Undergraduates become professors in a Concordia course about local activism

For the past three years, undergraduate students at the School of Community and Public Affairs (SCPA) have had a unique opportunity to shape their own learning. In SCPA 352: Community and Local Activism, the students not only run the course alongside their professor but actually decide the format of their final project.

Anna Sheftel, SCPA principal and associate professor, is the instructor behind this distinctive classroom arrangement.

“I had been reading a fair bit about decolonizing pedagogy, critical pedagogy and approaches that seek to make the classroom a more egalitarian space,” Sheftel explains.

“I thought, ‘Hey, let's experiment with this,’ especially knowing that the SCPA is a good place to do that kind of thing. But I had never taught quite such an unconventional course before.”

As an oral historian, Sheftel wanted to help her students engage more deeply with real-life examples of community advocacy. Throwing the teaching hierarchy out the window, she made a student-led group project that records the life experiences of activists her only course requirement.

“It's hard to teach a course about activism. It's strange to study a thing that's about doing,” Sheftel notes. “If you're going to study horizontal movements and non-hierarchical structures, then you also have to try to do that in the classroom.”

When she first taught the class in 2022, Sheftel prepared her students with training in oral history’s purpose, ethics and methodology before they set to work on their project.

The class collectively decided to create a podcast, with groups of two to three students each producing an episode. Other subgroups also worked on artwork, distribution, intro music and additional elements. The result is Listening Beyond, a captivating collection of real stories from people who fight for their communities.

Lessons beyond the curriculum

There were many challenges to overcome in bringing the project to completion, but each also  proved to be an important lesson.

lacey boudreau, who is now entering their final undergraduate year, took the class in their second term. Their group interviewed an Indigenous activist. While the interview was a success, the activist ultimately withdrew their consent to have it published, as they worried how their narrative could impact their working relationships.

“It changed the way I approach research. I am more careful about what information I am collecting and how widely it is distributed,” boudreau says.

“Why does everyone feel like they need to have access to all information at once? I hadn’t thought about how technology has made consent questionable in terms of where information is spread and who is accessing it. I learned that it is okay if there are some things that we don’t know, that some stories should only be shared more intimately.”

jay sallos-carter was also in boudreau’s cohort. As a mature student who is in their thirties, sallos-carter was partnered with one student around their age and another in their late teens. When the older group members were less flexible in the communal decision-making process, the younger member stepped into a leadership role and brought the project to completion.

“One of my most valuable takeaways from the class is knowing how to step back, recognize your own positionality and be more open,” sallos-carter explains. “A lot of that came from the younger group member, who was so thoughtful and open to all the ideas we had. When they had something to say, I very much wanted to hear their opinion. It was very humbling and impactful for me.”

Undergraduates as experts

Recognizing the uniqueness of the class’s format, learning opportunities and output, Sheftel approached the first cohort about co-authoring an academic paper.

“Lots of professors — including me — write academic articles about pedagogy, especially in oral history. But usually that involves quoting students or their evaluations,” Sheftel explains.

“My decision to co-author with my undergraduate students came out of the collaborative ethos of the class itself. The students were such committed partners in the project that it only seemed appropriate that we should write together.”

Four students, including boudreau and sallos-carter, agreed to join Sheftel in writing. The paper, “Listening Beyond: Collaborative Reflections on Learning about Activism Through an Undergraduate Oral History and Podcasting Project,” was recently published in The Oral History Review.

The co-authors travelled to Baltimore in October 2023 to present their work at the Oral History Association conference.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect,” sallos-carter says. “We were worried that we didn’t belong there, that we wouldn’t have enough to say in our hour-long panel. But we went over time and had to be ushered out of the room because the attendees had so many questions. It gave us the sense that we do belong here. People perceive us as experts; we are oral historians.”

“We are now four undergraduates who are coming out of our program with a publication,” boudreau adds. “People who are young are smart. Oral history is not a new field, but we are new people coming into it who have done original research. It was great to be in an environment that was not patronizing where we could share our perspective.”

A growing artifact

Sheftel is offering the fourth iteration of the course this fall. She continues to develop the curriculum by incorporating more relevant oral history theory, deeper audiovisual training and access to equipment in partnership with both the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS) and the campus radio station, CJLO. She is also committed to providing better opportunities for students to express their individual experience in a group setting. But the students remain in charge of the format for the class project.

So far, the first three cohorts have all produced podcasts with accompanying elements such as a zine.

“It's my favorite class I've ever taught,” Sheftel says. “My students have produced exceptional work, and I have seen such a sense of community built through this collaborative project.”

Listen to the podcast and read the paper produced by the students of SCPA 352: Community and Local Activism at Concordia.