University structure/governance varies little across the world and has changed little in basic form across time. It is, at its essence, deeply colonial and Western, characterized by a hierarchical distribution of power. However, as the world changes rapidly around us, there is a growing need to authentically include the diverse voices of stakeholders (i.e., staff and students) in the decisions that affect their work, learning, and wellbeing. This course presents a shared governance model, “Sociocracy”, that stresses inclusion and deliberate attention to power dynamics. Based on consent and not consensus, sociocracy operates at scales from small groups to entire organizations. Participants will explore connections among governance/decision-making, power structures, and participatory equity in higher education. They will explore sociocracy as a model for fostering shared decision-making in classrooms, committees, departments, and other academic spaces, and generate actionable plans to improve power dynamics and advance equity and inclusion in their own contexts. By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Identify relationships, power structures, and/or gaps in participatory equity in governance at their home institution.
• Define, explain, and justify the use of Sociocracy as a viable governance model at multiple levels or scales.
• Explain the significance of sociocratic structures and processes.
• Design sociocratic structures at levels or scales relevant to their local contexts.

The course will also prepare participants to apply practical strategies that foster more equitable, inclusive, and participatory forms of leadership. These approaches are adaptable to a wide range of settings and contexts. Participants will learn how to:

• Structure and facilitate meetings effectively.
• Engage students as active partners in course design and learning.
• Incorporate regular feedback loops to improve processes, strengthen decision-making, and enhance collaborative projects.

Instructors

Teri Balser, University of Calgary
Kelly Clark, Johns Hopkins University

Course Schedule

This course meets online in Zoom on Wednesdays, October 15 through November 19 at 8-10pm Gulf / 12-2pm Eastern / 11am-1pm Central / 9-11am Pacific/Arizona.

**After November 2nd, course meets at 9-11pm Gulf / 10am-12pm Arizona**

Audience

This course is intended for a broad range of participants at all career stages, including faculty and staff, CIRTL leadership, postdocs, or senior level graduate students that are interested in applying the Sociocracy model in classrooms, committees, departments, and higher.

Registration and Enrollment

Cap: 50. Registration opens on Monday, September 29th at 10am CT and closes once capacity is reached. Registration will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis and registrants from CIRTL member institutions or alumni of CIRTL member institutions will receive priority. Once registration closes, all registrants will be notified of their enrollment status.
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Accessibility

If you have access needs, please let us know what they are. Contact Zoe Zuleger (zmzuleger@wisc.edu) to let us know how we can help you have a successful experience. In addition to meeting individualized needs, we will also take measures throughout the course to support accessibility for all our students:

• Using alt-text on images in reading materials
• Sending weekly reminders with upcoming assignments to all students
• Sending weekly reminders with missing assignments to students who have late work
• Sharing materials for synchronous sessions with students via Moodle (slides, breakout group activity instructions, etc.)
• Enabling live captioning in synchronous sessions
• Incorporating multiple modes of interaction into synchronous sessions
• Sharing recordings from synchronous sessions
• Allowing students to make up absences and submit work late with no penalty

About CIRTL Programming

CIRTL Network programming is designed to develop future faculty committed to implementing and advancing evidence-based teaching practices to create undergraduate educational experiences that are accessible to all learners. Participants can explore our programming in any order, and to whatever extent supports your own teaching development needs and interests. To help participants understand what they can expect across all our programming, all CIRTL programming aligns with four broad learning goals; within those goals, programming might provide participants with an introductory, intermediate, or advanced learning experience.

This course supports the following CIRTL learning goals at an introductory/intermediate level:

• Goal 4: Prepare for an impactful career. See more Goal 4 programming.