Three Questions for Community Engagement at the Crossroads
This week’s blog entry comes by way of special permission from Missouri Campus Compact and The Journal of Public Scholarship in Higher Education, where this article first appeared in 2013 (v 3, p. 7 – 17). The Journal of Public Scholarship in Higher Education is managed by Missouri Campus Compact with the copyright held by Missouri State University. We extend our deepest thanks to Tabitha Underwood, the Executive Director of Missouri Campus Compact, and Emily Sallee, Editor of JPSHE, along with the authors Kevin Kecskes and Kevin Michael Foster, for their permission to reprint the article here. As many community-engaged scholars head…
Service & Outcomes: What does the evidence tell us about volunteers?
“But does it really make a difference?” This important question is at the center of the impressive anti-amateurs-in-international-service literature, which begins with Ivan Illich, is carried forward and integrated with study abroad concerns by Tayla Zemach Bersin, and has most recently been picked up by Pippa Biddle. This line of critique is sometimes paralleled in discussions of US domestic service-learning and volunteering programming. Young people doing “service” may be: under-prepared or unprepared for the task at hand. If that’s the case, repercussions can include poor quality of service delivery (Vital note: don’t let “repercussions” be a euphemism. There are clear examples of…
Under the Knife Abroad: Faculty Health & Program Leadership
Northeastern University’s Dr. Lori Gardinier, after many years of global service-learning leadership, unexpectedly found herself in the role of medical patient abroad. Below she shares lessons learned for other faculty and staff. Enjoy the sound and thoughtful leadership tips, and remember to review best practices in health and safety abroad (see p. 22 – 25 in the Forum on Education Abroad’s Standards of Good Practice). By Lori Gardinier Faculty may not be aware of the tremendous responsibility we assume leading global programs until it is tested. In addition to supporting our students, co-leaders, and staff we are concurrently tasked with…
Why UNICEF and Save the Children are Against Your Short-Term Service in Orphanages
Here we have a clearcut case of good intentions gone awry. It does not mean that all international service is bad. But it absolutely does demand that volunteers or travelers interested in connecting across cultures do their homework about international service and global development. It demands that educators and community leaders go the extra mile to ensure young people are aware of the broader structures and incentives affected by their international experiences. This post provides a concise breakdown of the issue: why people who spend their lives dedicated to child wellbeing do not want you or your students volunteering in…
Coalition of Universities to Deepen Understanding of International Service, Global Learning, Community Partnership
At globalsl.org, a coalition of universities is leading efforts to ensure the development of rigorous research and evidence-based methods at the nexus of global learning, community-university partnership, and community-driven development. The initiative gathers open-access, peer-reviewed journal articles, practitioner tools, and challenging blog posts at globalsl.org. Together, these resources are intended to improve community and student outcomes in global service-learning, international education, and civic engagement programming, domestically and abroad. The website currently organizes more than 300 different resources that relate to community-engaged, cross-cultural education processes. The collection of these resources in one location brings together the insights of several discrete fields,…
What ARE we talking about? Poverty Porn, Volunteer Service & Global Service-Learning
Bad forms of international service are wretched, but not all international service is done poorly. To put it mildly, there is a big difference between experiencing a one-week orphanage tourism junket and carefully developing the cross-cultural and engineering skills of students and community members as part of expanding sustainable, safe water access. Unfortunately, many of the most popular critiques of international volunteering fail to recognize this basic insight. To have an informed conversation about good and bad global service and partnership, we must cultivate our abilities to discuss these issues with clarity. Part of the genesis for this website came…
Upcoming Conferences: International & Global Service-Learning
Mark your calendars! Several excellent opportunities for community-building, professional development, and expertise-sharing in respect to global and international university-community engagement are upcoming. The second two offerings do not yet have their own webpages, but they have been confirmed. These opportunities include: The IARSLCE pre-conference & conference September 29 – October 1, in New Orleans. The 2014 Global Service-Learning Institute, November 5 – 7, in Skaneateles, NY. The International Service-Learning Summit, March 4 – 6, at Duke University. IARSLCE will offer two pre-conferences that relate to GSL, as well as numerous individual sessions on the theme. The morning pre-conference on the…
International global health essay competition
International global health essay competition for ages 10-30 – deadline April 13 Akili is a U.S.-based organization that seeks to bring youth voices from around the world to policy-level discussions on issues of global health that affect the lives of young people. As part of that effort, Akili is hosting its first annual Youth Health Essay Competition, seeking essays of 500 words or less from young people everywhere to answer this question: “What is the most important health problem facing youth in the world today, and why?” The top 10 essays will be published on the Akili website, and the top prize…
From savior to solidarity: An alternative for White girls and anyone else considering international service
By Stacey Williams While Pippa Biddle was building a library in Tanzania, I too was there studying East African History and Culture during a semester abroad. Biddle’s post that went viral last week shares a thoughtful reflection on the nature (read: problems) of relationships between volunteers and host communities within international service trips. She asks many of the questions I confronted during my time in Tanzania and following six years of travel and service. With our parallel journeys, I appreciate Biddle’s attention to the positionality of international volunteers in efforts toward sustainable development. Yet, I was left unsatisfied with a conclusion that suggests…
WIVA Webinar February 11th: Service-learning and Volunteering in Health-Related Settings: Pearls and Perils
Global mobility of students, faculty and citizens to health-related settings in the Global South is increasingly popular and accessible. While driven by good intentions to impact global health, with a particular focus on health in low and middle income countries and underserved settings within high income countries, there is an increasing recognition of the complexities of sustainably addressing global health challenges. This exciting webinar will bring you up to date on best-practices in the area of service-learning and volunteering in health-related settings with a focus on the great learning and service opportunities that exist for students and cautions for the…
A Best of the Best Review: Educating Citizens
Title: Educating Citizens: Preparing America’s Undergraduates for Lives of Moral and Civic Responsibility Authors: Anne Colby, Thomas Ehrlich, Elizabeth Beaumont, Jason Stephens Target Audience: Faculty Date: 2003 Succinct Summary: In this book, universities and colleges are challenged to teach students civic responsibility and participation. Along with a collection of studies of approaches taken by a dozen schools, the authors recommend changes that schools can make to lead their students to lives of active citizenship. Reviewer quotes: “The volume benefits from the authors collective scholarship and wisdom on the development of moral-civic identity in the late adolescence/young adulthood and the historical role and contemporary challenges of colleges and universities in…
Creating nuanced conversations: A ‘learning service’ video series
By Claire Bennett & Daniela Papi As many teachers, study abroad coordinators and volunteer travel facilitators know, the learning experience of traveling abroad starts long before the traveller’s plane departs. In fact, our learning journeys start long before we even consider a trip abroad: we build knowledge and preconceptions about the places we are visit through the media we consume, through the history we were taught (or were not taught!), the fundraising campaigns we have seen, the marketing material about the trips we have perused, and a great deal of other sources. Yet, there is still a lot to learn…
Listening to Community Voices in International Service
“Volunteers do not make it better. They come and then they leave. When we sit here we are free. If a volunteer wants to come and ask us what to do, we can tell them something. We just like them to visit, but when they leave things are the same.” – A group of women in a South African community “They are building buildings while our children are dying. They care about buildings, but not about souls.” – Director of a South African rural orphanage “Ten volunteers are coming next week! Who wants them?’ the NGO representative says at…
“Just collecting data for the white guys”: Community Impacts of Service-learning in Africa
By Jessica Arends “Do local communities have the ability to reject or resist the service being provided? What degree of power exists or is perceived to exist between community members and students and faculty? This is especially relevant in post-colonial regions such as Africa which have survived severe exploitation and unethical research.” Global service-learning aims to address a myriad of community needs, including alleviating poverty, addressing social justice, providing food and shelter, strengthening global partnerships and developing economic or democratic capacity. While we know service-learning can greatly enrich student learning outcomes, the influence of this programming on communities abroad remains…
Privilege, Robbery, and Trauma
Editor’s Note: Following robbery at gunpoint in Guatemala, regular contributor Julia Lang bravely shares and reflects upon her learning experience below. The Building a Better World Forum strongly encourages all readers to recognize the vital importance of following best practices in health and safety abroad (see p. 22 – 25 in the Forum on Education Abroad’s Standards of Good Practice). To support your, your organization’s, or your office’s capacities to manage risk, maximize safe conditions, and respond to crises with competence, the Forum on Education Abroad regularly offers workshops on Crafting Emergency Action Plans and Health, Safety, Security, and Risk Management. Additionally,…
10 Tips for Meaningful Reflection on Alternative Breaks
By Shoshanna Sumka, Jill Piacitelli and Melody Porter Late afternoon, in a public park in Vietnam, a small group of students from Vermont gathered at the end of a long day spent surveying households impacted by the accidental explosions of long forgotten landmines. Deeply affected by a social issue they had never personally experienced in the US (but one tied to their identities through history, family members and government policy), the shaken team sat to talk. This reflection activity was planned to transform the post-war complexities they’d seen that day in direct service work, such as a troubling lack of…
Looking at Naked People: Pornography and the Non-Profit World
By Corey Dolgon Editor’s Note: Following Mitchell’s Complacency in Civic Engagement post from Monday, this provocative piece also comes out of comments at the 2013 Conference of the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement. Looking at Naked People: Pornography and the Non-Profit World Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said, “I know it when I see it,” in reference to obscenity. He was arguing that the 1st and 14th Amendments mandated that obscenity laws had to be limited themselves to criminalizing only “hard-core pornography.” I attended a panel discussion today a few months ago where representatives from banks and corporations…
How Neoliberal Ideology Fuels Complacency in Civic Engagement
By Tania D. Mitchell Editor’s Note: This provocative post comes out of comments at the 2013 Conference of the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement, where I was fortunate to appear on a panel with Sarah Brackmann (Southwestern University), Corey Dolgon (Stonehill College), Tania Mitchell (University of Minnesota), and John Reiff (UMASS – Amherst). The topic was, “Democratic and Community Engagement: A General Discussion of the Neoliberal Problem.” Much of the content could be seen as building upon Mitchell’s seminal 2008 work articulating critical service-learning in the Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning. Corey Dolgon’s remarks – a challenging set of concerns that…
Top 5 in 2013, Inviting You to Post in 2014
Friends, Readers, Colleagues: Lend us your experience. We started this site to advance the field of global service-learning through critical dialogue, robust questioning, and evidence-based insights. We hope you will consider joining a growing community of guest bloggers in 2014. In the coming months, we’ll have guest posts from dozens of established and emerging researchers and practitioners. Contributor guidelines are available here. In 2013, our Top 5 most viewed blog posts were: Culture. Shock. Service. Study Abroad. Global Citizenship? New Master’s Thesis with Provocative Data, by Julia Lang Study Abroad Safety Resources for LGBTQ Travelers Fair Trade Learning Giving Back? Short-Term International Volunteer…
Fighting for the Soul of the Public University: A Manifesto
A 2012 discussion of teaching among faculty and graduate students at UMASS-Amherst led to the manifesto that follows. Enjoy the text below – then decide how you will further commit to and spread opportunity for education that supports ecological sustainability, social justice, and a diverse democracy. And Happy New Year! Teaching Matters—A Manifesto pdf version v. 10 We are members of the UMass Amherst community committed to fighting for the soul of the public university, preserving a space that practices and promotes the education that a free people need to govern themselves. We are committed to education that engages us in…
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