Collaborative Exploration: July 2024

Thinking Critically and Creatively About Citizenship
4 Tuesdays: 12:00-1:00pm EDT July 9, 16, 23, 30

Hosted by the Graduate Program in Critical and Creative Thinking at the University of Massachusetts Boston. RSVP here to register and receive the Zoom login information. Contact cct@umb.edu with additional questions.

RSVP

Schedule: Online meetings in Zoom on 4 Tuesdays from 12:00-1:00pm EDT on July 9, 16, 23, and 30. There is no cost to participate, but space is limited and participants are asked to register only if they can commit to attending at least 3 of the 4 online meetings.

Facilitator: Jeremy Szteiter, Assistant Director of the Graduate Program in Critical and Creative Thinking, University of Massachusetts Boston

Time commitment and expectations: attendance at virtual meetings once per week, plus about 30 minutes to 1 hour per week to between meetings to independently explore the theme on your own and read/write discussion posts. Because the virtual meetings primarily use dialogue rather than lecture to build a collective understanding, participants are periodically asked to contribute orally and should have a Zoom setup that allows this. The sessions are generally not designed for “listen-only” mode.

Overview of Collaborative Exploration format: These free, non-credit informal seminars offered by the Graduate Program in Critical and Creative Thinking at UMass Boston are open to all. The Collaborative Exploration (CE), inspired by a problem-based learning approach, consists of hour-long structured dialogues in Zoom for 4 weeks in a row with an emphasis on making space for inquiry and curiosity around various themes connected to critical and creative thinking and reflective practice. In between online meetings, participants explore the topic in the direction of their own interests, and then the meetings serve to promote learning through sharing of diverse perspectives on the topic. The seminar does not offer a pre-defined curriculum but instead starts with broad themes, where each participant focuses on particular questions and angles on the topic that interest them most, and then we learn with each other through our live discussions and shared written posts. Additional information: General CE Overview | Structure of CE Sessions | Additional Theoretical Foundations 

Description of theme, Thinking Critically and Creatively About Citizenship: In this seminar, we ground our exploration in the concept of citizenship and what happens when we view this from a critical and creative thinking perspective. This might lead us to consider the assumptions that we make about citizenship in today’s society and how we understand social problems and solutions in relationship to citizenship. The Collaborative Exploration format allows us to generate and pursue questions such as:

  • What is the conventional wisdom about what it means to be a ‘good citizen’, and how might that be challenged?
  • What are some creative ways of fulfilling our civic duty? How can not only the arts but also other creative processes exemplify citizenship?
  • What is the role of critical and creative thinking in supporting and/or promoting democratic principles?
  • What kinds of problems are we seeing with citizenship, civic participation and engagement, and what interesting solutions or approaches are being used to address them?

Participants are encouraged to reflect on their own life histories as well as current events as they inquire about these and other questions. During the sessions, we will explore our diverse perspectives through dialogical activities, and in between sessions, participants continue to explore ideas independently as their time allows.

Intended Audience: Any individuals interested in exploring the topics described above and engaging as co-learners with a diverse group of others.