How can we take effective actions to advocate for change?
Students voice can be powerful when clearly focused on a goal and crafted for specific audiences.
The strategies in this section help students understand how organizers in the past built awareness and advocated for change.
Students can apply this knowledge as they respond to issues of concern to them, either as part of a action civics project or simply to share opinions and conclusions they reached through a unit of study.
There are many options available to change-advocates. This section also includes links to civic action toolkits and resources.
Learn more about the Integrated Action Civics framework.
Take Action includes five analytical tools:
Manifesto for a Just Society / Build Awareness / Student Advocacy / Civic Action Toolkits / Putting It All Together
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
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EXAMPLES
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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.
Building Awareness - Messaging Analysis
How do change-makers build support for their vision?
Effective communication is an essential ingredient in bringing about change. Moving beyond the ‘persuasive essay’, this strategy helps students understand the genre of civically-engaged communication by studying historical examples of social change. They analyze different types of messaging, looking for how the organizers connect with their audience to promote a vision for change.
Students explore:
- Public voice for specific audiences.
- Relevance an issue for that audience.
- Presenting alternative visions.
- Advocating for action.
USE THIS STRATEGY
HOW IT WORKS
CLASSROOM RESOURCES
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EXAMPLES
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LEARNING & EMPOWERMENT
INQUIRY EXAMPLES
- Contemporary Analysis / Action - How do I raise awareness of the lack of good nutrition and options in our school lunches?
- Historical Investigation - How did the Black Panther Party advance their community programs while educating about larger social issues?
CONNECTIONS AND EXTENSIONS
- Strategize for Change - Develop a plan to move from analysis to action.
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Student Action & Voice -Scaffolds for student messaging abouth their own positions on contemporary events through the use of spoken word, poetry, music, and prose.
Student Advocacy & Voice
How can students advocate for change?
This strategy helps student develop and focus their own messages about issues that concern them and their community. Ideally students would use this scaffold following other IACP change-analysis investigations, especially the Messaging Analysis (above). They can then better craft their messaging about their own positions on contemporary events.
Students craft their message taking into account:
- Public voice for specific audiences.
- Relevance an issue for that audience.
- Presenting alternative visions.
- Advocating for action.
USE THIS STRATEGY
CLASSROOM RESOURCES
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LEARNING & EMPOWERMENT
CONNECTIONS AND EXTENSIONS
- Strategize for Change - Develop a plan to move from analysis to action.
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Messaging Analysis -Scaffolds for student investigation of how organizers and movements raised awareness and advocated for social change.
Civic Action Toolkits
There are many well-developed toolkits to help students put their action plan into practice. The Constitutional Rights Foundation’s Civic Action Project has a very useful Action Toolkit that includes detailed, step-by-step instructions for a wide range of concrete actions that might be a part of a student’s action plan.
Putting It All Together - Sample Sequence
How do change analyses support student action and historical investigation?
"Taking Action" would ideally follow a series of investigations as laid out in the change analysis domain. These sample slide decks illustrate how the development of an action plan builds on the prior activities.
FULL SEQUENCE EXAMPLES
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Historical Investigation Leading to Contemporary Analysis & Action:
- Community Nutrition and School Lunnches: An action plan to address poor school lunches follows an examination of poor nutrition in the local community. This could be the culmination of a unit on the 60's that includes the study of the Black Panther Party's Community Survival Programs.
- Climate Change and Reduction in Plastic Use: Students develop an action plan to address climate change by urging their district to reduce the use of plastics. This could be part of a World History course that introduces the climate change during a unit on Industrialism.
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Historical Investigation: The same organizers can be used, with modification, to examine the development of social movements covered in your course. This example analyzes SNCC's efforts to expand voting rights in the South.
- Student Work Samples: