An Upside-Down Approach to Social Innovation at Institutions of Higher Education

Authors

  • Maryam Mohiuddin Ahmed University of Waterloo https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5815-7961
  • Ross VeLure Roholt University of Minnesota
  • Jennifer M. Catalano Social Innovation Lab

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29173/cjnser662

Keywords:

social innovation, higher education, decolonial pedagogy, community-based participatory approaches

Abstract

Experts commonly assert that social innovation is best taught outside of higher education, given that higher education institutions are prone to rigidity traps. Opposing research suggests that social innovation can flourish within institutions of higher education when they embrace new ways of teaching and learning. Using a student-initiated and led Social Innovation Organization (SIO) at a university in South Asia as a case study, this article considers how social innovation education might emerge from and take root within institutions of higher education and what the consequences are for social relations, power structures, and institutional practices.

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Author Biographies

Ross VeLure Roholt, University of Minnesota

Ross Velure Roholt is a publicly engaged scholar with a primary focus on sustaining long- term collaborations to create opportunities for youth leadership and healing. In his capacity as an educator, he teaches courses on youth development, social development, youth work, social innovation, and evaluation within the Youth Studies program at the University of Minnesota, College of Education and Human Development, School of Social Work.

E-mail: rossvr@umn.edu

Jennifer M. Catalano, Social Innovation Lab

Jennifer is a creative, multi-lingual professional with over ten years of experience managing complex multi-stakeholder international projects. A project manager and a writer, Jennifer dances between the creative and technical aspects of organizational development work, knowing that these are equally an art and science. She is particularly drawn to youth entrepreneurship education as a space that breeds possibility, hope and collective action toward an emerging future.

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Published

2024-08-12

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 1 (2024)

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2024 Maryam Mohiuddin Ahmed, Ross VeLure Roholt, Jennifer M. Catalano

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