The Syllabus as a Social Contract for Restorative Justice

摘要

Imagine the syllabus collaboratively designed: (1) as a tool to promote the best interests of students—instead of promoting passive compliance with lopsided academy-serving power dynamics; (2) to guide students and educators away from antiquated, unjust, rigid classroom culture—and towards flexible and safe learning environments that promote healing; (3) for scalable critical analysis of typical syllabus content—balancing existing educational and intuitional realities and pressures with reimagined educational interactions and spaces. In this essay such a syllabus is imagined, modeled after United States common law procedure, and focused on syllabus content that are typically of greatest interest to students.