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General Information

Course ID (CB01A and CB01B)
ICSD017.
Course Title (CB02)
Critical Consciousness and Social Change
Course Credit Status
Credit - Degree Applicable
Effective Term
Fall 2023
Course Description
This course is an exploration of the root causes of and solutions to social problems such as racism, capitalism, sexism, and gender-based oppression. Students will read classical and contemporary authors on movements for social change, strategies for organizing, and the development of consciousness.
Faculty Requirements
Course Family
Not Applicable

Course Justification

This course is a part of the Certificate in Leadership and Social Change. This course meets a general education requirement for °®¶¹´«Ã½, CSU GE, and IGETC. The course is UC and CSU transferable. This course introduces students to theories and principles involved with social movements and strategies for organizing.

Foothill Equivalency

Does the course have a Foothill equivalent?
No
Foothill Course ID

Course Philosophy

Formerly Statement

Course Development Options

Basic Skill Status (CB08)
Course is not a basic skills course.
Grade Options
  • Letter Grade
  • Pass/No Pass
Repeat Limit
0

Transferability & Gen. Ed. Options

Transferability
Transferable to both UC and CSU
°®¶¹´«Ã½ GEArea(s)StatusDetails
2GDX°®¶¹´«Ã½ GE Area D - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved
2GES°®¶¹´«Ã½ GE - Environment Sustainability and Global CitizenshipApproved
CSU GEArea(s)StatusDetails
CGDYCSU GE Area D - Social SciencesApproved
IGETCArea(s)StatusDetails
IG4XIGETC Area 4 - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved
C-IDArea(s)StatusDetails
SJSSocial Justice Studies - AOEApprovedC-ID SJS 110

Units and Hours

Summary

Minimum Credit Units
4.0
Maximum Credit Units
4.0

Weekly Student Hours

TypeIn ClassOut of Class
Lecture Hours4.08.0
Laboratory Hours0.00.0

Course Student Hours

Course Duration (Weeks)
12.0
Hours per unit divisor
36.0
Course In-Class (Contact) Hours
Lecture
48.0
Laboratory
0.0
Total
48.0
Course Out-of-Class Hours
Lecture
96.0
Laboratory
0.0
NA
0.0
Total
96.0

Prerequisite(s)

Corequisite(s)

Advisory(ies)

EWRT D001A or EWRT D01AH or ESL D005.

Limitation(s) on Enrollment

(Not open to students with credit in the Honors Program related course.)

Entrance Skill(s)

General Course Statement(s)

(See general education pages for the requirements this course meets.)

Methods of Instruction

Lecture and visual aids

Discussion of assigned reading

Discussion and problem solving performed in class

Homework and extended projects

Collaborative learning and small group exercises

Lecture and visual aids

Discussion of assigned reading

Homework and extended projects

Collaborative learning and small group exercises

Assignments

  1. Reading.
    1. Assigned weekly readings from texts and other sources that help students identify and analyze the philosophical problems pertaining to critical consciousness and social change and that help them explore solutions to these problems from a variety of traditions.
    2. Critical reading of journal articles.
    3. Suggested supplemental readings.
    4. Library research for a final project.
  2. Writing.
    1. Critical essays on assigned texts that ask students to articulate and defend their own position on at least one issue related to social change.
    2. Weekly think sheets on key concepts in the assigned reading and class lectures, at least one of which will ask students to demonstrate an application of these tools to their own actions and decisions.
    3. A final written project, which synthesizes information from a variety of sources and makes a substantial argument.
  3. Oral
    1. Participation in small group discussions of assigned texts and special projects.
    2. Participation in large group discussions of course materials.
  4. Practical
    1. This class requires 12 hours of practical work engaging the community in social change work.
    2. Students will write reflective journals that demonstrate an application of the tools learned in the class to their own actions and decisions.

Methods of Evaluation

  1. Grading of reflection journals on practical experience to test for depth of personal reflection and an ability to put ideas learned into the framework of personal experience.
  2. Weekly think sheets to test critical understanding of the assigned readings.
  3. Participation in and contribution to class discussions.
  4. Midterm and final essay examinations to test for recognition, identification, synthesis, and analysis of key concepts.
  5. Papers and final project to test for understanding of main concepts studied and for the ability to analyze social issues.

Essential Student Materials/Essential College Facilities

Essential Student Materials: 
  • None.
Essential College Facilities:
  • None.

Examples of Primary Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisherDate/EditionISBN
*Cynthia KaufmanIdeas for Action: Relevant Theory for Radical ChangeCambridge, PM Press2nd edition, 2016
*Paulo FreirePedagogy of the OppressedNew York: Continuum2018

Examples of Supporting Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisher
Social Movements and Global Social Change: The Rising Tide
Doing Democracy
The Wretched of the Earth
Borderlands
Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America
The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas
The Purpose of Power
Use the Power You Have: A Brown Woman’s Guide to Politics and Political Change

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

Course Objectives

  • Study the basic methods used in Ethnic Studies and the ways these methods are used to study social change.
  • Analyze the essential principles of social action.
  • Analyze the relationship between environmental sustainability and human flourishing and the intersections between environment, race, and class.
  • Investigate the history of social movements and what they have accomplished

CSLOs

  • Apply theory and knowledge produced by Native American, African American, Asian American, and/or Latina and Latino American communities to describe the critical events, histories, cultures, intellectual traditions, contributions, lived-experiences and social struggles of those groups with a particular emphasis on agency and group-affirmation.

  • Analyze critically analyze the intersections between a variety of systems of oppression as they relate to race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, spirituality, national origin, immigration status, ability, tribal citizenship, sovereignty, language, and/or age in Native American, African American, Asian American, and/or Latina and Latino American communities.

  • Articulate and defend student's own position on at least one issue related to social change.

  • Demonstrate an application of these tools to student's own actions and decisions.

Outline

  1. Study the basic methods used in Ethnic Studies and the ways these methods are used to study social change.
    1. Engage in comparative analyses of the history and contemporary issues and positions of people of color within the United States and beyond, informed by the historically defined racialized core groups: Native American and Indigenous peoples, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinx and Chicanx.
    2. Develop research capabilities of students to compile and analyze information from the perspectives of marginalized communities of color and in recognition of the conditions of the dominant culture;
    3. Examine the role of theories of social change in Ethnic Studies.
  2. Analyze the essential principles of social action.
    1. Review historical contexts in which social action movements have arisen, such as anti-colonial and Global South liberation movements; feminism in the US and worldwide; the civil rights movement in the US; queer liberation movements; the disability rights movement.
    2. Study the theoretical centrality, intersectional nature, and multidimensionality of racism, sexism, class, power, and institutions in relation to the practice of advocating for social equity and justice.
    3. Explore culturally diverse ways of understanding oppression and liberation, such as the different ways that feminist issues are understood in different societies.
    4. Examine concepts of and perspectives on class, race gender, and the environment.
  3. Analyze the relationship between environmental sustainability and human flourishing and the intersections between environment, race, and class.
    1. Analyze the root causes of a lack of sustainability in society
    2. Analyze the ways that societies need to be changed to have them be sustainable and the need for those changes to take race and class into account.
    3. Analyze the movements that are working to build a sustainable society
  4. Investigate the history of social movements and what they have accomplished
    1. Study the history of Nineteenth-century struggles.
    2. Investigate the political dynamics and stakes of community-based efforts and solidarity movements to affirm, heal, organize, serve, and liberate people who have been oppressed on the basis of race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, and other forms of oppression.
    3. Critically review how struggle, resistance, racial and social justice, solidarity, and liberation, as experienced and enacted by Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and/or Latina and Latino Americans are relevant to current and structural issues such as communal, national, international, and transnational politics as, for example, in immigration, reparations, settler-colonialism, multiculturalism, language policies.
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