Teaching Creative Social Change

by Kate Davies, Director Center for Creative Change

(Super Consciousness Magazine, posted July 1, 2008)

As anthropologist Margaret Mead once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world - indeed, it is the only thing that ever has".

So how does a small group of people change the world? Seattle's Antioch University Center for Creative Change is teaching just that.

Antioch has a 155-year commitment to social change. It was founded in 1852 by Horace Mann, a leading social reformer of the 19th century. He believed that education could help build a better world for everyone. Just before his death in 1859, he told a graduating class, "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." This phrase is still repeated at every Antioch graduation ceremony.

The Center for Creative Change is one of four academic departments at Antioch University Seattle. It helps students wrestle with today's complex social and environmental problems and learn to lead social change wherever they live and work - a rural community, a downtown neighborhood, a private business, a nonprofit organization, a social service agency, a government department.

The emphasis on social change is balanced with an understanding of the importance of personal change and growth. Indeed, the two go hand-in-hand. Personal change can be very difficult to achieve unless there is supportive social change. And without widespread personal change, social change cannot be successful. Thus, social change and personal change are two sides of the same coin. Students come to appreciate this interdependence. Rachel, a recent alumna, summed it up by saying, "My whole experience of studying at Antioch shifted my understanding of myself and how I relate to the world."

Formed in 2002, the Center for Creative Change includes five graduate degree programs - environmental and community sustainability, management, organizational psychology, strategic communication, and whole systems design. All of these programs share the belief that ordinary people can make a positive difference in the world. Faculty teach students to understand the underlying roots of the problems facing society, but don't dwell on them. Learning focuses on exploring ways to create healthy communities and organizations through developing systems that nurture human potential and promote environmental sustainability.

The Center's approach to teaching and learning is based on an idea called "social constructivism" - a concept that groups of people create new ideas when they are open to learning from each other. Knowledge is not something that we only get from books or experts, nor is it merely instinctive or intuitive.

Social constructivism has been criticized by traditional academics who require learners to assimilate an established body of information. Indeed, it's probably impossible to use social constructivism to teach astrophysics, statistics or brain surgery, or any other discipline that requires students to absorb and regurgitate a set of facts or procedures. Moreover, people who are looking for quick and easy answers to the big questions about life can be frustrated by social constructivism. But in the chaotic and unpredictable world of social change, there are no ground rules or simple answers. As Paulo Freire and Myles Horton, two of the most prominent thinkers on social change in the twentieth century, agreed, "We make the road by walking it."

Graduates often take on new roles in life. For Amee, an alumna of the Environment and Community program, a course assignment evolved into a business that makes countertops and tabletops from recycled materials. Chris, who has an M.A. in Whole Systems Design, founded a nonprofit organization to empower youth to become active global citizens at home and abroad. Gail, an alumna of the Management program, went on to a Ph.D. in Leadership and Change. Her research focuses on how to incorporate First Peoples' values into organizations.

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Kate Davies, Director of the Center for Creative Change, is both proud and humble of the accomplishments of her department. "There is no doubt that working together, committed and thoughtful people can change the world!"

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