Measuring the Political and Social Consciousness of BSU Faculty and Students, the Role of Political and Social Issues within the Classroom, and Why it Should Matter

Abstract

This project is a culmination of the work I began at last year's Teacher-Scholar Institute. I envisioned creating surveys so that I could get a better understanding of how BSU faculty felt about incorporating political and/or social issues in their classrooms, how often they did so (if they did) and whether they actively sought to get their students more involved in such issues outside of the classroom. I then began to think about how to best gauge the political and/or social consciousness of not only faculty members, but students as well, so I created a student- based survey also. I am interested in sharing my findings from these surveys in order to create an ongoing discussion as to how we, as a community, can continue these conversations inside and outside of the classroom, which could hopefully lead to developing a more civic-minded faculty and student body, as well as leading our students to participate more actively in this regard.