Identifying Assets and Gaps

1. Engage students by asking them to raise their hands if they have heard all or part of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. Invite a few students to share what they know about this speech.  Then, explain that part of working towards collective liberation is having a dream.  Sometimes, it is hard to dream because we don’t see how that dream could actually become reality.  We get stuck looking at things the way they are, rather than envisioning how they could be.
2. Explain the purpose of the activity, emphasising that the ability to envision a better future and the ability to identify assets and gaps are key parts of the problem-solving process. Problem-solving is a skill valued by employers in all fields.
3. Show students the Whole-Campus Approach to Equity diagram and model how to use this diagram to envision what a whole-campus approach to equity and inclusion might look like. You might give the following examples:
   • School governance: My ideal school has (and enforces) a policy to prevent sexual violence and support survivors
   • Community partnerships: My ideal school consults regularly with Indigenous community leaders
   • Workforce: In my ideal school, the teaching workforce reflects the diversity of the student body
   • Teaching and learning: In my ideal school, sexual education classes include information specific to the needs and experiences of 2SLGBTQ+ students
   • Physical space: My ideal school building is energy-efficient because climate change is known to have disproportionate impact on marginalized populations
   • Student experience: My ideal school has extracurricular events that celebrate Pride, Black History Month, etc.
4. Facilitate a round-robin visioning activity. Invite each group to start at one of the six stations (one station per category on the whole-campus diagram).  Give groups five minutes to add their ideas to the flip chart.  After five minutes, groups rotate to the next flipchart paper.  They read the previous group’s ideas, then add their own.  Allow this process to continue until groups have visited all six stations, or until the saturation point has been reached.
5. Use dot-voting to identify issues and assets. Invite students to tour all six stations and read the ideas at each station. As they do so, they should draw a green dot next to ideas that their school is already implementing and a red dot next to ideas that their school is not yet doing. 
6. Debrief by discussing any patterns that emerged from the visioning and dot-voting exercises. For example, which categories had the most/least ideas? Is the school strong in some categories but weak in others? 
7. Invite students to return to their groups and discuss ideas for the final project. Which idea is most exciting to them? Emphasize that you aren’t asking them to change everything – just to push for change in one small area. 

Have students share (orally or in writing) the issue/idea they choose for their final project. The goal here is to ensure each team chooses a topic that:

• Fits with the learning objectives for the course
• Is neither too broad nor too narrow, given the time available and the students’ level of experience
• Is not already chosen by another team

• The round-robin activity involves a lot of movement. If some of the students in your class have reduced mobility, you might move the flip chart papers from table to table, rather than asking students to move around the class.
• Teachers might encourage students to consider multiple forms of oppression (racism, sexism, ageism, heterosexism, etc.) when envisioning what an equitable and inclusive school might look like. It is important not to rate or rank oppressions.  All forms of oppression are harmful and unjust.

A whole-institution approach towards sustainability: a crucial aspect of higher education’s individual and collective engagement with the SDGs and beyond by Katrin Kohl et al.