2020 Chester Semester
Topic outline
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Please consider the following questions below as you review the readings and video content for Monday's discussion:
What is/are the purpose(s) of education? How does it reflect both individual and community concerns?
What are the promises and pitfalls of education in Chester?
What are the ways outside of schools in which the community teaches and learns?
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Please consider the following questions below as you review the readings and video content for Monday's discussion:
Light argues that the social entrepreneurship role has been overestimated as a driver of social change, and lifts up various change agent roles like protector, explorer, advocate as well as networks that are essential for instigating and sustaining social breakthroughs. What role(s) do you observe being enacted in the context of Chester Made?
Light believes we should be less concerned about the tools of agitation (social entrepreneurship, social protecting, social exploring, and social advocacy) and more concerned about the disruption and replacement of the status quo. In what ways might/might not the Chester Made initiative disrupt and/or replace the status quo?
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In the spirit of Monday’s theme, Integration of Knowledge and Practice, we are asking you to choose an issue (or set of interrelated issues) that we have touched upon in the course such as public health, education, environmental justice, economic development, and so on).
Then explore this issue/these issues via Ask Chester, Chester Matters Blog, and/or Smart Black Opinions (see Moodle for hyperlinks).
As you read, consider:
- How do you see social categorizations of race, gender, and/or class intersecting with these issues in the context of Chester?
- What do you know or wonder now that you didn’t know or wonder before?
- What new questions have arisen for you?
In preparation for class, please prepare one or two questions for our guest speaker, Stefan Roots. You will be invited to type your question into the chat.
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In class, you’ll be posed the following questions so please come prepared to share your insights with the class.
IN THE BEGINNING
“Food security” is often described as consistent and dependable access to adequate, safe, and nutritious food for an active and healthy life. For a region to be food secure, it must have an adequate, stable supply of food even during drought and other difficult conditions; and its people must be able to locate and afford food, even in the presence of an abundant supply. In Chester: What are the causes and consequences of food insecurity? Who is impacted by food insecurity? What is causing food insecurity to persist? Who stands to benefit from persistent food insecurity? Why do you think the challenge of food insecurity is so persistent?
IN BREAKOUT ROOMS
Describe one of the interventions aimed at decreasing food insecurity in Chester. What are some of the strengths and limitations therein? To what extent do these approaches “work” in creating food security? Do they have any unintended negative consequences? For whom? Who or what is not being served and what is missing to bridge that gap?
IN CLOSING
The term "food system" refers to the people, activities, resources and outcomes involved in getting food from “field to plate,” in addition to preparing, eating and digesting food. Major activities in the food system include production, processing, distribution, retail and consumption. Outcomes in the food system include the effects of these activities on public health, equity and the environment. What might/should a sustainable food system in Chester look like?
If it's helpful for you to have a specific question to respond to as you write your journal assignment, then choose one of the technical or “expert” responses to poverty (the root cause of food insecurity) covered in the #GlobalPOV Project video. In what way(s) did the solution succeed and/or cause further challenges? What lessons can be learned from those efforts, and perhaps applied to the context of Chester?
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Chris (he/him/his) was born and raised in Chester, PA and is now a Ph.D student within the Reading/Writing/Literacy program at PennGSE. He serves as Public Programs Director for the Paul Robeson House & Museum, a one-of-a-kind house museum dedicated to promoting and preserving the legacy of the cultural and political "Great Forerunner". His current research interest interrogates the intersections of race and place in community literacy efforts, investigating how sharing stories about place may cultivate community preservation and social action in Black neighborhoods. He additionally serves as Curriculum Co-Chair for National Black Lives Matter At School, a coalition dedicated to expanding racial justice in education. Read more about their Year of Purpose at blacklivesmatteratschool.com
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Questions for Consideration:
Page 9-13 of “Redesigning Civic Education for the Digital Age: Participatory Politics and the Pursuit of Democratic Engagement” describes core practices of participatory politics. What does your approach to participatory politics look like today? How are you constrained, enabled, or empowered in the current context?
Recalling the #GlobalPOV project video from last week, to what extent might (might not) participatory democracy via digital platforms be an example of a technical solution to a political problem?
The 1996 documentary Laid to Waste offers a case study of environmental racism. What systems are perpetuating environmental racism in Chester? How? Who stands to benefit from the challenges continuing to persist?
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Prof. Andriotti describes problematic patterns of representation and engagement (see 4:06 for HEADS UP framework: hegemonic, ethnocentric, ahistorical, depoliticized, salvationist, uncomplicated, paternalistic) in Deep Adaptation and Climate Justice 2019: Climate Change and Inequalities. Identify one or more of these problematic patterns that were raised in the CRCQL Zoom meeting and/or “The 2 Sides to Chester’s Environmental Problems.” What do these patterns make possible (enable)? What do these patterns make impossible (constrain)? How might these patterns be disrupted and by whom? Record examples, quotes, and ideas.
Which key components of the Deep Adaptation agenda (resilience, relinquishment, restoration, and reconciliation) did you notice during the CRCQL meeting? Record examples/quotes of each of the four Rs and bring these with you to class. Which were not demonstrated? What do you think about that?
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