I will make periodic changes and updates to this proposal.  Email me if you would like a copy of an older version: sean.honea@gmail.com

Last Update:  June 7, 2009



Format of Proposal:

1. A Title, of no more than 30 characters (including spaces and punctuation)


2. A one-paragraph course description (approximately 100 words)


3. An outline or syllabus for how you plan to approach teaching the course, including readings, topics to be discussed, and student expectations.


4. (updated 6/7/2009) Tell us about the significance teaching the course will have for your program of study.


5. An explanation of which one or two of Starr King’s Eight Threshold Areas your course best fits into.


6. (updated 6/7/2009) An explanation of how this course would contribute to Starr King’s commitment to Educating to Counter Oppressions and Create Just and Sustainable Communities.


7. (updated 6/7/2009) How will this course give special attention to educating students from historically marginalized social locations in their preparation for religious leadership?


8. Please tell us if you imagine this course to be a full semester or half semester class as well as any time constraints you have (“evenings only,” “no Monday classes” etc.)


9. Please tell us if you imagine this course to be an Introductory, Intermediate, or Advanced level course.


10. Please tell us if you need to limit the number of students for pedagogical reasons, including both a minimum and a maximum number of students.


11. A list of any space or technology needs you will have for this class.


12. If you are proposing an online course, we require that you post the course online yourself. Please describe your capacity for scanning and posting your own course to Moodle (an online course software program).


13. If your course will involve students in fieldwork, cultural immersion or community involvement, please describe that work

14. Omitted

15. Omitted

16. Full Contact information


Sean S. Honea Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported


1. UU Youth/Young Adult Movements



3-4 Units (Pending Curriculum Committee Determination)


Instructor: Sean Honea – sean.honea@gmail.com

Guest Lecturer(s): Lena-Elodie Richardson (Works for Story Corp), Others TBD


2. This course will survey the North American UU Youth / Young Adult Movements from the late 19th Century till today.  In addition, to traditional texts, denominational reports, and guest lecturers, an experiential knowledge component will account for a significant portion of the course. Students will engage in original research of local Youth, Campus Ministries, and or Post College Young Adult Groups by taking oral histories.  Evaluation: Weekly written reflections on texts. Final project: working in groups or individually students will go beyond local UU groups and explore how other religious communities serve their Youth/Young Adult communities.  No prior oral history experience needed.


3. See Course Outline at end of document


4. The congregation is the heart of the UU Movement, and this course intentionally seeks to educate future parish ministers of the needs of UU Youth transitioning to Young Adulthood.  As a Unitarian Universalist M. Div. Student, part of my future ministry would seek to spread and retain Unitarian Universalism values in a population that has historically chosen to leave our faith:  Youths transitioning to Young Adulthood.  I have read that only about 10-percent of UU High School youth choose to remain in UU congregations once they graduate (Channing-Murray UU Denominational Growth Report 2005).  This course would provide my peers and I an opportunity for an extended reflection on the current needs of UU Youth / Young Adults, as well as their overall place in the UU Movement (past, present, and future).  This course is taught in the hope that leaders within the UU movement will be inspired to create sustainable ministries within their congregations that can retain these young UUs, in addition to helping UU ministers better understand how to serve non-UU Young Adults that are attracted to our movement. 


5. Thresholds:



6. Educating to Counter Oppressions and Create Just and Sustainable Communities:


7. How will this course give special attention to educating students from historically marginalized social locations in their preparation for religious leadership?


In the first phase of the course, students will write up reflections of their experience as youth and young adults in their respective faith communities or social environment if not raised in a particular faith tradition. These reflections will occur on the second day as opposed to the first day in order to give students more time to grow familiar with each other.  

Students will then share their experience in a rotating fish bowl in which 3 or 4 students will discuss their experiences in a small circle while the rest of the class observes in a larger outer circle. The fish bowl will then be balanced as the rest of the class (the outer circle) will discuss what they observed from the inner circle of students. The fish bowl will rotate until ever person participates at least once inside the fish bowl.

The idea behind the group sharing is for the people on the outside of the circle to observe what sources of empowerment and oppression do they hear from the stories of their peers: were their needs as whole humans being met by their community, and in what way?  

In order to encourage participation, students will be allowed up to 20 minutes to free write on their experience before sharing in groups.
If response is good, the fish bowl method may be used in other parts of the course.


8. Class will be a full semester in length as a three to four credit hour (pending curriculum committee determination) class to account for the fieldwork that students will be required to do in gathering stories for their final project in addition to normal lectures and class field trips. No restriction on days or time of day


Regarding Credit Hours.  The field research for the group project may be considered equivalent to the amount of time a student might spend in library research for a traditional mid-term and final term paper,.  Classes during weeks 12-15 are dedicated time for folks to work on and reflect on this project without any additional required reading outside of class.  Only three instructor led field trips (to visit a local Youth / Young Adult) are required with no formal reflection paper.  I plan to have 6 to 8 of these trips during the first half of the semester.  The purpose of these trips is to introduce and expose students to a variety of Youth / Young Adult ministries so that they might consider documenting a ministry outside of their faith tradition or relative comfort zone.


9. Course will be an introductory course to UU Youth / Young Adult history and Oral History gathering


10. Minimum Students: 6; Maximum: 25


11. Media / Technology needs: Ability to show movies from Internet, CD, and or DVD.  


12. Moodle: Course Reader will be placed online. I will need access to a scanner to do this. All copyright permission will be sought beforehand.  This is not an online course


13. Fieldwork:



14. See attached Curriculum Vitae


15.  In order to prepare for this class, I have taken Jo Sanzgiri’s Graduate Level Pedagogy course.  I also have experience with small group facilitation as the former Campus Ministry Leader for the UC Berkeley UU Campus Ministry.  Additionally, I plan to take Rev Michelle Favreault’s Teacher and Prophet class in Fall 2009.

In my undergraduate, Folklorist and Historian Dr. David S. Cecelski of the Institute of Documentary Studies at Duke University introduced me to the oral history narrative form.  He assigned me to document the lives of residents of the town of Rocky, Mount, NC and it’s struggle with racism. I also took a course with his writing partner Dr. Tim Tyson.  Dr Tyson taught me the valve of using of hidden histories and stories as a tool for countering modern racial and economic oppression in the South-eastern United States.  

Additionally, I am a former Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army.  As such, I have some experience training personnel on small tasks such as first aid or the maintenance of technical equipment.  I have given safety briefings on topics such as Driver’s Safety and Drug and Alcohol Awareness.  I have also worked as an event planner with duties that range from coordinating mass movements of people and equipment to inviting a trainer from a local women’s shelter to offer Sexual Harassment Awareness Trainings.



16.

Sean Honea, 1st Year M. Div

Starr King School for the Ministry

2441 Le Conte Ave.

Berkeley, CA 94709

http://stonesoupuu.blogspot.com/



3. Syllabus Course Outline:


UU Youth/Young Adult Movements



3-4 Units (Pending Curriculum Committee Determination)


Instructor: Sean Honea – sean.honea@gmail.com

Guest Lecturer(s): Lena-Elodie Richardson of Story Corp, Others TBD


“The UUA Board called youths’ departure from youth programs a ‘bridge to nowhere’ and called for more welcoming of youth into young adult and campus ministry.” -- Consultation on Ministry To and With Youth Summary Report August 2007


This course will survey the North American UU Youth / Young Adult Movements from the late 19th Century till today.  In addition, to traditional texts, denominational reports, and guest lecturers, an experiential knowledge component will account for a significant portion of the course. Students will engage in original research of local Youth, Campus Ministries, and or Post College Young Adult Groups by taking oral histories.  Evaluation: Weekly written reflections on texts. Final project: working in groups or individually students will go beyond local UU groups and explore how other religious communities serve their Youth/Young Adult communities.  No prior oral history experience needed.



Learning Objectives:







Student Expectations and Requirements:




Evaluation:


Pass / Fail
Class Participation:                  30%
Group Project:                          60%
Final Reflection:                       10%


Reference Texts:


Online Reader / Movies:



Curriculum: Roughly 15 meetings.


Phase 1: Your Story



Phase 2: Their Story / Our Past






Phase 3: Our Story:




Phase 4: Hidden Stories










Sean S. Honea   Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported