Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

20 minutes

Tune In: What is a social issue?

15 minutes

Find Out: What's the difference between a business, a charity and a social enterprise?

20 minutes

Take Action: Identifying businesses, charities and social enterprises

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will...

be able to understand the difference between wants and needs
be able to define what social issues are
distinguish between a business, charity and social enterprise.

Success criteria

Students can...

describe the difference between wants and needs and how these relate to social issues
identify social issues within their local community and broader society
use information to determine if an organisation is a business, charity, or social enterprise.

Tune In: What is a social issue?

Step 1

Explain to students that over the course of these lessons, they will be putting in place planning to start and operate their own social enterprise to benefit their local community (or perhaps a community further afield). This is an exciting opportunity to contribute positively to an issue they care deeply about and is one of the many ways young people can create change and inspire hope in their world.

Before students can start defining and recognising what a social enterprise is so they can form their own, it is important to define what social issues are and what makes them “social” issues.

Step 2

Present pairs of students with one of the following problem pairs and ask them to run through a Think, Pair, Share activity, considering the following questions for each pair of problems.

Depending on your class, you may choose to be selective in the questions you present to the students. Some students will come up with the distinctions without the prompts, whereas others will need the scaffolding to guide the conversation.

Questions

What do the problems have in common?
What differences are there between the two problems?
Is the problem describing a "want" or a "need" and what is your reasoning for this?
.

Problem pair 1:

1. Flynn, aged 12, can’t see his favourite band at an over-18s music event
2. Tony, aged 55, can’t find a new job after his last company shut down because he’s “too old”

Problem pair 2:

1. Eli can’t buy a PlayStation 5 with his savings
2. Marie’s full-time job doesn’t pay enough to afford healthy food for her kids' dinner and cover all the bills

Problem pair 3:

1. Jamal’s parents won’t let him drink Coke because it’s too sugary
2. Judith can’t drink her tap water because it contains lead

Problem pair 4:

1. Izzy dreams of going to a prestigious private school
2. Safisha can’t go to school because the laws in her country forbid girls from being educated

Problem pair 5:

1. Kayden, 22, uses some of her salary from her full-time job to pay back a car loan
2. Puspal, 23, works all day, seven days a week with no end in sight to pay off a debt her father passed onto her when he died

Step 3

Ask each pair to share one observation, based on the questions, for each problem. Compare the viewpoints of groups with the same problem to discuss. You may wish to record the problems and main discussion points on the board.

The point of this activity is to show students there are challenges that largely do not affect a person’s quality of life but there are other challenges that have a significant impact on a person’s quality of life. The life-affecting problems presented here are a matter of needs, whereas the other problems are a matter of wants.

Step 4

Following this, ask students to identify which of the problems represent challenges that are going to have the larger negative effects on society in that they

a) affect a large number of people (even if those people might not be 'visible' to many of us), and

b) negatively affect a person or group of people's access to a needed resource.

Some of the problems might be more challenging to identify because Australian society is relatively privileged; access to safe, clean water and education for all are things we can take for granted in Australia. This is a great opportunity to develop empathy for those less fortunate than others in Australia and beyond.

Step 5

Introduce the phrase 'social issue' to students and explain that they are problems affecting many people in society through limiting access to something needed to thrive in life, such as clean drinking water, healthy food, a source of income and access to education.

To check for understanding, ask students to contribute one example of a social issue they might be aware of, e.g., bullying. Did they realise this was a social issue before today?

Learning support: Depending on the students in your class, you may choose to be selective in the questions you present to them. Some students will come up with the distinctions between problems without the prompts, whereas others will need the scaffolding to guide the conversation. You may choose to put the prompts on the board for all students or gently prompt groups of students throughout their discussions, where you can see they're having some trouble making distinctions between the problems.

Find Out: What’s the difference between a business, a charity and a social enterprise?

Step 1

Now that students have a better understanding of social issues, explain to students that there are organisations and businesses that tackle social problems through selling goods or services. An organisation of this kind is called a 'social enterprise'. Ask the class if they know the difference between a social enterprise, a charity, and a for-profit business.

Step 2

For the benefit of deeper understanding, show students the slides in the What is a Social Enterprise Visual Explainer, describing each of the three organisation types (businesses, charities and social enterprises). Alternatively, write up the following definitions on the board for students as they will need these for the next part of the activity. There is a summary slide comparing the three organisation types.

Business: Set up to earn money and make a profit. Businesses get their income through trading goods and services to customers who want them. All profits from it go to the people running or owning it.

Charity: A specific type of organisation that does not make a profit (money made doesn’t go to the people who run the organisation). Charities address social problems, such as promoting human rights and preventing the suffering of animals.

Social enterprise: A business that trades to intentionally tackle social problems, improve communities, provide people access to employment and training, or help the environment. A portion of profits made must go towards their social mission.

Learning support: The Visual Explainer contains useful slides and prompts to aid students who might find retaining instructions or new information challenging. These slides can be edited to suit your class and students and can be printed as a reference tool.

Take Action: Identifying businesses, charities and social enterprises

Step 1

Having seen the difference between the three organisation types, students are now going to look at examples of these organisations and see if they can determine whether they are businesses, charities, or social enterprises.

Distribute On The Line cards to pairs of students to discuss the following questions

What is the organisation’s business activity, if any?
What are its social goals, if any?
Do you consider the organisation to be a social enterprise?

Ask students to place their cards at the appropriate point on a line: 100% charity at one end, 100% business at the other, social enterprise in the middle.

Step 2

In the classroom, establish ask each group of students to choose one organisation and discuss where they placed it on the line and why. Have any pairs of students placed the same organisation in a different place on the line?

You may wish to draw your own line on the board with your own set of cards and have each group of students come up to the board to place an organisation where they saw it fit on their line. This is a great way to encourage discussion and draw out any confusion or misunderstandings about what is or is not a social enterprise, business, or charity.

Learning extension: Some students may already be much more aware of what social issues are and be able to provide many examples. Lean into this and allow these students to share their knowledge and enthusiasm with others by placing these students with others who have less awareness.

Reflection: Local social enterprises

Step 1

Students are going to be working together to create their own social enterprise. Ask students to spend the next few days looking for social enterprises in their local area. How do you know if a social enterprise is a social enterprise or not? What are they called? What is their social mission? What is their business activity?

Step 2

Ask each student to try and find at least one local social enterprise or, if they are finding that challenging, find an example of a social enterprise whose social mission is one that the students agree with.

Creating a Social Enterprise - What is a Social Enterprise?

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