Part of what drew me to Walden University in the first place was the emphasis on social change. Thinking about how to help promote positive social change is a part of every course and every dissertation. On the Walden website, there is a quiz to determine what type of social change agent each person is. I was required to take this quiz for one of my classes. I saw it was a multiple choice quiz, which always makes me cringe, because I always seem to want an "other" or fill in the blank type of option.
After taking the quiz, I got the result of a Socially Conscious Consumer. Here is a link to the six types of social change agents that Walden has classified. I was kind of surprised by the result, because my social change efforts are not focused on my consumer habits. Of course I try to be socially conscious at the supermarket and in restaurants. I'm aware of environmental issues and feel virtuous when I ride my bike instead of driving my car, but my passion for social change is not focused on the environment. It's focused on people.
Honestly, in looking through the possible classifications, I didn't feel that any really applied to me. I use social media, but I'm not an avid user of all platforms. I attend Bible study, but I'm not deeply religious. I want to do well with my career, but I don't do things in order to make my resume look better. Social change is deeply important to me, but I promote it on more of a personal level. As always seems to happen to me, I don't really fit in any of the available categories.
I feel like I need a seventh category of Education Driven change agent. I believe in being a force multiplier. If I can help five people do something better, then they can help more people. As an educator, this means I'm particularly interested in teacher training, but I'm also interested in helping one student at a time. My ideal job is working as a building specialist where I have the flexibility to work with both adults and students to promote positive change.
The other resource I was required to look at was the website for the New Media Consortium's (NMC's) Horizon Reports. These are globally researched reports on the futures of various types of educational institutions. I was drawn to the 2015 K-12 Education report. When I look at the executive summary that talks about rethinking how schools work and wearable technology, I get excited. I wonder how they researched these ideas, and I think about how I could disseminate the ideas and get feedback from stakeholders. This is the kind of social change that gets me out of bed in the morning, because I think education is the starting point for all other types of positive social change. If we want to improve big things like health care and human rights, we are going to need a well educated populace to enact it. Educating the world is the key to improving it.
