About us
Critical Engagement CIC designs and delivers short-course style programs for dynamic organisations and educational settings. The program encourages participants to explore different perspectives on crucial global, local and personal topics in their lives, putting thinking into actions. Our team is international, working across the world.
Aims
Critical Engagement cultivates participants' capacity for critical thinking, creative collaboration and confident, constructive communication.
Outcomes
Participants build lasting, transferable skills to serve as a foundation for active roles and sustained impact in varied personal, professional and community settings.
Methods
Critical Engagement gives participants the center stage by creating a forum for open, constructive discussion and collaboration on a range of crucial global and local issues.
Our programs are composed of three themes: Identity, Diversity and Social Responsibility or Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Each theme builds upon the last, and is explored through a tailor-made combination of role-play activities, small-group discussions, applied workshops, and film screenings.
Identity
This theme examines the role of ideas about identity in shaping our lives and our communities. In particular, questions of multiple and changing identities are explored, along with the interactions of individual and group identities. The potential for ideas about identity to fuel conflict and prejudice is further investigated.
Diversity
Examining diversity both within societies and on global scale, this theme explores different ways in which societies mediate difference. The theme's societal and global dimensions are examined through a range of case studies and contemporary debates.
Social Responsibility
This theme explores our individual and collective roles in the well-being of individuals and communities locally and globally. Particular focus is placed on our responses to social justice issues. Together we unpack questions of privilege and systems of oppression in the context of Social Service.
Diversity
This module is a rich and thorough exploration of what it means to live in a diverse community and how we might fit into it. We look at Bias, Privilege, Systemic Oppression, Personal Identity and Community through a variety of exercises, thought experiments and discussions. This module, like every other module, aims to spark a deep personal reflection that gives way to understanding everyone in the room with you.
Equity
In this theme, we explore equity as ‘the quality of being fair or impartial’, while considering the role of colonialism and contemporary globalization. The content on Equity prompts us all to not only reflect on the roles we play in actualizing more equitable communities, but also to develop a socio-emotional capacity to introspect and exercise consistent personal accountability. This module is explored through the lenses of the past, the present and the future.
inclusion
This module unpacks the concept of inclusion in a way that presents us human beings as equals in the construction of common knowledge and community. It defies the idea of ‘inviting others to the table’ and presents an opportunity to self-reflect on and practice how, together, we can build a big table at which everyone already has a seat.
“Critical Engagement allowed me to relate issues at school with global issues and gain a better understanding of what goes on in the world through someone else’s eyes.”
Participant, UWC Atlantic College