Doing More With Less: Civic Practices for Longer-Term Impact in Global Service Learning
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v29i2.391Keywords:
Short-term study abroad, international service learning, Nicaragua, Story telling, Study abroad, Education abroad, Community engagment, community partnershipsAbstract
This essay explores the potential value of short-term study abroad experiences within the unique framework of a new global service-learning program at Providence College which connects international with local engagement as a way to “do more with less.” Authors first introduce a typology for global service-learning, illustrating how this model fits within current approaches to international service-learning. They then describe a case study, Voices Across Borders, the global service-learning program which provides opportunities for students to engage with rural Nicaraguan and urban Providence youth through projects that harness the power of storytelling to make connections across borders. Based on the lessons from this effort, the essay offers a set of civic practices that can support the longer-term impact of short-term global service-learning, including i) fostering storytelling across borders; ii) cultivating students as partners; iii) developing reciprocal community partnerships; and iv)creating public work, visual, auditory or performing public artifacts. After describing the challenges for short-term international engagement, the authors conclude that global service-learning initiatives might more appropriately be focused on collaborative learning, rather than service, as a way of thinking more comprehensively about the entire global “ecology of education” which links learning at the international and local levels.
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References
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Vande Berg, M., Paige, R. M., & Lou, K.H. (2012). Student learning abroad. Paradigms and assumptions. In M. Vande Berg, R. M. Paige, & K.H. Lou (Eds.), Student learning abroad: What our students are learning, what they’re not, and what we can do about it (pp. 3-28). Sterling, VA: Styles Press.
Walker, T. and Wade, S. (2011) Nicaragua: Living in the shadow of the eagle. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Wallace, J. (2000). The problem of time: Enabling students to make long-term commitments to community-based learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning, 7(1), 133-142.
Zemach-Bersin, T. (2008). American students abroad can’t be global citizens. Chronicle of higher education. Volume 54, Issue 26, Page A34.
Addes, D. & Keene, A. (2006). Grassroots community development at UMass Amherst: The professorless classroom. In E. Zlotkowski, N. Longo, & J. Williams (Eds.), Students as colleagues: Expanding the circle of service-learning leadership (pp. 227-240). Providence, RI: Campus Compact.
Alonso García, N. and Longo, N. (2013). Going global: Re-framing service-learning in an interconnected world. Journal of higher education outreach and engagement, 17(2), 111-136.
Alonso García, N. and Longo, N. (2015). Community voices: Integrating local and international partnerships through storytelling. Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement, Vol. 6, No. 2, Summer.
Bennett, M. (2004). Becoming intercultural competent. In Wurzel, J. (Ed.). Toward multiculturalism: A reader in multicultural education. Newton, MA: Intercultural Resource Corporation. (pp. 62-77).
Belli, G. (2003). El país bajo mi piel. Memorias de amor y guerra. The country under my skin. A memoir of love and war. Great Britain: Clays LTD.
Biddle, P. (2014). The problem with little white girls, boys and voluntourism. Huffington Post. Retrieved at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pippa-biddle/little-white-girls-voluntourism_b_4834574.html?&
Boyte, H. (2011). Public work and the politics of the commons. The Good Society. 20(1) 84-101.
Bringle, R., Hatcher, J., & Jones, S. (Eds.). (2011). International service learning: Conceptual frameworks and research. Sterling, VA: Styles Press.
Dwyer, M. (2004). More is better: The impact of study abroad duration. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, v10 p151-163 Fall.
Ellison, J. and Eatman, T.K. (2008). Scholarship in public: Knowledge creation and tenure policy in the engaged university. Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life Tenure Team Initiative on Public Scholarship. Retrieved at http://imaginingamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ScholarshipinPublicKnowledge.pdf
Cremin, L. (1976). Public education. New York: Basic Books.
Enos, S., & Morton, K. (2003). Developing a theory and practice of campus-community partnerships. In B. Jacoby (Ed.), Building partnerships for service-learning (pp. 20-41). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ganz, M. (2007). What Is public narrative? Harvard, MA: Kennedy School. Retrieved at https://comm-org.wisc.edu/syllabi/ganz/WhatisPublicNarrative5.19.08.htm
Hartman, E. (2014). Why UNICEF and Save the Children are against your short-term service in orphanages. Retrieved at http://globalsl.org/why-unicef-and-save-the-children-are-against-you-caring-for-orphans/
Hartman, E. & Kiley, R. (2014). Pushing boundaries: Introduction to global service-learning special issue. Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning.
Hartman, E., Paris, C, and Blache-Cohen, B (2012) Tourism and Transparency: Navigating ethical risks in volunteerism with fair trade learning. Africa Insight 42(2): 157-168.
Healey, M. Flint, A. & & Harrington, K. (2014) Engagement through partnership: Students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. Retrieved at https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/resources/engagement_through_partnership.pdf
Holland, Barbara A. (2005). Reflections on community-campus partnerships: What has been learned? What are the next challenges? In Higher education collaboratives for community engagement and improvement, (eds.) P. A. Pasque, R. E. Smerek, B. Dwyer, N. Bowman, and B. L. Mallory. Ann Arbor, MI: The national forum on higher education for the public good, pp. 10-17.
Hovey, R. and Weinberg, A. (2009). Global learning and the making of citizen diplomats. In R. Lewin (Ed.). The handbook of practice and research in study abroad. New York: Routledge.
Institute of International Education & Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs U.S. Department of State (2015). Open Doors 2015 Report on International Educational Exchange. Retrieved at http://www.iie.org/Research-and-Publications/Open-Doors#.VzsUmWZ4zEJ
Illich, I. (1993). To hell with good intentions. In B. R. Barber & R. M. Battistoni (Eds.), Education
for democracy: Citizenship, community, service: A sourcebook for students and teachers (pp. 456-460). Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing. (Original work published in 1968).
Keith, N. (2005). Community service learning in the face of globalization: Rethinking theory and practice. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning 11, pp. 5-24.
Kilpatrick, W. (1936). Preface. Youth serves the community. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company.
Kushner, J. (2016). The voluntourist’s dilemma. NYTimes Magazine. Retrieved at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/magazine/the-voluntourists-dilemma.html
Longo, N. (2007) Why community matters: Connecting education with civic life. Albany, NY:
SUNY Press.
McMillan, J. & Stanton, T. (2014). Learning service in international contexts: Partnership-based service-learning and research in Cape Town, South Africa. Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning, pp. 64-78.
Mecca, S., Davis, H., Davis, Al., (2013). Application of GSAP Microflush toilets: a sustainable development approach to rural and peri-urban sanitation. ECOSUD 2013, WIT, Bucharest.
Odgen, A. (2008). The view from the veranda: Understanding today’s colonial student. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, Vol. 15, 35-55.
Paige, M., & Fry, (2010). Beyond immediate impact: Study abroad for global engagement (SAGE). https://www.calstate.edu/engage/documents/study-abroad-for-global-engagement.pdf
Reilly and Senders (2009). Becoming the change we want to see: Critical study abroad for a tumultuous world. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, Fall Vol. 18, 241-267.
Sandy, M. & Holland, B. A. (2006). Different Worlds and Common Ground: Community Partner Perspectives on Campus-Community Partnerships. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 13(1), 30-43.
Stoecker, R. & Tryon, E. (eds.). 2009. The unheard voices: Community organizations and service learning. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Stoecker, R. (2016). Liberating service learning and the rest of higher education civic engagement. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Vande Berg, M., Connor-Linton, J., & Paige, R. M. (2009). The Georgetown Consortium Project: Interventions for student learning abroad. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, XVIII, 1-75. Retrieved at http://studyabroad.isp.msu.edu/research/Research-VandeBerg-Georgetown.pdf
Vande Berg, M., Paige, R. M., & Lou, K.H. (2012). Student learning abroad: What our students are learning, what they’re not, and what we can do about it. Sterling, VA: Styles Press.
Vande Berg, M., Paige, R. M., & Lou, K.H. (2012). Student learning abroad. Paradigms and assumptions. In M. Vande Berg, R. M. Paige, & K.H. Lou (Eds.), Student learning abroad: What our students are learning, what they’re not, and what we can do about it (pp. 3-28). Sterling, VA: Styles Press.
Walker, T. and Wade, S. (2011) Nicaragua: Living in the shadow of the eagle. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Wallace, J. (2000). The problem of time: Enabling students to make long-term commitments to community-based learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning, 7(1), 133-142.
Zemach-Bersin, T. (2008). American students abroad can’t be global citizens. Chronicle of higher education. Volume 54, Issue 26, Page A34.
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Published
2017-11-16
How to Cite
Alonso García, N. ., & Longo, N. V. (2017). Doing More With Less: Civic Practices for Longer-Term Impact in Global Service Learning. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 29(2), 35–50. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v29i2.391
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