Innovative Institutions

1. Remind students of the earlier lessons on racism and colonialism; in particular, you will want to remind them of the definition of ‘systemic’ racism, as well as talking about the role that institutions can play in creating and maintaining systemic racism.
2. Share the purpose of the activity: to provide students with positive examples of institutions that are challenging systemic racism through innovative practices. The professor can also talk about the concept of critical hope here and connect it with knowledge of inequity and hope that things can be different.
3. Show students examples of institutional innovation. Professors have options of how they may share examples of innovation:
   • You may simply use the Innovative Institutions PowerPoint presentation which contains various examples as well as videos.
   • You may choose to visit a space with your class (field trip) in order to have them inhabit a space of innovation.
   • You may arrange guest speakers (live or via video calls) who can speak to how they helped move their institution towards racial equity.
4. Brainstorm with the class to come up with some categories of innovation – in other words, what are some areas in which they might perform small changes in the service of racial equity. Here are some possible categories: educate and inform; consumer choices; engage in political action; eco-management; raise funds; initiate legislative action; persuade others to join a cause…
5. Invite students to reflect. Students should choose a category from those you have come up with as a class and think about how they might effect change through their own actions. There shouldn’t be a minimum or maximum length – they need to use as much space as they want to clarify for themselves what category of innovation they want to choose and what action they might do.
6. Discuss the ideas students came up with. No one should be forced to share but ask if anyone would like to. Students may ask if they are expected to actually carry out their chosen action. Professors should encourage the students to try to do their action and let them know that there will be a follow up in the class about the impact of their action and how it made them feel.

The main goal of this activity is to expose students to things that others are doing to combat racial inequity. Further, the formative in-class assignment is meant to empower students to see themselves as change-makers and give them hope for the future. 

Since you are asking students to actually come up with an anti-oppression action they can do in real life, it might make sense to do a follow up with your students. That could be either in the form of a dialogue journal entry where they let you know what action they took and what the impact was. If you are not doing a dialogue journal with your class, the follow up could come in the form of a simple question that the students either write a response to or discuss as a class or in teams.

Instead of reflecting on innovation types and choosing an action that they can do in their own lives, you can invite students to think about an organization that is doing good work. It would be especially meaningful if they could think of one they use or interact with themselves. Then students will perform an act of gratitude and write a letter thanking that organization.