English 3390: Final Project
Jennifer Hardwick
Introduction
You are a part of a global effort to increase access to education and empower students through “open pedagogy.” Open pedagogy is a “free access” educational practice that places you – the student – at the center of your own learning process in a more engaging, collaborative learning environment. The ultimate purpose of this effort is to achieve greater social justice in our community in which the work can be freely shared with the broader community. This is a renewable assignment that is designed to enable you to become an agent of change in your community through the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For this work, you will integrate the disciplines of English; SDG #1 and SDG #4 to achieve SDG #01: No Poverty
Learning Objectives
Intervention: the act of interfering in outcomes or processes, particularly to prevent harm or improve functioning.
This assignment invites you to make a creative intervention by using your knowledge and skills to improve outcomes, processes, and/or relationships. Your project should engage with themes and texts from this course (resistance, resurgence, de/colonization, gender and sexuality, reconciliation and-or land) and at least one United Nations Sustainable Development Goal in order to create a product that intervenes in a dialogue or community of your choosing. Possible creative interventions could include (but are not limited to): teaching/learning resources, art (visual, creative writing etc), or media (a webpage, article, or digital resource). In addition to the final product, you will have to hand in a critical reflection (2-3 pages) that explains your product and purpose. A critical reflection sheet will be provided to help guide this writing. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals can be found here: https:// sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300
Purpose/Rationale
This active learning practice is designed to improve your academic skills, increase community connections, and improve social justice for our community.
Instructions:
PART I : Workshops As part of this project, we will do two in-class group workshops. The first will be before your proposal is due. During the first workshop, you will be grouped based on your project focus to discuss vision, scope, and resources. You will meet with the same group again after receiving proposal feedback from me. During your second workshop, you will discuss structure, problem solve challenges, and share what you have learned. Your grade for the workshops will be based on your preparation, your active participation, and brief in-class reflective writing exercises.
PART II: 4 page project proposal. Consider this your “pitch.” What are you trying to accomplish, and how do you expect to accomplish it? Your proposal should have the following sections:
• Background (What dialogues are you intervening in? What texts are you examining? Why is this needed?)
• Overview (What are you creating? What tools and scholarly sources will be necessary? )
• Methodology/Responsibilities (How will you attend to your responsibilities to both the material and the communities you seek to engage? How will you negotiate issues such as copyright, privacy, and Ownership/Control/Accesses/Possession? Are there any particular ethical or logistical challenges you face?)
• Timeline (How will you create what you intend to create? What is your plan?)
• Outcomes (What do you seek to accomplish? Who are you trying to reach?)
PART III: Final Project and Reflection. Your project should be complete and polished, and its purpose should be clear to your audience. Your reflection should be clear, concise, and critically-engaged; please write in full paragraphs as your best “scholarly-self.”
Format Requirements
Format requirements and guidance is included in the Assignment Instructions, above.
Attribution
