This two-week online course will cover highlights from the Foundations: Teaching and Learning Frameworks for Equitable Community Engagement faculty training developed at The New School by Professors Evren Uzer, Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo, and Michele Kahane. The Syllabus Institute is free and open to English-speaking educators around the world.

The Institute grows out of Community Engagement 101, an ongoing curricular research initiative, concerned with how faculty are prepared to establish community partnerships in equitable and socially just manners. The curriculum aims to fill a known gap in teaching and learning in institutions of higher education, which so explicitly claim an interest and strength in engaging with external communities in ethical and equitable manners. Designed with the goal of “training the trainer”, the asynchronous modular curriculum is intended to reach as many people as possible, who have varying amounts of time to dedicate to their own development and expansion of these topics in their syllabi.

The two-week course includes video lectures, readings, additional multimedia resources, sample lesson plans, and a selection of dynamic activities that participants can practice and learn to adapt to their classes. It is most suitable for higher education educators whose courses include a community engagement component. Participants will be invited to workshop a particular syllabus from an existing or upcoming course.

The course will unfold asynchronously, along with three 1.5-hour-long synchronous meetings (June 2nd, 9th, and 13th from 12:00–1:30 PM EDT on Zoom). Registrants who meaningfully participate in the course materials and attend all three synchronous sessions will receive a Certificate of Completion.

We hope to attract a cohort of educators from around the world, and will form groups in the online learning environment for people to get to know one another’s work, and share experiences of community engagement and feedback.

Synchronous Sessions (each meets on Zoom, 12:00 – 1:30 PM EDT):

SESSION 1 — Monday, June 2
Focus: Introductions and Guiding Principles & Practices in Community Engagement

SESSION 2 — Monday, June 9

Focus: Preparing for Mutually Beneficial Partnerships

SESSION 3 — Friday, June 13

Focus: Classroom Skills and Pedagogies & Leveraging Institutional Resources

Please email Evren Uzer at evren@newschool.edu with any questions.

If you are interested in enrolling, you can register via this form by May 19th.