Project Description:
In the last unit, you explored a personal value. For this unit, we’re still interested in values; however, we’re turning our attention from personal values to shared values enacted by groups in the university or local communities. We can learn a lot about how values are distributed and shared by observing and researching how groups try to contribute to the public good by engaging with social/political issues.
For this project, you will focus on a group in the local or university community engaged with a social/political issue important to you. Your essay will inform your audience about how your group’s engagement with a social/political issue enacts or implies a meaningful value.
Preparing to Write:
- Identify a local group of interest to you. There are several approaches you might take in constructing this essay, but your essay should draw on three things: the organization you choose, a meaningful value that connects the individual members of the organization, and a social/political issue the group is involved in that enacts that value. You might first choose a local group of interest and investigate what values and issues they are involved in.(LIBERTY HOUSE OF ALBANY GA) You might choose a social/political issue that is important to you and research a social organization involved with the issue, seeking to understand what values inform their involvement. Perhaps you would like to continue researching your value from the last project, and you would then consider what political/social issues are connected to that value and which organizations are engaged with that issue. Regardless, the group you choose must be new to you, meaning that you are not already a member. The purpose of this requirement is to help you find a group you might join.
- Write an effective research question that prompts you to investigate the way your group engages with a social/political issue. Your research question may lead you to examine a wide range of sources, including articles gathered from digital databases or newspapers, personal interviews or observations, flyers, posters, organization charters, official newsletters designed by the group, or even information available on the group’s website or blog.
- Evaluate and analyze your research in order to understand how the group enacts a shared value when engaging with the social/political issue. Assessing your research, what value is particularly powerful in motivating and influencing how the group engages with the social/political issue? What evidence have you found that shows that value in the activities of the group (including their communications)?