Welcome to the Tuesday Teaching Tip, an easy-to-implement tool that you can use immediately in your classroom teaching. 

TUESDAY TEACHING TIP: Civic Education after the Election

Fostering civic engagement in your course can be a meaningful way to help students become active, informed citizens and a fantastic way to inspire students to connect their academic learning with real-world social impact, particularly post-election.

This week, we challenge you to inspire your students to connect what they’re learning in your class with a current-day social justice issue. 

Here’s one way to do it 

• Host structured debates on a relevant civic topic, guiding students to research and defend various perspectives which will build their skills for informed, active citizenship. Topics might range from local policy debates to global issues.
• Encourage students to identify and propose their own civic engagement projects. They could design a campus event, create a public awareness campaign, or initiate a social media project related to course learning objectives. This outward facing assignment helps students recognize what they’re learning in class has real-world implications.
• Facilitate discussions or reflective writing on students' social roles, privileges, and responsibilities in society to help foster a sense of personal commitment to civic duty.

These teaching strategies can play a pivotal role in helping students become more informed, motivated, and involved citizens. By embedding civic engagement into your coursework, you can foster a sense of responsibility and empowerment among students, equipping them to make meaningful contributions to society.

DID YOU DO IT?

Let us know how it went. We would love to hear your feedback about how you implemented today’s Tuesday Teaching Tip in your classroom. Click here to fill out our 3-question survey.

UPCOMING EVENTS 

To continue this conversation, join us for our next CAFE, Civic Education after the Election: Teaching Organizing and Advocacy with a panel of our colleagues from across campus, Thursday, Nov. 21, 12:15-1:15. Sign up here. 

A follow-up session will be offered by the Ignatian Center on December 10th on “How to Teach Advocacy,” providing a more intensive workshop space to do this work. 

This week’s Tuesday Teaching Tip was prepared by Amy Lueck (English) and Patti Simone (Psychology) on behalf of the Faculty Collaborative.

Missed a teaching tip? Read them all here. Don’t forget to check out our Faculty Associates office hours here.

And check out our full calendar of CAFEs and other Faculty Development and Faculty Collaborative events.