Fulfilling the democratic promise of equity, accountability, and effectiveness requires the participation of an “organized” citizenry able to formulate, articulate, and assert its shared interests. Organizing, in turn, requires leadership: accepting responsibility for enabling others to achieve shared purpose in the face of uncertainty. Organizers ask three core questions:
1. Who are my people?
2. What is the change we need?
3. How can we turn our resources into the power we need to achieve that change?
Organizers learn to identify, recruit and develop leadership, build community with that leadership, and create power from resources of that community.
This practicum has two modes.
During the first part of the course, Campaign Design, students participate in an 18-day “courseshop”, bookended by two 2.5 day weekend workshops during the weekends of February 14-16 & February 28 - March 2. Students learn with plenary lectures, small group practice and coaching. Requirements include consistent attendance, active participation, selected readings, a 600 word pre-module paper and a 700 word post-module paper. In the 12 days between the two weekend workshops this module will require approximately 15 hours of work (one-to-ones with constituents, team meetings, and meetings with your Teaching Fellow).
In the second half of the course, Campaign Leadership, students participate in plenary sessions on Tuesdays and in sections on Thursdays, from March 24 to May 2. In plenary, we focus on challenges that arise from running an organizing campaign, gain insights from cases, readings, lecture and discussion. In section, we coach each team’s practice leading their campaign as they meet new challenges and discover new opportunities.
You will learn not only “about” these practices. You will learn to practice them experientially, coach others in the practice, and receive coaching yourself. We encourage a “growth mindset” for this practicum: try new things, take some risks, ask new questions.
This practicum is for students interested in learning to create social change through collective action. There are no prerequisites to enroll in the course. Students with and without “real world” organizing experience can find the class equally useful. Students with a strong commitment to the community, organization, or values on behalf of which they are working will be most successful. Because it is a course in practice, it requires trying new things, risking failure, and stepping outside one’s comfort zone. As reflective practitioners, students learn through critical reflection on their experience, feedback, and coaching. Be certain you are prepared for the emotional, behavioral, and conceptual challenges in which the work of organizing is grounded.
All students interested in enrolling in MLD-377 must submit a by midnight on January 24, 2025.
Also offered by the Graduate School of Education as A-612 and the School of Public Health as HPM 575.
