Empowerment Pedagogies for a Disrupted World: Lessons from Community‑Engaged Sociology from Arizona to Indiana

• In Event: Teaching and Learning in Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Roundtable 2: Race, Equity and Civic Engagement

Abstract

“Every teacher is always a pupil and every pupil a teacher” (Gramsci 1971). These lessons draw from principles of social justice education (SJE) and the understanding how schools are “agencies of change, where students have human agency and are involved in challenging unjust social structures” (Myers-Lipton 2023:40). Two institutions present their innovative teaching practices in: Food, Justice and Climate at Pima Community College and Communities and Social Movements at Purdue University Northwest. These courses are connected through their common active and experiential learning processes and social justice education pedagogy principles (Wieman, 2013; Wilson, Hanna, & Li, 2019; Adams, Bell Goodman, & Joshi 2016). These courses facilitate more complex and nuanced ways of understanding the learning process in a multilayered social world that meets students where they are and facilitates productive struggle through active and experiential learning through community-engaged research. Students experience collective efficacy as they work together and address issues important to their communities which fosters resilience, empowerment and skill-building through critical consciousness raising processes. Ultimately, this pedagogy counters disengagement, cynicism, and misinformation by helping students develop research skills and coalition-building competencies. This paper positions sociology as a discipline uniquely equipped to demonstrate how pairing sociological tools of inquiry with experiential learning cultivates life-long learners and empowers students to act as agents of change.

Authors

• Josephine Nummi, Purdue University Northwest

• Tiffany Amorette Young, Pima Community College