David Cunningham’s Order and Change in Society receives a Gephardt Travel Grant to facilitate joint class session between MECC and Danforth Campus students.
This past semester, Fall 2018, the Prison Education Project had the opportunity to offer Order and Change in Society, a class taught by David Cunningham, Professor of Sociology, with assistance from Jeanette Freiberg. Professor Cunningham has been teaching Order and Change every fall since he joined Washington University in 2015. Fall 2018 marked the first time that Professor Cunningham taught the course on both Danforth and MECC Campuses simultaneously.
These two iterations of the course followed the same syllabus and lead similar discussions throughout the semester. At the culmination of the semester, Professor Cunningham petitioned to hold a joint session with students from both sections of the course at the MECC Campus, to provide a direct opportunity for students to collectively engage with course materials. Through the Gephardt Institute’s travel grant for community-engaged courses, Professor Cunningham secured the necessary funding to provide transportation for the Danforth Campus students to travel to the MECC Campus in Pacific, Missouri for a joint three-hour class session on November 27, 2018.What is community-engaged teaching?
Core Principles of Community-Engaged Teaching
1. Reciprocal partnership and mutual benefit to all participants 2. Open and intentional communication 3. Cultural humility and self-awareness 4. Balancing community needs and pedagogical goals 5. Respect for the history of organizations, partnerships, & university-community relations 6. Reflection on the part of students and community partners 7. Assessment and evaluation of student learning and community impactLearn more about community-engaged teaching and resources for faculty and staff.
Thanks to Professor Cunningham, his teaching assistants, and the Gephardt Institute this joint class became a reality. More information on the class and the students’ experiences will be coming soon!