NEW495Y1: Community Engaged Learning: Critical and Creative Perspectives on the Non-Profit Sector
Friday 1-4 pm. WI 2008 Instructor: Kevin Edmonds
About the course:
About the course:- Students work for 5-7 hours per week throughout the academic year on the tasks and projects assigned by their placement supervisor. The work might involve general program assistance, event organizing, preparation of documents, tutoring, service provision or participating in community activities.
- The 2-3 hour seminars meet weekly for much of the first term and then less regularly, according to the program of workshops and speakers. The seminars are spaces for: peer-learning, experience-sharing and problem-solving; hearing from community-based speakers about their experiences; talks on topics related to community engagement and social justice; discussion of scholarly articles and other materials on different aspects of community engagement; workshops on skills and practices for community engagement; and facilitated collective reflection activities.
- The syllabus includes: an overview of the social purpose sector and some of the issues faced; frameworks of social change; and different forms of community engagement and social justice work. It takes up questions and themes that emerge from students’ experiences in their placements (so the syllabus can vary year by year depending on students and placements).
- Assignments include most importantly, regular, written reflections and in-class small-group discussions that grapple with the practical, organizational, ethical and social justice issues that come up for students and allow for thinking that might lead to ethical, personal and career development. There will also be a one or two blog posts, a collaborative designing and delivery of a workshop for the class, an end-of-year symposium presentation, and a final paper where significant learning from the whole year is synthesized and highlighted.
Check out available placement opportunities for 2024-2025
NEW497Y Independent Community Engaged Research Seminar
(Please note that NEW497 has been cancelled this year. It will be offered at a later date. Stay tuned for more details)
About the course:
- Students will work for 5-7 hours per week on the research projects being undertaken by their host organisation. The kind of research will vary according to the organizations’ needs; they may include surveys, interviews, focus groups, archival research, internet or records research, program evaluation or arts-based research.
- A 2-3 hour seminar will meet weekly for much of the Fall term, and then less frequently, depending on programming. The seminar provides a space where students check-in about their progress, share ideas and advice about how to manage challenges they encounter, learn from guest speakers and discuss course materials (articles, videos, toolkits). Each student’s research process will be supported by the course instructor, site supervisors, workshops on research methods, and peer-learning.
- The syllbus includes some background about the social purpose sector, foundations of community-based research, the specific value and applications of community research, the ethical issues in community-engaged research, key methodologies and methods, and case studies of community-based research projects.
- Assignments might include reflective writing, a research journal, a blog post, a report to be given to the organization, and a presentation on the research in an end-of-year symposium at New College.