Part One. A Process to Design, Facilitate, and Assess Social Justice Education Workshops and Structured Conversations 1. Contextual Influences 2. Theories and Conceptual Frameworks 3. Cultural Consciousness and Learning Outcomes 4. Pedagogical Considerations and Selecting Activities 5. Facilitation 6. Assessing Student Learning 7. Considerations for Online Experiences Part Two. Examples of Applying this Process to Social Justice Education Workshops and Structured Conversations 8. Introductory Diversity Workshop at Large Midwestern University (LMU. 9. Racial Literacy Dialogue for Small Liberal Arts College (SLAC. 10. Social Inequality Workshop for Regional Teacher Nonprofit (RTN. Conclusion. Ensuring Social Justice and Advancing Education Appendix. Annotated List of Activities References Index
Biography
D. Scott Tharp, Ph.D., M.S.W., has worked in higher education for over ten years with a focus on social justice education, learning assessment, and program evaluation. As a scholar-practitioner, his research focuses on all aspects of social justice education, including curriculum design, facilitation, and assessment. He currently serves the DePaul University community as the Assessment & Effectiveness Specialist for the Division of Student Affairs. Previously, Dr. Tharp served DePaul as Associate Director within the former Center for Intercultural Programs where he oversaw the Center's curricular social justice education program and workshop initiatives, created and facilitated diversity and social justice education workshops for students, faculty, staff, and community partners, and coordinated a new online education initiative. Before that, Dr. Tharp served as the Program Coordinator in the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs at Columbia College Chicago.Dr. Tharp is an active scholar-practitioner who has published articles in the Journal of Transformative Education, Multicultural Education, Multicultural Perspectives, Change Magazine, About Campus Magazine, and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education Magazine. He is a member of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) and an invited speaker at NCORE - the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education. He also served on the National Advisory Committee for NCORE from 2014-2017. Roger A. Moreano is the assistant dean of students, director of equity and inclusion, and the codirector of the Equity and Inclusion Committee at Carthage College. Rev. Dr. Jamie Washington, President, Washington Consulting Group (WCG); President & Co-Founder, Social Justice Training Institute (SJTI); President (2019), ACPA – College Student Educators International.
“This work provides an essential contribution on how to design, facilitate, and assess social justice education workshops. It is a timely and practical addition to the literature for educators seeking to develop workshop and structured conversations related to power, privilege, and social identity. The authors’ emphasis on theoretical grounding, facilitation as a process, and self-reflection will help provide current and aspiring social justice educators with a structure they can utilize across a variety of co-curricular contexts.”
Robert Brown, Director of Social Justice Education
Northwestern University
