How do my identity and values impact my thoughts and actions?
The following set of activities helps students explore the complex intersection of students’ identity, social and personal values, and worldview as they build a deeper understanding of themselves as individuals in a community, influenced by, and engaging with, a complex society. These do not sit directly within either the first or second bubble, but instead are a part of the overarching process of working with students and building a trusting classroom community.
Beyond self introspection, these activities help students understand the origins and impact of belief systems that they and others hold, leading to the realization that everyone operates from an ideology, conscious or not, that explains their position in the world - that there is no such thing as political neutrality.
Learn more about the Ingtegrated Action Civics framework
Sense of Self includes six analytical tools:
Empowerment Framework / Values Inventory / Worldview / Envisioning Justice / Manifesto for a Just Society / 3 Kinds of Citizens
Click to enlarge. (Back-button to return).
Values Inventory
What values guide us as we navigate our world?
Students consider a large list of personal values and select those that most closely speak to them. Followup questions help them contemplate their choice and reflect on the process.
The list includes personal qualities as well as social and communal values. It can help students think about the meaning of family, community and society.
USE THIS STRATEGY
CLASSROOM RESOURCES
|
LEARNING & EMPOWERMENT
CONNECTIONS AND EXTENSIONS
- Worldview - The Values Inventory is a good pre-lesson before the Worldview activity.
Click to enlarge. (Back-button to return).
Worldview
How does our worldview shape our thoughts and actions?
Where do our beliefs and values come from?
Understanding worldview is critical for analyzing the role stakeholders play in a change-process. Our worldview - how and why we make sense of the world - shapes our thoughts, opinions and actions. It both contributes to, and is impacted by, one’s identity and influences how we move through the world.
USE THIS STRATEGY
HOW IT WORKS
CLASSROOM RESOURCES
|
EXAMPLES |
LEARNING & EMPOWERMENT
Exploring Worldview helps students:
- be more self-aware as well as better understand how and why other people do what they do.
- understand how whole societies and cultures embody and perpetuate a particular ideology.
- uncover implicit judgement, develop empathy, and contemplate the ethical dimension of contemporary issues and historical events.
Helps teachers:
- examine our stance - how we show up - in the classroom and our assumptions about our students.
- reflect on our pedagogy - how we decide what’s important to teach and how to teach it.
Helps classroom communities:
- build awareness and respect for one another.
- lay the groundwork to work and collaborate as change-makers.
CONNECTIONS AND EXTENSIONS
- Values Inventory - What values are most important to you?
- Visioning Justice - Explore ideals of a just society.
- Manifesto (G.Slides) - What changes do you want to see?
Click to view slideshow (15 seconds each)
Envisioning Justice
What are the features of a just society?
How does ours compare?
Social change requires a shared vision of an alternative. Too often, though, we are trapped by the belief that the world that we experience is fixed. The strategy helps students generate and reflect upon an expansive, unlimited vision of a world they would want to live in.
Using dynamic scaffolding, students brainstorm characteristics of a just society using the sentence prompt "In a just society...". They then prioritize their ideas and compare them with their understanding of our contemporary society.
The strategy helps them understand and build on broad concepts of justice that underpins societies’ definitions of ‘rights’, ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’. It can be adapted to examine more specific issues or events.
USE THIS STRATEGY
HOW IT WORKS
CLASSROOM RESOURCES
|
EXAMPLES |
LEARNING & EMPOWERMENT
CONNECTIONS AND EXTENSIONS
- Manifestos for a Just Society - Explore how have others articulated justice to help clarify and articulate what I believe.
Click to enlarge. (Back-button to return).
Manifesto for a Just Society
How have others articulated justice?
What do I believe?
This strategy introduces students to the concept of a manifesto as an expression of goals for social change.
Using this strategy, students examine historical and contemporary documents (e.g. UN Declaration of Human Rights, US Bill of Rights, The Black Panther Party 10 Point Program, etc.) to explore the underlying concepts of justice presented in each.
Through studying various manifestos, students can extract common characteristics and articulations of justice. Drawing on these, along with their own beliefs, students write their own manifestos for change.
USE THIS STRATEGY
HOW IT WORKS
CLASSROOM RESOURCES
|
EXAMPLES
|
LEARNING & EMPOWERMENT
INQUIRY EXAMPLES
- Contemporary Analysis / Action - What do I believe should be done to make this a better world?
- Historical Investigation - How did the different power movements of the 60's and 70's articulate their goals?
CONNECTIONS AND EXTENSIONS
- Worldview - Explore the nature and origins of what you believe.
- Visioning a Just Society - Explore the characteristics of a just society.
- Build Awareness / Advocate - Examine and develop messaging to build awareness and advocate for change.
Click to enlarge. (Back-button to return).
Three Kinds of Citizens
What does it mean to be civically engaged?
What are our responsibilities toward improving our society?
This activity encourages students to consider and reflect on a range of possible approaches to the questions.
Students study a chart from Educating the Good Citizen, (Westheimer & Kahne), examine their previous actions from these lenses, evaluate the benefits and limitations of each approach, and end by articulating their own view of civic responsibility and engagement.
It is important to be clear that the word ‘citizen’ refers to a member of a community and not a legal status. Normal]
USE THIS STRATEGY
HOW IT WORKS
|
Click to enlarge. (Back-button to return).
Empowerment Framework
What does it mean to empower students?
This framework can help us rethink and clarify our goals as educators in terms of fostering student agency and power. It can help both you and your students find language for self-guided reflection and feedback as students grow.
The chart offers several realms that address different capacities as students engage in, and move between, the full scope of agency, efficacy and power.
This Framework is useful for student self-reflection as well as teacher unit planning.
USE THIS STRATEGY
HOW IT WORKS
CLASSROOM RESOURCES
|
EXAMPLES
|
LEARNING & EMPOWERMENT
CONNECTIONS AND EXTENSIONS
- Worldview - How do we come to view the world as we do?
- Manifesto for Change - What are the changes we want to see?