Abstract
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Transformative participatory approaches in education are positioned to challenge traditional models where instructors bear all responsibility for knowledge creation and learners are passive recipients of knowledge. The promotion of participatory learning and critical pedagogy is essential to helping professionals seeking to understand oppressive structural barriers and employing strategies to dismantle these structures. This article describes a participatory approach undertaken to guide learners through an exercise to co-create syllabus content in a graduate social work course. Learners identified three themes, concerns, fears, and problems, related to the course material. Learners were also asked to think about how they could address the three themes to apply new information to problem solve. Through the syllabus cloud activity, learners shaped course content, decided on the format to deliver content, and applied their status as adult learners in an intentional way. As educators prepare to critically and intentionally dismantle aspects of the learning milieu that may perpetuate systems of oppression, collaborative learning and teaching can help to reduce oppressive practices. Reflections for formative and summative evaluation and future research are discussed.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.26077/9fd9-9507
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Conner, Laneshia; Jones, V. Nikki; and Johnston, Jason P.
(2023)
"A Participatory Exercise in Developing Syllabi with Adult Learners,"
Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence: Vol. 7:
Iss.
1, Article 3.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26077/9fd9-9507
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/jete/vol7/iss1/3
Included in
Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Technology Commons, Higher Education and Teaching Commons, Online and Distance Education Commons, Social Work Commons
