Social justice as the organizing theme in undergraduate education

After an intensive process of dialog, the faculty of San Francisco State University identified social justice as the University's number one strategic goal. Following this decision, the campus has generated many innovative approaches for teaching social justice. Four of these will be discussed in this session. The first is the development of the Metropolitan Health Academies, with City College of San Francisco, funded by Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education. The goal of this project is to use health and social justice as an organizing theme for an integrated general education curriculum for urban undergraduates who are interested in health professions. Public health content will be infused with the “golden four” skills of writing, public speaking, and both critical and quantitative thinking, along with advocacy skills. The second innovation is a three unit course entitled “Health and Social Justice: Burning Issues, Taking Action.” This is a documentary film and lecture course exposing students to cutting edge films (including the forthcoming Unnatural Causes mini-series); to public health experts; and to community activist campaigns. The third innovation is a course co-offered with the Cinema Department, in which public health students collaborate with cinema graduate students to produce documentary films. The final innovation is a teach-in model which exposes people from the larger campus community to important issues (Katrina; the Unnatural Causes mini-series). Organized around such an issue theme, teach-ins are designed to expose attendees to powerful films, faculty and community speakers, group discussion, and to food, music and visual arts.