Social Responsibility

The ability to understand and reflect upon ethically and socially responsible behavior.

Social responsibility involves understanding the relationship of our actions to the lives of others. Individuals and groups hold diverse values, which can lead to conflict, but ultimately are essential for a vital community. As an academic community dedicated to developing inclusive leaders, Pine Manor promotes a notion of social responsibility that embraces several characteristics:

Attention to and encouragement of the inclusion of many voices in a discussion
Academic freedom and the open exchange of ideas
Awareness that important value differences always exists and must be recognized
Search for resolutions to conflict that produce the maximum benefit for all parties
Commitment to action to improve our own community, and the other communities we touch

The purpose of this outcome is to help you develop the ability to understand and examine your own values, and to recognize the relationship between your values and actions that the values and actions of others in a broader community. In a sense, we seek to understand the puzzle of how reasonable people can hold very different worldviews, and still live together and even work together to accomplish a common purpose.

You should select one or more papers or other experiences that you have had that have helped you develop your own understanding of acting responsibly. As you work on this outcome, consider some of the questions below:

Have you explored, in a paper or essay, a controversial topic involving different perspectives and values? What did this teach you about your own worldview?
What experiences have you had in which the goal was the accomplishment of a common benefit for a larger community? These might be such things as community service or a service-learning activity.
How has an activity in which you have been involved pursued an objective as defined by the group or community?
In what ways were your activities and values consistent with, or a challenge to the purpose that a group was pursuing? How did your participation advance or contribute to the goals defined by the group – directly or by challenging and clarifying the group’s objectives?
What experiences have you had in which you were confronted with conflicting values? How have you come to a deeper understanding of values that differ from your own?
How have your activities and those of a group fit into larger social and ethical debates? For example, how did an organization’s “mission statement” explain the relationship of its mission to broader definitions of common good?
What does it mean to be “socially responsible” in today’s technological and multicultural world?

Criteria for evaluating reflections on Social Responsibility

Exemplary

Satisfactory

Needs Improvement

Not Acceptable

Appreciates how differences in personal value choices contribute to the creation of community.

Evaluates experiences in terms of how these have contributed to her personal growth in examining and refining her own values

Discusses an exploration or experience that involved social responsibility

Identifies an experience in which she confronted value choices

Evaluates the opposing “sides” of an issue.

Identifies an experience that appears to involve an ethical issue, without explanation

States her own values

Describes her personal response to a controversy or situation

Inadequate reflection or is missing artifact.