Mission
SASI strives to create
student-informed innovations in teaching and learning at UCI. Our group is inspired by the writings of Freire in understanding liberation as praxis and education as being the foundation for cultivating critical consciousness amongst students. We are dedicated to researching and developing learning and training resources for departments in all disciplines to integrate social justice/equity topics within curricula, department programming, and research. The formation of this group comes as recognition that classroom underachievement is due to the lack of student access to vital resources as opposed to a lack of a desire to learn. We work to enhance the integrity of education at UCI by identifying and transforming academic policies that inhibit student passions towards liberative educational practices.
Curriculum Development
We seek to meet the educational needs of UCI undergraduate students by collaborating with faculty to reform the curriculum of courses. We aim to incorporate the multifaceted ways in which each major, and its subsequent sub topics, are related to the systemic struggles minorities face within society. Our curriculum development projects will provide guidance and suggestions for courses, so the transition to include social justice is seamless and efficient.
White Papers
We will collaborate with faculty, staff, and other students to develop a series of white papers. Each paper will explore gaps in one of three areas: Cross-department enrollment, Curricula content, Pedagogical structures. These proposals will identify problems in existing policies and practices, and then offer recommendations for reforms.
Faculty Toolkit
To further fill gaps in curricula, we also aim to support individual faculty members’ incorporation of social justice and equity into their lesson plans. Based on responses to a survey sent to all faculty members, barriers evidently include time constraints, concerns about student apathy, and a lack of information.
Academic Policy
We seek to study the structural issues that student face within the UCI education system, developing on understanding of how institutions’ structures affects their ability to advance social justice. Based on our findings, we hope to research new learning environment practices, driving a transition from punitive to generative experiences for all UCI students. Our research and recommendations will be described in a public proposal, along with references to models from other universities.
TBD
Projects not yet created
Pubic Programming
To connect with UCI undergraduates and create a place to follow and use SASI resources, we are committed to a variety of mediums that will communicate SASI’s activities. We hope these mediums remain useful for students in the upcoming years and help inspire continued activism.
Website
Through a webpage on UCI’s OVPTL site, we hope to make all our findings and deliverables publicly accessible. The website will be made public by October 2022.
Through our @sasiatuci page, we aim to communicate social justice- and equity-related information through graphics that are easy to digest, easy to access (i.e. ADA-friendly), and visually appealing. This enables us to share our findings, to connect with the larger community, and to market events and opportunities.
Podcast
SASI is in the process of producing a Podcast series celebrating the work of UCI faculty who have incorporated social justice and equity into their curriculum. This podcast will be available on Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube.
Events
To promote cultural change and discourse, we host a small number of events. Mainly, we aim to host an annual campuswide conference centered on themes of social justice and popular education.