Environmental Studies (ENVS) 435

Overview

Students of Environmental Studies 435: Transformative Change in Building Sustainable Communities learn about community-based approaches to environmental change. To complete the learning activities, students are required to facilitate a series of workshops and undertake critical self-reflections of their learnings. They are directed to distinguish critical and radical community development from other forms of community development directed at amelioration, and they will practice some of the skills essential to undertaking critical and radical community development, such as active listening and critical pedagogy. In their analytical work, students are challenged to go beyond surface appearances of dominant narratives to make critical connections between the experiences of the world majority and others, and to connect the disadvantages with historical, political, economic, and social structures. Finally, students will explore opportunities for transformative collective action directed at social and environmental justice.

Outline

ENVS 435 is divided into 9 units:

• Unit 1: Establishing the Conceptual Framework
• Unit 2: Adult Education and Community Development
• Unit 3: A Toolkit for Praxis
• Unit 4: The Strengths of Stories and Community Asset Mapping
• Unit 5: Power and Popular Education
• Unit 6: Globalization and Food Security
• Unit 7: Ways of Knowing
• Unit 8: Intersectionality and Consumerism
• Unit 9: Environmental Justice and Transformative Change

Learning outcomes

Students successfully completing ENVS 435 will be able to:

1. Explain the theoretical underpinnings and key concepts and practices associated with a diversity of approaches to community development practice, particularly critical and radical community development.
2. Explain and engage in Freirean dialogue by organizing and facilitating respectful critical dialogues.
3. Assess and take responsibility for their own learning by reflecting critically on the learning process, actively seeking support, building on strengths, and grappling with challenges or difficulties.
4. Deploy the key concepts discussed in the course learning materials effectively when undertaking critical analysis and self-reflections.
5. Problematize reality by explaining the key structural forces of discrimination and oppression that affect particular communities and by identifying opportunities for transformative collective action directed at social and environmental justice.
6. Communicate effectively, professionally, and clearly, and integrate appropriate source material to support their views and ideas.

Evaluation

To receive credit for ENVS 435, students must complete and submit a portfolio of evidence that is completed to the satisfaction of the tutor and that demonstrates their achievement of the Course Learning Outcomes. Students must achieve a minimum grade of D (50 percent) to pass the course.

Students are expected to estimate their own grade for this course through a self-assessment of their overall work and learning in the course, and through discussion with the tutor; however, the tutor reserves the right to change the student’s grade based on evidence of their progress. The tutor will provide formal feedback when the student checks in with them, but no marks will be allocated: these meetings are intended to help students gauge their progress and to ensure that the work they complete will allow them to meet the Course Learning Outcomes as effectively as possible.

The assessment for this course is based on a portfolio of evidence that is explicitly matched to the Course Learning Outcomes. The portfolio of evidence will consist of the following Learning Activities.

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.

Materials

Physical course materials

The following course materials are included in a course package that will be shipped to your home prior to your course’s start date:

Ledwith, M. (2020). Community development: A critical and radical approach (3rd ed.). Policy Press.

Other Materials

All other materials are available online.

Special Instructional Features

Note that there are several times throughout the course where formal feedback is given but no marks are allocated: this is intended to help students gauge their progress and to ensure that the Learning Activities undertaken allow them to meet the Course Learning Outcomes as effectively as possible.

Challenge for credit

Overview

The challenge for credit process allows you to demonstrate that you have acquired a command of the general subject matter, knowledge, intellectual and/or other skills that would normally be found in a university-level course.

Full information about challenge for credit can be found in the Undergraduate Calendar.

Evaluation

The challenge assessment for ENVS 435 involves the production of a portfolio of evidence and reflective commentary, which are mapped to the Course Learning Outcomes and demonstrate competence, as well as an online oral exam based on the work submitted.

The evaluation will be based entirely on the evidence presented in the portfolio and the oral exam. The portfolio should explicitly detail how the work completed maps onto the Course Learning Outcomes. There is no explicit weighting given to any particular component: grades will be based on successful achievement of the Course Learning Outcomes.

To receive credit for the ENVS 435 challenge registration, students must achieve a minimum grade of D (50 percent) on the portfolio and oral examination.

Important links

• Academic advising
• Program planning
• Request assistance
• Support services at AU