Take Action Project
Synopsis:
Paulo Friere, Pedagogy of the Oppressed:
Guidelines:
Projects should be student-initiated, collaborative and goal-oriented. Projects also need to be meaningful to you and related to issues you think are important, relevant and personally significant. The focus and scale of projects should be flexible, accommodating your concerns, needs and abilities. You are free to plan small or large scale projects, with a local, national or global scope. You may choose to work in a small group focusing on personal projects that focus on making sustainable lifestyle choices. Some of you may decide to undertake larger scale, long term projects that involve community members. Whatever the nature and scope of your project, you will have opportunities to become a mindful, hopeful citizen who can appreciate the power of collaboration and who can contribute to a more equitable and sustainable world. There will be a wide range of approaches to citizen action and engagement. You are encouraged to determine your own level of social action, by challenging yourself to explore areas where you can be most effective in making personal, community and societal change. You will need to:
Synopsis:
- In the context of the Global Issues course, the Take Action Project seeks to engage you to work with your peers in order to apply your learning and contribute to a more equitable and sustainable planet in which quality of life is improved for all. The goal of the project is to move you from awareness through questioning, inquiry and dialogue, to critical consciousness and, ultimately, to engagement in informed reflective action for positive change. Successful projects will make a difference in your lives and your communities.
Paulo Friere, Pedagogy of the Oppressed:
- "As we attempt to analyze dialogue as a human phenomenon, we discover something which is the essence of dialogue itself: the word. But the word is more than just an instrument which makes dialogue possible; accordingly, we must seek its constitutive elements. Within the word we find two dimensions, reflection and action, in such radical interaction that if one is sacrificed—even in part—the other immediately suffers. There is no true word that is not at the same time a praxis. Thus, to speak a true word is to transform the world. An unauthentic word, one which is unable to transform reality, results when dichotomy is imposed upon its constitutive elements. When a word is deprived of its dimension of action, reflection automatically suffers as well; and the word is changed into idle chatter, into verbalism, into an alienated and alienating "blah." It becomes an empty word, one which cannot denounce the world, for denunciation is impossible without a commitment to transform, and there is no transformation without action. On the other hand, if action is emphasized exclusively, to the detriment of reflection, the word is converted into activism. The latter—action for action's sake—negates the true praxis and makes dialogue impossible. Either dichotomy, by creating unauthentic forms of existence, creates also unauthentic forms of thought, which reinforce the original dichotomy. Human existence cannot be Silent, nor can it be nourished by false words, but only by true words, with which men and women transform the world. To exist, humanly, is to name the world, to change it. Once named, the world in its turn reappears to the namers as a problem and requires of them a new naming. Human beings are not built in silence,3 but in word, in work, in action-reflection. But while to say the true word—which is work, which is praxis—is to transform the world, saying that word is not the privilege of some few persons, but the right of everyone. Consequently, no one can say a true word alone—nor can she say it for another, in a prescriptive act which robs others of their words."
Guidelines:
Projects should be student-initiated, collaborative and goal-oriented. Projects also need to be meaningful to you and related to issues you think are important, relevant and personally significant. The focus and scale of projects should be flexible, accommodating your concerns, needs and abilities. You are free to plan small or large scale projects, with a local, national or global scope. You may choose to work in a small group focusing on personal projects that focus on making sustainable lifestyle choices. Some of you may decide to undertake larger scale, long term projects that involve community members. Whatever the nature and scope of your project, you will have opportunities to become a mindful, hopeful citizen who can appreciate the power of collaboration and who can contribute to a more equitable and sustainable world. There will be a wide range of approaches to citizen action and engagement. You are encouraged to determine your own level of social action, by challenging yourself to explore areas where you can be most effective in making personal, community and societal change. You will need to:
- Reflect deeply upon issues you study
- Consider diverse perspectives
- Make connections between global issues and personal decisions and actions
- Engage in proactive decision-making
- Take a stand on important issues
- Engage in personal and collective action to effect change and contribute to improved quality of life
General Characteristics of Take Action ProjectsProjects may be:
Take Action Project – ExamplesSustainable Environment
- Ongoing over the term or year, or a culminating activity
- New projects, or build upon existing initiatives in the school community
- Reflect your interests, abilities and talents
- Be collaborative
- Make links between local and global issues
- Involve student inquiry and be supported by research
- Allow for diversity
- Be anchored in at least two components of sustainable development (i.e., a sustainable environment, a just economy, and a healthy society)
- Include a dimension of personal lifestyle and decision-making, so as to include more sustainable practices in your daily lives
- Include a learning log for reflection and self-evaluation
- Network with local experts and community resource persons for advice and direction
- Help raise community awareness through promotional campaigns and/or community meetings
- Approach local politicians and community leaders for assistance in their cause and petition them for change
- Organize actions and activities that involve other students in the school and community members
- Provide regular progress updates to the class
- Find alternative and creative means of sharing information with peers and community members
Take Action Project – ExamplesSustainable Environment
- Reducing Your Carbon Footprint
- Water Conservation: Wetlands or River Bank Study and Cleanup
- Community Garden
- Poverty
- Workers’ Rights
- Rights of the Child
- Anti-Consumerism
- Connecting with Seniors
- Be a Mentor or Role Model
- Assessment will be based on the student’s communication of their comprehension on the enduring understandings of the course demonstrated in the Take Action Project.
- Please note that the completion of the Take Action Project is non-negotiable, meaning that if it is not completed you will not receive your credit in the course.