This year-long seminar and research practicum develops innovative frameworks and strategies for addressing structural inequality and advancing full participation and "institutional citizenship". The seminar explores the emerging role of lawyers, transformative leaders and other change agents in addressing structural inequality through institutional transformation. It offers an integrated and systemic approach to addressing structural inequality and advancing full participation in higher education.

The seminar offers students multi-disciplinary knowledge, conceptual frameworks, and methodological tools aimed at building their capacity for multi-level analysis and intervention required  to advance sustainable change.   Although the seminar focuses on higher education, its approach has implications for  efforts to address structural inequality in many other domains.

Goals

1. Provide a space to develop, experiment with, and revise concepts needed for institutional change toward “institutional citizenship” in higher education and other settings that enable people to thrive and realize their potential.

1. Build capacity for facilitation, collaboration, and integration of multiple forms of knowledge around a complex problem
2. Create a working, collaborative research and learning community that includes seminar members, staff from the Center for Institutional and Social Change, and transformative leaders involved in institutional transformation work.
3. Develop a repertoire of roles for future lawyers and transformative leaders that will facilitate lawful innovation and enable effective problem solving aimed at creating inclusive and effective institutions.
4. Conduct and share the results of collaborative research on innovative practices of institutional transformation that will be useful to practitioners and researchers seeking advance institutional citizenship.
5. Rethink the role of higher education in a democracy through the lens of the seminar’s work and approach.

Roadmap

During the fall semester, the seminar will develop the conceptual and intellectual framework for understanding "the architecture of inclusion" in higher education, by examining the dynamics of structural inequality and its remediation at the level of relationships, groups, organizations, networks, policy, and culture. Along with this conceptual exploration, the class will equip students to assume the stance of inquiry and the role of action researcher.  We will critically evaluate the law's role in addressing structural inequality. The class will also examine the potential and limits of emerging roles, institutions, and policies for transformative change, with the participation of cutting edge researchers and practitioners.

We will begin our inquiry with a discussion of how to frame the issues that will be the focus of analysis and intervention for the year, and how we as a seminar will assume a reflective stance as a collaborative learning community.  We will turn to a discussion of the limitations of the legal doctrinal framework for addressing equality, focusing on the recent Supreme Court cases on voluntary integration and affirmative action.   The seminar will then consider alternative justifications and goals for pursuing structural equality in higher education, including advancing institutional citizenship and strengthening institutions through fostering innovation and social responsibility   It will identify the barriers to achieving diverse institutions at the micro, meso and macro levels, drawing on social science research and case studies.  Sessions on how to develop your field research projects, including methodologies of field research, will also be included.  The seminar will focus on identifying leverage points -- locations, strategies, roles, constituencies, and institutional arrangements -- that have overcome barriers to participation, fostered diversity, and produced lasting change.    It will also consider ways to evaluate and hold accountable these efforts, including metrics assessing the benefits of diversity and the costs of lack of diversity.   Finally, it will study ways of using public resources and institutions to foster and sustain innovation toward achieving diversity.  These new approaches will be developed with an eye toward shaping the legal and policy terrain that will both enable and constrain this work.

This seminar focuses on the role of networks, partnerships and communities of practice—in our understanding the aspiration of institutional citizenship in higher education and the barriers to realizing those aspirations, in our approach to researching those concerns, in locating the nodal points that enable innovation and change, in helping focus the location for effective change, and in retooling public policy and intervention in this area.  We will strive to create an interdisciplinary, collaborative space for this inquiry.  That collaboration will bring together disciplines (for example, law, psychology, sociology, social work), positions (scholars, students, and activists) and roles (civil rights advocates, experts, general counsel, foundation leaders, diversity provosts, and innovative regulators).  We will use reflective practice research, interviewing, internet research, and technology to create communities of practice among innovators who are in a position to develop and act on new frameworks for developing inclusive institutions.  We will explore the use of technology in our own practice, in collaboration with Kyle Homstead and others from Chronicle Technologies.

Strategies

This seminar seeks ways to promote innovative thinking about conventional legal and public policy problems by:

• Structuring ongoing collaboration among students, faculty and practitioners, through students facilitation, participation of practitioners in class, and collaborative field research
• Building technology into the process of community building, information sharing, collaboration, reflection, and critical inquiry
• Integrating multiple forms of knowledge around the shared concern of addressing structural inequality and advancing institutional citizenship
• Building capacity for inquiry through field research
• Critically reframing:
• the relationship between theory and practice;
• the relationship between law and institutional change
• the roles, locations, and forms of institutional change work
• the dynamics and role of equality and its relationship with other important values
• the relationship between law and other disciplines and professions
• the larger regulatory frameworks that shape what we value, how we act, and how we evaluate information, performance, and change

Technology, Community, and Innovation

The seminar uses technology as a crucial tool to enable collaboration, information sharing, and ongoing analysis of our cumulative work.  We have formed a partnership with a technology group—Chronicle Technologies, led by Kyle Homstead--who is working closely with the Center for Institutional and Social Change to construct a dynamic relationship between technology and our overall methodology.   We have put together a website for the seminar, which is intended to (1) integrate the seminar materials—including assigned readings, logistical information, class philosophy, research tools, and data--in a single location, (2) provide a dynamic space for collaborative work, (3) offer frameworks and templates to guide class reflection and research, (4) provide a means of ongoing reciprocal feedback—for students, fellows, faculty, and research collaborators, (5) enable ongoing analysis and concept building based on emerging themes, and (6) link with comparable work being undertaken in the larger Center community and elsewhere.

A substantial portion of your ongoing work for the seminar—assigned readings, class reflections, feedback—will be written directly on the Diversity and Innovation website.  In addition, all of the work that you do in connection with the seminar should be posted on the seminar website.  The site is quite user friendly and easy to master.  We will also have access to a helpdesk designed specially for our seminar, to aid in our effective use of the website.  PLEASE BRING YOUR COMPUTER TO THE FIRST CLASS.

Facilitation

Overview

Each student facilitates two classes in the fall, working in collaboration with 1 or 2 other students.  Facilitation has been defined as the process of helping a group accomplish its goals.  The value of facilitation rests on the assumption that the seminar is itself a community and a dynamic system.  Facilitation is a crucially important skill for group work and for anyone seeking to work collaboratively, whether in the classroom, the boardroom, the community meeting.  For our purposes, facilitation involves:

• identifying a set of pedagogical goals based on the assigned materials, the class reflections, and conversations with the seminar leaders, in collaboration with the professor
• developing a lesson plan that matches the pedagogy (approach to learning) with the content goals, class dynamics and the facilitators’ style
• structuring the class discussion based on the lesson plan
• fostering full participation of seminar members
• eliciting and responding to feedback
• applying lessons from their facilitation in subsequent classes

Facilitation Functions

• It affords students an opportunity to develop facilitation skills, which are quite important to effective leadership.
• It offers an opportunity to develop a working relationship with the faculty member.
• It helps develop a participatory seminar community by rotating responsibility for class discussion.
• It encourages active participation because students become invested in the success of each facilitator group
• It offers an opportunity for collaboration, and for learning work in groups.
• It enables diverse students to shape the direction of the seminar’s work
• It enhances the creativity of the sessions and the ability to learn from diverse perspectives.

Logistics

Sign up:  Students will sign up for two classes to facilitate two classes during the first semester.  A facilitation sign up sheet will be passed out during the first class.  Students will have an opportunity to ask questions about the classes at the first session, and will do on line during class.

Preparing for facilitation: To prepare for your role as facilitator, please read John Heron on facilitation. The Complete Facilitator's Handbook, London, Kogan Page, 1999, by John Heron, is an excellent resource for the development of facilitation skills.

Facilitation process

The following steps outline the facilitation process:

1. In class the week before your facilitation, schedule time to meet with co-facilitators (by Sunday) and Professor Sturm (preferably on Monday the day before class.)
2. Read the materials and write your reflection piece (by Thursday of the week before class)
3. Meet with your facilitation partners and brainstorm about themes, possible goals, relation of the readings to prior class discussions, and possible areas of inquiry. (by Sunday of the week before class.  Optional: pose a question to the class to frame pre-class reflections.
4. Read and analyze the pre-class reflections (due Sunday evening on line).  Review email communication from Professor Sturm about specific pedagogical goals she may have for the session.
5. Meet with Professor Sturm, preferably Monday after 10:30 am (to be scheduled in class the previous week). For that meeting, student facilitators come in with ideas about goals for the session, questions about the materials, ideas about discussion questions, role plays, or other ways of engaging with the material.  If guest speakers will be coming to class, that call will be scheduled to include guests in the planning process.
6. Meet with co-facilitators to finalize plans for class.
7. Send Professor Sturm your final proposed lesson plan.  Revise in light of any last minute feedback.
8. Buy and bring snacks to class.
9. Facilitate class.
10. Debrief using the on-line site for feedback and follow up.

Players

Key players for the Diversity & Innovation Seminar:

• Faculty: Susan Sturm-ssturm@law.columbia.edu
• Center Staff: Rachel Fester, rachel.fester@law.columbia.edu, and Margaret Salazar Porzio, msalaz@law.columbia.edu, Senior Research Scholars
• Center Coordinator and Administrative Assistant: Amber Knee, aknee@law.columbia.edu
• Teaching Fellow: Briana Cummings
• Technology and Conceptual Development: Kyle Homstead, khomstead@chronicletech.com
• Center Fellow: Carrie Lebigre

Class Requirements

Participation

The success of this class will depend upon your active participation, in facilitation, discussion, reflection, field research, and group interaction.  Strong participation may take different forms, depending on your learning and communication approach.   A quarter of your grade for first semester will be based on the timeliness, consistency and thoughtfulness of your participation in the seminar work, including facilitation and active participation inside and outside class.

Weekly assignments

Assigned Materials: There will be a weekly assignment sheet, which will include the assigned readings, along with links to those readings, as well as some orienting commentary and questions.  The on-line syllabus also lists the materials assigned for each week, which can be found in our Resource Library.  Additional orientation to the readings, along with questions to focus your work, may be included on line the week before.  You will receive email notification of these additional materials.  The assigned materials may include readings, videos, power point presentations and/or journal articles.  Unless otherwise indicated, all of the readings will be available on line and clickable from the syllabus and assignment.

Class reflections and commentary on classmates’ posts

Unless otherwise instructed, for each class, after completing the assigned materials, you will complete an on-line reflection (typically 4-5 paragraphs), due Sunday evening at 5 pm, and comment on  at least one class member’s reflections either before class or immediately following class.

The purposes of the reflections are:

1. to aid planning by the facilitators by identifying important issues for discussion,
2. to help you clarify your understanding of an integrated and systemic approach to structural inequality and develop connections across different levels and types of analysis,
3. to provide an opportunity for you to connect these themes to your own projects in the seminar and in general.
4. to stimulate critical thinking and engagement with the assigned materials before class

For some classes, you will receive a question or issue to address in your reflection pieces.  Unless otherwise instructed, your reflections should be filled out on line and will consist of engaging with the following questions:

1. What is the authors “frame” for understanding issues relating to equality and change?
2. What stands out as surprising, particularly insightful, or destabilizing of your usual way of understanding structural inequality, full participation, and institutional or systems change?
3. What did you find most confusing, troubling or in need of rethinking?
4. How, if at all, do the readings relate to your own experience and goals?
5. How do these readings relate to the overarching theory of action needed to promote meaningful change toward full participation?

The purpose of the commentary is to encourage learning from each other’s perspectives, develop the skill of critical and constructive engagement, and cultivate our community of practice.

Political autobiographies:

You will write a 3-5 page essay that connects your work in the seminar with the broader context of your personal experience, background, history, identity, defining moments, turning points or enduring commitments.  This assignment provides an opportunity to reflect about your  “political project” as an individual seminar member, as a member of a group within the seminar, as a field researcher exploring diversity and innovation in a particular context, and as a professional in the future. The essay could be used to help think through your interest in a particular field research project.  Or, it could just be used to help you think through your how all the strands of your life come together to shape your approach as a lawyer and/or “transformative leaders” and your interest in higher education, diversity, innovation and social justice.  This essay can be a persuasive and linearly argued piece of expository writing; it can be a poem; it can be a narrative.  But it must reflect a “critical” perspective that situates or critiques the individual within his or her position prior to arriving at Columbia, within your current community, and then within the larger society.   Please post your political autobiography on the seminar website, which is a protected space accessible only to members of the class.

Field Research Related Assignments

Over the course of the first semester, there will be a series of field research related assignments, each of which will be combined with capacity-building work and supporting readings.  Those assignments will include the following:

• Research framing memo
• Project descriptions
• Research questions
• Literature reviews
• Conceptual framework
• Interview protocols
• Research plans

A time line, descriptions and guidelines for each of the assignments will be provided in advance.  To give you an idea of what those assignments look like, I am providing last year’s description of the research framing memo:

Research Framing Memo: As a first step toward developing your research projects, you will prepare first a research framing memo, that summarizes the problem or innovation you wish to study, your goals for the study, and a few sentences discussing how you would like to research this problem. This memo would address issues such as:

1. What is the domain/issue/problem you wish to study?  Why is this interesting to you and relevant to the goal of advancing access/participation/institutional citizenship in higher education?
2. What do you hope to learn about this domain/issue/problem?  What are the questions you would like to explore or the information you would like to uncover?
3. Why is this question important/relevant to the project of addressing structural inequality and advancing full participation?
4. What readings/class discussions are relevant to your research question?
5. What bodies of secondary literature are relevant to your research question?
6. How will qualitative research methods advance your inquiry?  More particularly, what do you want to learn that can only be gleaned by observing people in action, interviewing them about their experiences, and analyzing their documents?  Why is the setting you seek to study an appropriate one for the research question you have in mind?

Field Research Projects

Field research constitutes an important part of the work of the seminar.  You will have the opportunity for in depth exploration project that has been identified as taking an innovative multi-level approach to advancing full participation in higher education.   Field research projects provide a context for applying, questioning, challenging, and deepening the conceptual, theoretical, and empirical framework developed at the outset of the seminar.   allow students to make concrete meaning to the conceptual andstructural inequality, one that frame a research question Field research consists of undertaking systematic inquiry provides an opportunity The field research projects conducted in this seminar share a common set of qualities.

You will conduct field research projects relating to the topics of the seminar.  Field research The Center has developed long term, collaborative research relationships with four sites that are currently involved in multi-level systems change aimed at advancing full participation.  These sites include:

1. A criminal justice-to college initiative, focused on creating "pathways of possibility" for people moving from the criminal justice system to college
2. Rutgers Future Scholars--an innovative initiative aimed at enabling first generation students from socio-economically disadvantaged communities (including undocumented students) to aspire to, enter, and graduate from college.
3. Scholarship in Action and Imagining America--an initiative aimed at linking inclusion in higher education with universities' role as anchor institutions addressing urgent community challenges (institutional citizenship)
4. Lawyers’ Roles in Transformative Leadership
5. Developing Indicators for Institutional Transformation
6. Advancing students' engagement in law school.

The overarching question cutting across these projects involves how people in different positions and roles advance institutional change aimed at increasing full participation in higher education.  Over the course of the semester, students will work closely with Professor Sturm to match your interests and passions to a field research project and focus.

Ombudsman

It is really important for all members of the diversity and innovation community to be able to surface and address issues that will inevitably arise in the course of our work together.  To facilitate this goal, one of the fellows will serve as ombudsman for the seminar.  If there are issues that you would like to address confidentially, you are encouraged to email her and arrange a time to meet.

Self-Assessment Survey

Self Assessment Survey:  Due the last day of class each semester. This memo should be a two to three page evaluation of your class participation. In it you should explain how you would assess your own class participation based on the contributions you made to the class and the ways in which your own participation (including merely being present in class) enabled you to learn or understand some of the course themes. You may, but are not required to, assign yourself a letter grade. Rather, your self-grading memo is an evaluation of a) the strengths and weaknesses of your own participation;  b) the relative effectiveness of the class format given your own learning style; and c) the extent to which you have achieved your own learning goals for the seminar.   You could discuss classes that illustrate changes in your thinking, facilitations that you thought were particularly effective, or themes that emerged in your approach to class facilitation and participation.  Your memo is also an opportunity for you to provide the professors with constructive feedback to improve the course for the future.