LA 400 American Vision and Values_Citizens as Agents of Moral Change
Citizens as Agents of Moral Change
Learning Objective: The impact and influences of values: A Case Study
This week’s assignment is a case study about people who were agents of moral change. For either of this week’s assignment options, students are instructed to engage in their own research. One or more primer articles have been provided to start your research. However, students are to include a minimum of two unique, external articles which pertain to their study subject. Students may use Wikipedia as a reference for this assignment.
Specifically, for either of these assignments, students are to use and cite two external documents, at least one Primer (or provided article), the article by Oldenquist, or Kluger, or Tomasellos, and an assigned reading article from a previous week. If you have questions, please ask.
Subject to the note above, research the life and accomplishments of one of the following moral agents of change: Malala Yousaf Zai, Standing Bear, W.E.B. Du Bois, Mitsuye Endo, Hannah Arendt, or Cesar Chavez. For this assignment, examine the life and actions of one of these individuals and then answer the following questions:
- What value(s) did your research subject demonstrate?
- How did this value help them become a moral agent of change?
- What can we learn from this model citizen?
- How can we use our choices and behaviors to set positive examples for others?
- How might ordinary citizens become extraordinary moral agents of change?
Each Assignment requires:
- 600 words min
- double spaced
- a thesis statement,
- an APA style bibliography,
- use of APA style in-line citations, and
- adherence to the 3+1 Rule.
The 3+1 Rule requires students to use a minimum of three assigned readings from the current week and one from a previous week. This rule encourages students to review and connect the assigned readings from week to week.
this week content
required readings
- On the Nature of Citizenship, Andrew Oldenquist, Educational Leadership
- What Makes Us Moral, Jeffrey Kluger, Tiffany Sharples, Alexandra Silver, Time Magazine, 2007
- How We Learned to Put our Fate in One Another’s Hands, Michael Tomasello, Scientific American, 2018
optional readings
Meet the Hero: Mitsuye Endo, Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes
- Malala Yousafzai’s Address to the United Nations, CommonLit, 2013
- Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl (v), BBC News, 2009
- Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior on the Operations of the Department for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1877, Chief Standing Bear Organization
- The Story of Chief Standing Bear, Chief Standing Bear Organization
- Statement by Cesar Chavez at the End of His 24-Day Fast for Justice, California Department of Education
last weeks content
- Globalization is Good for You, Ronald Bailey, Reason, 2015
- Tracing the Impact of Globalisation on a Restaurant Menu Card, Arundhathi Baburaj, Women’s Era, 2018
- Fortnite’s Digital Goods Are Key to the Future of Global Trade, Shawn Donnan, Bloomberg Businessweek, 2019
- World Order 2.0 – The Case for Sovereign Obligation, Richard N. Haass, Foreign Affairs, 2017
- Nationalism Gains Momentum, Trend Magazine, 2018
- Teaching Globalization in the Time of Trump, Jane Elizabeth Hughes, BizEd, 2019
- Population Bulletin Update: Immigration in America 2010, Population Reference Bureau, 2010
- Immigration by the Numbers, Elaine Kamarck, John Hudak, Christine Stenglein, The Brookings Institution, 2017
Answer preview
The activism of Malala Yousafzai has been recognized globally with a Nobel Prize laureate award for being the youngest individual to seek positive change for millions of girls. Yousafzai and other girls in Pakistan have faced threats from the extremist group of the Taliban, which despises women’s education. Cases of the blasting of educational institutions and the killing of female teachers due to the fear that their actions would promote equality are actions that Yousafzai has been fighting. More saddening is at the age of 14, Yousafzai (2013) explains she was singled out and shot in the head by an individual from the extremist group to silence her activism. Establishing the values that have helped Yousafzai become a moral agent will uncover lessons that people can learn and understand how they can use their choices to promote positive change…
Total: 877 words.