In this teaching guide for our book, Community Health Equity: A Chicago Reader, we identify a set of discussion questions, as well as keywords, supplementary materials and videos.
Our Reader tells the story of a divided city, a metropolis whose unequal distribution of power and resources limits the capacity of its residents to live long and healthy lives. We present a rich collection of documents and research studies, taking an historical and interdisciplinary perspective. At their best, these documents challenge the status quo – identifying inequalities (which were previously hidden), highlighting historical patterns (often neglected), and exerting all of us to think critically about the fundamental causes of health inequities in Chicago.
We believe that the documents in the Reader are a testament to a powerful idea: deliberate action based on data can change seemingly intractable problems. We hope that this Teaching Guide helps educators to bring out key questions from the book.
For each of the major sections of the book, we identify a set of discussion questions (which may be used to prompt seminar discussions or even provide the basis of essay assignments), as well as keywords, supplementary materials (drawing on interviews we have conducted with Chicago-area researchers, physicians, and community activists) and videos (sometimes from events hosted by the Center for Community Health Equity). For each section, we also provide suggestions for further readings. A PDF-version of the Teaching Guide is also available for download.
In the coming months we will continue to update this teaching guide. We welcome suggestions – if you are using the book in your classroom and develop your own materials, we would like to include links to those here as well. The book editors are also available to come to speak with your class.