In a world facing complex challenges like changing demographics, labor shortages, and climate emergencies, effective social change is crucial. Addressing these challenges requires systematic development, implementation, and evaluation of social change approaches, grounded in empirical and theoretical knowledge. This course, “Social Change Approaches; Development, Implementation, and Evaluation,” emphasizes collaboration with real-life stakeholders, recognizing the complexity of involving researchers, professionals, decision makers, and affected communities.

Background information

This project addresses the need for real-world collaborations on themes like health, work-life balance, climate change, and social cohesion.

Aims

The overarching goal is to build a lasting community that facilitates reciprocal learning processes in the systematic development, adaptation, implementation, and evaluation of social change approaches.

Project description

The project comprises four key phases:

• Mapping existing contacts on the thematic areas, preventing overlap with other courses.
• Establishing contact with potential stakeholders, assessing collaboration needs.
• Student teams working on a project with stakeholders.
• A final meeting where students present their work, and collaboration is evaluated with stakeholders.

Educational activities include knowledge clips, tutorials, and practicals, emphasizing the integration of theory and methods into practice. The U-Collaborate in Education tool facilitates student-stakeholder matching. Teachers are facilitators of the learning process. Students are in the lead of communication and collaboration with the stakeholder they have been matched to.

Results

The main result of this project consists of a community of stakeholders, committed to collaborate on a longer term. The practical relevance and usefulness of knowledge products generated by students are indicators for the project’s success.

Reflection: lessons learned

Reflecting on the implementation, the project team acknowledges the need for flexibility and openness to stakeholders’ expectations, as well as to students’ expectations. Students’ self- reflection reports provide a valuable source for course improvement, as they provide a more detailed insight than the standard evaluation. The main challenge with regard to the stakeholders is ensuring long-term collaboration. Strategies for future improvements are being devised based on interactions between stakeholders, students and the project team.

Further reading

The challenge space in U-Collaborate in education

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