| Unit name | Bridging Histories Changemakers |
|---|---|
| Unit code | AFAC10018 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | C/4 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Burch-Brown |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | Arts Faculty Office |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Why is this unit important?
Young people are often motivated to want to make a positive change in the world. Many young people want to combat climate change, improve environmental sustainability, reduce inequality, improve democracy and education, overcome racism and legacies of colonialism, challenge the criminal justice system, change the law, reduce violence, improve health and wellbeing, learn from global histories, create new artwork and culture, and build inclusive community. However, it is one thing to recognise that a social change is needed; it is another to know how to achieve your goals.
This practice-based unit gives you a chance to set yourself a meaningful personal or community change-making goal, and pursue it through structured “sprints” alongside your classmates and tutor. By the end of the unit you will have grown as a change-maker, achieved a person or community goal, reflected philosophically about what you have done, and developed your ability to listen to diverse views, manage a project or a campaign, and communicate stories and ideas to a popular audience.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
Most units in your undergraduate programme help you develop your abstract reasoning, theoretical understanding and academic knowledge. This unit complements your wider programme by giving you a chance to reflect on personal experiences and develop your practical reasoning. Aristotle held that our ability to live well depends on “phronesis”, or practical wisdom, which is a type of intelligence and expert judgment that is developed through practical action and reflection. As you gain experience working towards goals, you develop your practical judgment, or ability to see which features of a situation are important and how they are important. This unit balances your academic learning by giving you a chance to develop your practical judgment and expertise in relation to a goal that is meaningful and motivating to you.
This unit supports key strands of university strategy, including local and global civic engagement, sustainability, and personal development goals. This unit will help you develop transferrable skills like learning how to plan a campaign, how to work with media, how to set goals, how to assess arguments, and how to break complex problems into smaller parts. It will therefore help you build the bridge between your academic studies, future careers and personal development.
Overview of the Content
An overview of the content of the unit
This unit follows the Bridging Histories methodology, which has been used to engage with thousands of people across different countries including the UK, US and Bosnia, and will train you in skills you can apply in diverse contexts in the future. Bridging Histories scaffolds a process of self-reflection and cognitive training that will help you be an effective changemaker.
In the first half of the course, we will brainstorm and develop our changemaking-goals. We will use Bridging Histories activities to ground our changemaking in personal experience; and will then introduce tools for assessing evidence and arguments related to our changemaking plans. We will practice analysing arguments from popular media; explore how our reasoning can be shaped by common fallacies and cognitive biases; and learn key questions to ask when examining statistical and probabilistic claims. We will aim to become more conscious of our own reasoning practices and so less liable to errors in reasoning and more competent as changemakers.
The second half of the course will give us a chance to learn from guest lecturers of diverse disciplinary backgrounds, who will introduce you to tools and examples from different disciplines that can inform your practice as a changemaker. Throughout the term, we will use seminars as weekly “sprints” in which you carry out structured tasks towards your changemaking goal.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit
This unit will help you develop a practice of realistic intention-setting and follow-through, giving you the experience of delivering a simple initiative or achieving a simple personal goal rooted in reflection. You will have an improved sense of efficacy and a more realistic understanding of steps that it takes to achieve change. You’ll gain valuable experience of setting and achieving goals, and will embed the idea that many small changes can add up to large- scale change.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes, appropriate to Level 4:
1. Combine creative writing with philosophical reflection.
2. Assess evidence related to a changemaking idea.
3. Articulate aims, goals, steps, rationale and counterarguments for a changemaking idea.
4. Communicate effectively with a popular audience (for instance through clear takeaway messages, concrete examples, storytelling, calls-to-action, and simple, direct prose)
Students will learn via 2-hour interactive lectures and 1-hour “creative sprints”. The creative sprints will give structured space for students to carry out and share creative work related to the weeks’ task.
The formative assessment is designed to engage students in reflecting and synthesising learning from personal experience, using the Bridging Histories creative prompts, and prepare them for the summative assessment in the second half. The summative assessment will support students’ holistic personal development and growth, as well as their critical thinking, strategic skills and identities as changemakers.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative)
The formative assessment will be in the form of a self-assessment and peer-review, in which you give constructive feedback on a changemaking plan (0%, Not required for credit).
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Creative changemakers’ portfolio (100%) [ILOs 1, 2, 3 and 4]
When assessment does not go to plan
When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the form or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are normally confirmed by the School shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the academic year.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. AFAC10018).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
