Service-Learning and the Liberal Arts: How and Why It Works

EDUCATION • PUBLIC POLICY That is the central question of this volume and scholars from a variety of disciplines—che...

Author: Craig A. Rimmerman

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EDUCATION • PUBLIC POLICY

That is the central question of this volume and scholars from a variety of dis-

ciplines—chemistry, economics, education, philosophy, political science, psychol-

RIMMERMAN

W

hat are the connections between service-learning and a liberal arts education?

HOW AND WHY IT WORKS

ogy, public policy, religious studies, and sociology—answer it here. The scholars, collected by Craig A. Rimmerman, ground their essays in the positive assumption that service-learning contributes significantly to students’ moral, ethical, and social

The contributors engage in the critique of service and then respond to that critique within the context of their individual chapters. Readers will have a better understanding of what does and does not work in and out of the classroom and why. The practical appeal of this volume lies in the fact that other teachers and students who are interested in both developing their own service-learning courses and connecting those courses to broader issues of citizenship, democracy, theories of justice, ethics, and morality can find advice and applications of successful service-learning endeavors within it.

CRAIG A. RIMMERMAN is professor of public policy studies and political science and the Joseph P. DiGangi Endowed Chair in the Social Sciences at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

For orders and information please contact the publisher LEXINGTON BOOKS A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200 Lanham, Maryland 20706 1-800-462-6420 • www.lexingtonbooks.com

Service-LearningLITHO.indd 1

ISBN-13: 978-0-7391-2121-4 ISBN-10: 0-7391-2121-9 90000 9 780739 121214

SERVICE-LEARNING AND THE LIBERAL ARTS

development within the broader context of a liberal arts education.

SERVICELEARNING AND THE

LIBERAL ARTS edited by

CRAIG A. RIMMERMAN Foreword by Mark D. Gearan • W. AVERELL H. BAUDER • PATRICK M. COLLINS • DAVID W. CRAIG • DEBRA DEMEIS • MICHAEL DOBKOWSKI • KATHLEEN FLOWERS • MARK D. GEARAN

• JACK D. HARRIS • STEVEN P. LEE • JO BETH MERTENS • H. WESLEY PERKINS • CRAIG A. RIMMERMAN • CYNTHIA SUTTON • CHARLES TEMPLE

10/13/08 4:19:17 PM

Service-Learning and the Liberal Arts

Service-Learning and the Liberal Arts How and Why It Works

Edited by Craig A. Rimmerman

LEXINGTON BOOKS A division of ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.

Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK

LEXINGTON BOOKS A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200 Lanham, MD 20706 Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom Copyright © 2009 by Lexington Books All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Service-learning and the liberal arts : how and why it works / edited by Craig A. Rimmerman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7391-2121-4 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-7391-2121-9 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-7391-3213-5 (electronic) ISBN-10: 0-7391-3213-X (electronic) 1. Service learning—United States. 2. Education, Humanistic—United States. 3. Moral education (Higher)—United States. 4. Hobart and William Smith Colleges—Public services. I. Rimmerman, Craig A. LC220.5.S4554 2009 378'.012—dc22 2008031987 Printed in the United States of America

⬁ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992.

To our students, who remind us of the many joys of teaching

Contents

Foreword Mark D. Gearan

ix

Acknowledgments

xi

Introduction Craig A. Rimmerman

1

1

Service-Learning in an Ethics Course Steven P. Lee

2

Service-Learning: Process and Participation Jack D. Harris

3

Understanding Service at the Service of Understanding: An Exploration of Service-Learning in the Arts Patrick M. Collins

41

Teaching the Unteachable: Service-Learning and Engagement in the Teaching of Genocide and the Holocaust Michael Dobkowski

61

4

7 21

5

Service-Learning and Public Policy Craig A. Rimmerman

71

6

America Reads as Service-Learning: A Stereophonic Report Kathleen Flowers and Charles Temple

85

vii

viii

7

Contents

Incorporating Service-Learning in Quantitative Methods Economics Courses Jo Beth Mertens

8

The Evolution of a Service-Learning Course Debra DeMeis and Cynthia Sutton

9

Learning about Student Alcohol Abuse and Helping to Prevent It through Service-Learning Initiatives: The HWS Alcohol Education Project David W. Craig and H. Wesley Perkins

10

11

HWS Responds: A Case Study of How the Civic Engagement Office and Co-curricular Service-Learning Can Enhance the Liberal Arts W. Averell H. Bauder Service-Learning Lessons Craig A. Rimmerman

107 137

151

171 187

Bibliography

191

Index

201

About the Contributors

209

Foreword

Service-Learning and the Liberal Arts: How and Why It Works comes at an important time in our nation’s history. With the steady rise in interest in Americorps, Peace Corps, City Year, Teach for America, and many local efforts, young Americans are increasingly looking for meaningful ways to make a difference. Studies show more young people enter college interested in community service. This collection of thoughtful essays written by colleagues at Hobart and William Smith Colleges comes at an opportune time to update scholarship and consider the best practices in service learning that will foster greater civic engagement. Readers have the opportunity to consider articles across disciplines from experienced faculty who have considered a broad array of topics. As the former director of the Peace Corps and member of the board of directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, I have seen firsthand the energy and commitment of young Americans interested in serving in the United States or around the world. Today, as a college president on a campus infused with an ethic of service, I am heartened by the interest of students seeking to blend their dedication to volunteering with a reflective component enriched in the classroom. The service movement is now a mature and vibrant presence on college and university campuses across the country. Twenty years ago the presidents of Brown, Georgetown, and Stanford joined together to create Campus Compact, a president’s organization committed to service-learning; today more than 1,000 presidents belong to the organization. Many campuses

ix

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Foreword

have an office of community service, while others explore creative ways to reward faculty offering service-learning courses. As a citizen, I am encouraged by the growing interest in service among young people. As an American, I am pleased that policymakers have fostered the service movement. And as a college president, I am proud to have colleagues like the authors published here who prepare our students for lives of consequence. Mark D. Gearan Geneva, New York

Acknowledgments

This book would not have been possible without the support of Jean Salone and Cindy Blacklaw, who did such fine work preparing the book for publication. I also thank the Hobart and William Smith Committee on Faculty Research and Honors for their support for this project. Hobart and William Smith President Mark Gearan and Dean of Faculty and Provost Teresa Amott were also encouraging from beginning to end. Thank you, too, to Brenda Hadenfeldt, editor at Rowman and Littlefield, who recognized that the original book proposal had merit and sent it to Joseph Parry at Lexington Books, who was a most supportive and helpful editor with whom to work. A huge thank you to Joseph Cammarano, who read the entire manuscript carefully with a thoughtful critical eye, and who made useful revision suggestions that have improved the final manuscript. Of course, this book would not have been accomplished without the enthusiasm, generosity, and cooperation of my Hobart and William Smith colleagues and contributors, who are all doing such important work in the service-learning area. We are all fortunate to teach at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, an institution that prides itself on interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship that is rooted in the liberal arts. Our students over the years have reminded us of our privileged lives as teachers working with young people who challenge and inspire us in the best of ways. It is to them that I dedicate this book.

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Introduction Craig A. Rimmerman

In their recent book, Colby, Ehrlich, Beaumont, and Stephens have written: “We believe that higher education has a critical role to play in shaping character and a sense of social responsibility in the U.S. citizenry because such a large share of the population attends college for at least some period of time.”1 This book is rooted in that positive assumption about the importance of higher education in contributing to our students’ moral, ethical, and social development within the broader context of a liberal arts education. In doing so, the chapters here all discuss how service-learning courses can contribute in positive ways to a liberal arts education. What also distinguishes this volume is that a number of the contributors engage the critique of service and then respond to that critique within the context of their individual chapters. A further distinguishing feature is the diversity of academic disciplines represented here—chemistry, economics, education, philosophy, political science, psychology, public policy, religious studies, and sociology. All of the contributors teach at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, a four year undergraduate liberal arts institution, which first developed service-learning courses in the late 1980s and which has celebrated itself over the years as being “ferociously and totally liberal arts.” This book reflects the interdisciplinary nature of our institution and the field of servicelearning as it has evolved over the past fifteen or so years. Our goal has been to write chapters that would have practical appeal to other teachers, scholars, activists, and students who are interested in developing their own service-learning courses and connecting those courses to broader issues of citizenship, democracy, community, difference, and theories of justice, 1

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ethics, and morality. A further goal is to connect the theories at the foundation of service-learning to pedagogical practice as developed in the courses represented in this edited collection. We hope that this volume will have appeal to those associated with a wide array of higher education institutions (e.g., small liberal arts institutions, larger universities, technical institutions) that offer liberal arts courses. Taken as a whole, the chapters in this book contribute to the literature on service-learning and to the literature on the goals of a liberal arts education. How does service learning contribute to the study of ethics? In the lead essay to this volume, Steven Lee addresses that important question. In doing so, he connects the theoretical, philosophical discussions in his classroom with the practical experiences of student participation in the surrounding Geneva, New York, community by interrogating the important connections between morality and self-interest. Lee’s essay (and course) is especially noteworthy for its unwillingness to take anything for granted, including the role of community service and service-learning. He identifies four main criticisms of service-learning: (1) it is obfuscating and naïve; (2) it fails to appreciate the distinction between charity and justice; (3) it does not recognize the distinction between public and private morality; and (4) it ignores the proper role of self-assertion in a human life. As Lee interrogates these important issues, he engages in a crucial task of the liberal arts educator: challenging students’ assumptions and preconceptions of their roles as citizens. Jack Harris, a sociologist and a keen analyst of organizations, reminds us in his essay that the challenges of creating and implementing a successful service-learning course are formidable. The key to overcoming these challenges is to be aware of them, to confront them head on during the planning of the course and as the course unfolds, and to work closely with community partners throughout the entire process. Like Steven Lee, Harris recognizes that service-learning courses risk reinforcing the worst assumptions of students who have been raised in a service-oriented, therapeutic culture. For example, students can easily fall within the trap of construing their community work as a form of noblesse oblige. In addition, Harris understandably worries that students might interact with the community from a perspective of superiority given their education, economic class, social class, and/or race privilege. His chapter provides some excellent practical suggestions to faculty who wish to overcome these pedagogical challenges. “Are there instances in which the civic requirement of service may undermine other epistemic aims of experimental learning?” That is the central question posed by Patrick Collins in his essay, one that evaluates the value of service-learning within the broader context of a liberal arts education. Collins’s essay is important because of his creative use of service-learning in his Drama in a Developmental Context education course, a course that is

Introduction

3

experientially based (studio or workshop-based) and that attempts to help students develop their personal understandings of the potential associated with using dramatic activity to foster human development at both the individual and social levels. Collins responds to a perceived need in the larger Geneva, New York, community by requiring students in the course to teach a small after school program in drama for local children. Can the servicelearning model be used effectively in such a setting? Collins’s response to that question is complex and interesting, given his thoughtful and nuanced analysis of his course within the broader context of the service-learning literature. For Michael Dobkowski, service-learning in his religious studies course on genocide and the Holocaust enables students to “channel their desire to put what they have learned into a form of action.” He poses this important question: How does one teach the incomprehensible and the overwhelming to contemporary students? Dobkowski’s response is a compelling one because he recognizes the importance of inspiring his students to process intellectually and emotionally challenging material by doing something in the form of community service. He is especially mindful that the teaching of Holocaust studies could numb rather than energize his students. With this in mind, he believes that participating in community-based organizations, such as working in the Rochester, New York, Holocaust Resource Center, affords students an opportunity to do something in response to the crucial moral, ethical, and philosophical issues raised in his course. Like Dobkowski, political scientist Craig A. Rimmerman requires students to connect participation in the larger community to broader issues of his course—public policy and democratic theory. The pedagogy of servicelearning allows faculty members and their students to engage these questions: What role do citizens play in the American policy process? What role should they play? And how would such a society informed by participatory democracy engage the challenging domestic social policy issues (HIV/AIDS, health care, affirmative action, welfare policy, and education policy) underlying his course on Social Policy and Community Activism? Rimmerman develops a pedagogical model rooted in critical education for citizenship. In doing so, he identifies the exciting possibilities for service-learning-based courses, but also highlights the constraints facing those faculty who embrace the service-learning model. In doing so, he builds on the work of Steven Lee, Jack Harris, and Patrick Collins, all of whom recognize that the pedagogical challenges associated with successful service-learning courses are formidable. To Katie Flowers and Charles Temple, the America Reads program provides an excellent opportunity for service-learning projects in colleges and universities. Proposed in 1996 and funded by Congress in 1997, America Reads represents the intersection of two strong movements in education—service learning

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Craig A. Rimmerman

and literacy. Flowers and Temple believe that it offers faculty opportunities for developing a pedagogical strategy that enables students to reflect on their roles as citizens, much like Craig Rimmerman does in his course on Social Policy and Community Activism. What makes Flowers and Temple’s essay so informative is that it situates the America Reads program on a liberal arts campus within the broader context of the work that Katie Flowers does for the campus-wide Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning, and the work that education professor Charles Temple has done over the years as the primary campus advisor to the program. They offer a rich evaluation of student and community involvement in the program and link their analysis to the larger literatures on service-learning and literacy. How can service-learning be used effectively in a quantitative methods course? Jo Beth Mertens, an economist, provides evidence from her course that service-learning can be used to enhance rigorous courses on formal quantitative methods. One of Mertens’s central pedagogical goals is to create responsible and intentional learners among her students. To Mertens, “a successful quantitative economics course teaches students specific skills and tools that can be utilized for life, thereby creating empowered and informed learners.” Like other contributors to this volume, Mertens believes that service-learning provides an excellent vehicle for meeting these challenging pedagogical goals. Much of the current work in service-learning is now focused on how to best assess whether service-learning pedagogies have been successful. Mertens provides us with techniques for evaluating servicelearning growing out of her course, techniques that are rooted in the thoughtful and critical voices of her students. How does service-learning inform a team-taught, bidisciplinary course entitled Children in Contexts: Families and School? Debra DeMeis (Department of Psychology) and Cynthia Sutton (Department of Education) situate their course within the broad context of the goals associated with liberal education and how service learning can create engaged citizens. Building on the criteria used by the historian William Cronon to identify what a liberal education should look like in practice, DeMeis and Sutton extend and apply his analysis to service learning by identifying three components that are responsible for developing responsible citizenship: “engagement with the community, focus on social problems, and collaboration between faculty and students.” They then offer a rich analysis of how an incorporation of service-based components in their course enables students to “become engaged with the problem of childhood poverty and to develop a sense of social and civic responsibility.” But like other contributors to this volume, DeMeis and Sutton recognize that “the charity model” of noblesse oblige must be transcended and they offer some concrete pedagogical suggestions for doing so.

Introduction

5

For David Craig and H. Wesley Perkins, the service-learning model is an integral component of their team-taught, bidisciplinary course—Learning about Student Alcohol Abuse and Helping to Prevent It through ServiceLearning Initiatives: The HWS Alcohol Education Project. Craig (a biochemist) and Perkins (a sociologist) have written extensively on the social norms approach to alcohol education and their work is reflected in the Hobart and William Smith Alcohol Education Project, which is designed to reduce alcohol misuse and harm by engaging students in an array of community-based programs. How is community service integrated as an integral component of their course? Students conduct a campus-wide survey of alcohol use and its impact on the campus. The data are then used in prevention program delivery and assessment of progress. Students also play an important campus-wide education role by developing course-related materials for distribution beyond the classroom. Perkins and Craig do an excellent job of placing the service-learning component of their course within the larger theme of this volume: how service-learning can enhance students’ liberal arts educations and faculty members’ pedagogies. In the book’s final chapter, Averell Bauder, Hobart and William Smith’s director of Public Service (now renamed The Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning), uses the campus response to Hurricane Katrina as a vehicle for interrogating broader issues of servicelearning. Bauder quotes Provost Teresa Amott from her opening convocation speech in August 2005: “I am confident that at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, a campus committed to civic engagement and public service, we will find ways to give of our time and our resources to support the rescue and recovery efforts now underway.” Building on Provost Amott’s vision, Hobart and William Smith Colleges organized a number of education and public service initiatives (aptly named HWS Responds), all of which Bauder describes from the vantage point of the coordinating office, the Center for Community Engagement and Learning. Bauder’s analysis is important because he uses his case study of HWS Responds to highlight larger lessons to be learned for reflections on the purpose of a liberal arts education and the possible connections between civic engagement and service-learning. Bauder’s closing theme does well in recapitulating the broader implications of the entire volume. We hope that readers will find these essays useful as they consider how to build service-learning into existing courses and/or how to better improve on the service-learning components that already exist in their classes. Service-learning is exciting, challenging, and meaningful. But it is also important for those of us in the field to recognize that there is often a disjuncture between service-learning theory and practice in the classroom. It is not easy to devise and implement a pedagogically

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sound service-learning course. We hope that the chapters in this volume provide avenues that make the challenges less formidable for teachers, scholars, community members, administrators, and students.

NOTE 1. Anne Colby, Thomas Ehrlich, Elizabeth Beaumont, and Jason Stephens, Educating Citizens: Preparing America’s Undergraduates for Lives of Moral and Civic Responsibility (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003), 263–64.

1 Service-Learning in an Ethics Course Steven P. Lee

Service-learning is a pedagogical tool that helps students to understand and to incorporate into their lives the material of a course. It helps the instructor to make clear the gap between theory and practice, and it shows how that gap can be crossed. Incorporating community service into a course is a recognition that practice has a role to play in education. Service-learning is using the practice of community service to deepen the students’ understanding of the theory presented in the classroom and its texts. The classroom is about the real world, but it is separate from the real world. Servicelearning is pedagogically valuable, in part, because it has the ability to bring the real world into the learning process. The theoretical discussions of the classroom are joined with the practical experiences of the service activity. The use of service-learning is in furtherance of the liberal arts ideal that the role of education is to create individuals who have not merely mastered a body of theory, but who have become capable of taking their place as democratic citizens. Service provides the practice; service-learning informs the practice in a way that allows students to appreciate its meaning and to better understand the theory. One place where this aspect of service-learning is especially clear is in a philosophy course in ethical theory. Ethics is about practical reasoning, as opposed to theoretical reasoning (to use Aristotle’s distinction), and practical reasoning, to be adequately grasped, must be exercised in practice. An ethics course can often lose sight of this point and focus exclusively on theory, with the practical dimension being slighted or treated only in the abstract. In this chapter, I discuss my use of community service in a course I teach in ethical theory. I first explain the course and the role of service in it. 7

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Then I consider how service helps me to teach the theoretical issues of the course. Finally, and more generally, I discuss some of the limitations of service-learning, as I see them, and explore some criticisms that are made of it. While this chapter proceeds by discussing my particular course, I believe that it makes points worth considering about service-learning in general, especially in the critical discussion at the end.

I For a number of years, I have taught a course in ethics, which I call Morality and Self-Interest, as a service-learning course. This is a course in ethical theory, one that examines the basis and nature of morality in general, not a course in “applied ethics,” which would involve the application of morality to a particular area of social or political concern, such as medical ethics or environmental ethics.1 As the title of my course indicates, it is organized around the theme of the relation between morality and self-interest. This is a useful pedagogical device because students are already familiar with the distinction between morality and self-interest, and they generally accept the idea that acting morally involves sacrificing one’s self-interest for that of others. In other words, students come into the course inclined to believe that morality and self-interest diverge. My approach is to teach ethics by considering the extent to which this is true. The question running through the course, then, is whether morality and self-interest diverge or instead converge. One aspect of this question is the concern that if morality and self-interest do diverge, a motivation to act morally would generally be lacking. This makes community service especially valuable for the course. Doing community service is seen as a paradigm of acting morally. It is helping out others in need and fulfilling one’s obligations to the community. It is just the sort of activity that, on its face, is regarded as moral. At the same time, service is seen as a person’s giving of himself or herself for the benefit of others, acting altruistically rather than selfishly. So, service activity sets up the beginning position that morality and self-interest diverge. From the point of view of most students, the time they are required to give to service is time taken away from what they would otherwise rather be doing, thus putting the morality of service activity at odds with their self-interest.2 From a commonsense perspective, self-interest and morality, self-regard and other-regard, are based on opposing motivations. Morality is seen as requiring a sacrifice of self-interest. But this appearance may be mere appearance. Many of the theories we examine in the course imply that morality and self-interest, when correctly understood, actually converge. In addition, it is a common claim that acting morally is in a person’s self-interest in the long-term, if not in the short-term. Of course, there are complications and

Service-Learning in an Ethics Course

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qualifications that must be appreciated when community service is viewed in this way, but considering these complications and qualifications as they come up is part of what makes service a useful component of the course. Doing community service is doing good, in a moral sense, but is it also doing well? Students in the course are required to do two to three hours of community service per week, a total of about twenty-five hours over the semester. There are a variety of service assignments they may choose from, working with a variety of people in need. These include the Geneva Boys and Girls Club, local day care centers, the Geneva Community Lunch Program, Geneva Head Start, America Reads, the Geneva General Hospital, and the Geneva Family Counseling Center. The assignments are coordinated through our campus Public Service Office. Students are also free, with approval, to use a service activity other than the standard ones offered, including ones with which they may already be involved. Geneva is a diverse community, with significant minority populations, so our largely majority students often end up interacting extensively with people of color for the first time in their lives. The students keep a journal of their service activity, which I read periodically during the semester. I ask that their journal entries include, first, a description of the service site and their activities and interactions there, and, second, some critical reflections on the service experience and some discussion of how the activity illustrates or provides evidence regarding the concepts and theories examined in class. The service work itself is not graded, but students must complete it to pass the course. The service activities are a frequent subject of class discussion. As part of the final paper for the course, students must relate these activities to the theoretical issues in the course. My approach to the service activity is the same as my approach to the course in general. I seek to teach students how to think, not what to think. I seek not to fill them up with a correct theory, but to contribute to their development as moral beings. I seek to teach the skill of critical, practical reasoning. When students face serious moral problems in their lives, as they will, I hope to have prepared them by having developed their abilities to recognize the moral dimensions of the problems and to reason well about what in the situation they should do.3 Much of the immoral behavior in the world, in my view, is due not to malice or other forms of viciousness, but to moral insensitivity and moral immaturity. A course in ethics has serious limitations in its ability to turn vices into virtues, but it can help some to become more moral by making them more thoughtful, more aware of the moral dimensions of their lives. When the students have learned how to understand and reason better about their situation from a moral perspective, they will, to that extent, have become morally better people. The service activity is meant to further these aims. This critical spirit is reflected in how I

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ask the students to incorporate the service experience into the course work. For example, I emphasize that there is no expected line they are supposed to take in their reaction to the service in their journals. I do not want the students to assume that their journal entries must reflect what they think my expectations are. If they do not like the service, think it is a waste of time, or do not find it relevant to the course material, they are urged to say so and to reflect on why that is the case. What sort of comments do students have about their service? Let me mention some of the points students frequently make in their journal reflections, mostly on the topic of whether morality and self-interest diverge or converge. Many of their comments might be dismissed as clichés, but in most cases, it seems to me, the students are registering that while they may be familiar with the cliché, they are only now appreciating its content. Many students speak of the community service as a chore they did not want or like to do. But many others speak of the benefits they receive from the service. They speak of it as being personally rewarding, as providing positive feelings, and as making them feel good about themselves or making them feel like good people. They say that they had originally not wanted to do it, but were glad they did. For example, some indicate that they had almost decided to drop the course when they learned of the service requirement, but were glad to have stuck it out. They discuss how they had been lost in their own world, and that service helped to bring them out of that world, forcing them out of their comfort zone. Some say that the people in need who they helped give them back more than the people in need were given. Apparently continuing to think that community service is necessarily against their wishes, some speak of forgetting while serving that they were doing service, and some ask how the service could be moral when it makes them feel good. But there were many negative comments, beyond simple statements of dislike of being required to do the service. Some wonder whether the service really does any good, and some question whether it is worth doing the service at all since the problems it tries to deal with are so vast. One person suggested that service in the course was indeed an obligation, but an academic one rather than a moral one. This remark suggests that some students feel coerced into doing the service, since they are threatened with failure for the course if they do not do it. They feel it is nonvoluntary. This issue is often raised in class discussions of the service. Many students have previously encountered community service as a requirement, for example, for high school graduation, and felt negatively about the service because of its nonvoluntary nature. There are several aspects of this issue that get teased out in the discussions. One is whether the service is in fact coerced, given that their taking the course (which is an elective not a requirement) is itself voluntary. But the main aspect of this issue, from my point of view, is whether


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coerced service is really service at all, and, in either case, whether such coerced activity can play its expected role in a course about morality. Most ethical theorists would hold that an action must be voluntary in order to be an instance of moral behavior. Assuming that the service is coerced, does this undermine its role in the course as a paradigmatically moral activity?

II One of the first theoretical issues addressed in an ethics course is moral relativism. Are moral standards in some sense objective, or are they instead relative to a culture, or even individually subjective? Perhaps our moral views are simply preferences, like a person’s favorite flavor of ice cream. I present some arguments to show that moral standards are objective. One of these is based on implications of the fact that we argue about morality, but not about preferences. The students, however, come from a culture in which relativism is implicit, if not explicit, and, as a result, such arguments (however sound) are not often, by themselves, persuasive. Community service can help make the case. Relativism is one issue where practice is crucial to theory. Students often find themselves during their service activity needing to make moral choices. For example, one student wonders what she should do when one of the young children she is working with states, “Women are for hitting.” Another wonders what to do when he perceives that a day care worker he is assisting is not responding appropriately to the children. The agony of choice that students face in situations like this may convince them, if anything can, that morality is not just a matter of preferences. The agony is a sign that the students are searching for the right thing to do. We don’t generally agonize over our preferences. Another central issue in the course is the nature of self-interest. To know whether morality and self-interest converge or diverge, one must know not only what morality is, but also what self-interest is. At the beginning, the students tend to view self-interest as transparent; they see it as doing what one wants to do or achieving a high standard of living or material possessions. But their reaction to the service activity helps them to begin to question this simplistic view. I raise this issue initially in the way the ancient Greeks did: What is the good life for a person? Is the idea of the good life equivocal, depending on whether it is a matter of the morally good or the prudentially good? (This repeats the course question, whether morality and self-interest converge or diverge.) In their service activity, as suggested by the comments reported above, many begin to recognize that there are things valuable to them beyond simply doing what they want to do or having possessions, such as the good feeling that comes from helping others. As we examine the theorists and the primary texts of the course, two concepts

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become key in helping focus on the nature of self-interest and its relation to morality: happiness and community. The main theorists we consider are Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Hobbes, Butler, Hume, Kant, Mill, and Nietzsche. I will now briefly discuss how the contributions of these theorists are used in the course to help to reveal the relation between morality and self-interest, and then I will consider how the community service relates to this aspect of the course. After that, I will return to the concepts of happiness and community. Both the convergence and the divergence of morality and self-interest are illustrated by the theorists we study from the ancient world. The most straightforward example of divergence is presented by the character Thrasymachus in book 1 of Plato’s Republic, who argues that if one acts justly, one is acting to the advantage of others, specifically, the stronger, and not to one’s own advantage. Plato (through the character Socrates), Aristotle, and Epictetus all offer views that represent a convergence between morality and self-interest. These views have in common the idea that being happy necessarily involves acting morally. Jumping to the modern era, Thomas Hobbes presents a view that I call quasi-convergence (sharing this view with Plato’s character Glaucon). According to this view, morality is based on a social contract, and it is in everyone’s interest to accept that contract because outside the contract, life is “nasty, brutish, and short.” It is in one’s interest to be moral, for otherwise one is punished by the law (or community opinion). Crime doesn’t pay. But the view represents only quasi-convergence because if you could get away with crime, if no one knew you did it, it would pay, it would be in your interest to act immorally (as the Glaucon’s Ring of Gyges story in book 2 of Plato’s Republic is meant to illustrate). In my construction of the history of ethical theory, I see theorists in the modern era as shifting the focus in a basic way from that of the ancients. The ancients placed self-interest first, so to speak, arguing in effect that selfinterest (or happiness) was, by the way, convergent with morality. A person is moral for the sake of his or her self-interest (a view I refer to this as “moral narcissism”). Self-interest can provide the motivation for being moral. In contrast, the moderns tend to consider behavior moral only when it is done for its own sake (or for the sake of the other), not when done out of self-interest. This makes the convergence of morality and self-interest problematic.4 Hume and Butler address this difficulty by pointing out that because we have altruistic desires, we naturally want to help others, and when we act on those desires, we are acting for the sake of others. Because we are thereby satisfying our own desires, however, we are also, by the way, furthering our own self-interest. Kant goes in the other direction, arguing that an action is moral only if it does not arise from desire, selfish or altruistic. In this sense, Kant abandons the effort to find convergence between morality and self-interest.5 For Kant, an action is fully moral not when done


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for the sake to the person thereby helped, but when it is done for the sake of the moral law itself. I present the utilitarian Mill as holding, like Hume and Butler, that moral action is primarily for the sake of others (the greatest happiness for the greatest number), but that we can, by improving education and reforming social institutions, help to insure that acting morally will also generally be in tune with the desires of the actor.6 Nietzsche I will discuss later. How does community service help students achieve an understanding of these theories? For one, because the theories will imply different views about the value of community service (and also about its pedagogical role in a service-learning course), talking about these differences helps to get the theories across to the students.7 Beyond this, I ask the students to discuss, in their journal entries, their experiences in the light of what the theorists would say. Let me offer a few examples of the sorts of comments this elicits. Aristotle is often used when the students are discussing whether they like or dislike service. Assuming that service is a moral activity, if the students like it, they observe that this shows that they have, as Aristotle would put it, a moral character. If, on the other hand, they do not like the service, they cite Aristotle to suggest that they are on their way to developing a moral character by habituating themselves to acts of beneficence. Hobbes was frequently mentioned, especially by those working with children. Students pointed out, for example, that children seem as if they are in a Hobbesian state of nature, or that their adult caregivers are instructing them in social cooperation so that they can leave the state of nature and enter society. Those who were not enjoying their service also cite Kant because of his separation of desires and duty. Also Kant is cited because his categorical imperative is similar to the familiar golden rule. Along these lines, students spoke of their service as putting themselves in the other’s shoes and, reflecting the reciprocity central to Kant’s social contract theory, as giving back for what others have given them.8 The idea of happiness is central to the course and the notion of selfinterest not only because it is emphasized by Aristotle, but also because it is valuable vehicle for comparing morality and self-interest. The idea is contested ground for arguments about convergence and divergence. One issue is whether happiness is objective or subjective: Is happiness different for different people and a matter of how one feels, in which case it is subjective, or is it an objective characteristic of our humanity, the same for all? Students tend to view happiness as subjective, as a matter of satisfying the current desires one happens to have. Aristotle offers an objective account in which happiness is defined as engaging in rational activity, including the activity of practical reason. This is a critical account of happiness, one which has implications about how one ought to behave. On Aristotle’s objective account, in contrast with a subjective account, people may not know

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whether they are happy and may be mistaken about what will make them happy. Some actual desires are not in one’s self-interest to fulfill, and satisfying them does not lead to happiness. Thus, the apparent divergence between morality and self-interest (for example, a person’s not desiring to do what morality requires) does not entail their actual divergence, and, indeed, Aristotle argued that they converge. In terms of community service, Aristotle’s objective idea of happiness can underlay a discussion of the transformative power of such activity for the person doing the service. Acting morally can make us better moral beings and lead to our happiness. A second major concept developed in the course, especially in connection with service, is community. Students frequently point out, in their journals and in class discussion, that what is most interesting about service is the social aspect, the working with other people. Those who have little or no contact with the people they (indirectly) serve find their service to be less interesting and rewarding. If students are stuck at a desk doing computer work for a social service agency (as is not uncommon, given the computer skill of the younger generation), they routinely express dissatisfaction with lack of contact with clients. It is direct service, not indirect service, that is most gratifying.9 The students most enjoyed the community in community service. One student commented that service was as much a social event as it is doing good. But the suggestion in this comment that functioning in a community and being moral are distinct activities may be mistaken. To understand both morality and self-interest, it may be that one must see each in the context of community. Happiness, as Plato and Aristotle believe, may come from playing a role in a community, and part of playing such a role is acting morally (and vice versa). On this view, morality and self-interest converge: Service creates and reinforces community, and its being a moral activity resides in this feature. Community also figures into class discussions in a different way, as represented by one student’s question: How large is our community? The idea is that an increase in moral understanding comes from a recognition not only that our community has a moral dimension, that a community is constituted in part by our moral obligations, but also that this community is larger than we may have perceived. Students need to understand their place in a larger moral community, and this is one of the benefits that community service can bestow.10 This also helps to emphasize the universal nature of morality, the claim that our moral community is all of humanity, a point emphasized by Kant. Discussion of community is central in our examination of other theorists as well. It figures, for example, into the contrast between the ancient theorists, who emphasize the essential role of community in ethical theory, and the modern theorists, whose focus on the individual makes community less central. This raises theoretical questions such as whether community is chosen, as the social contract theorists be-


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lieve, or natural, as Aristotle and Plato believe. Is community constitutive of the individual? Are social relations internal or external to the individual? In our own era, these questions arise as part of the debate between liberalism and communitarianism.

III But given the critical approach of the course, nothing is taken for granted, including the role of community service and service-learning. There is a set of criticisms of these practices raised in the course. I suggest three overlapping lines of criticism and a fourth distinct one. These criticisms are that a focus on community service and service-learning (1) is obfuscating and naïve, (2) fails to appreciate the distinction between charity and justice, (3) does not recognize the distinction between public and private morality, and (4) ignores the proper role of self-assertion in a human life. Here, my discussion becomes more general, applying directly to any service-learning course. Considering the first criticism, community service and service-learning can be obfuscating and naïve because those participating in them tend not to appreciate the contrast between community service and political activism. Both are concerned with making a better world, but the former tends to see existing institutions as fixed and the latter not. Though almost all of my students have already done community service earlier in their lives,11 few have more than a minimal understanding of politics and the political process, and fewer have been politically active.12 Occasionally, students express awareness and anger at the political and social institutions they perceive as responsible for the neediness of those they serve, but this is infrequent. It seems that most students are not very aware of the political dimensions of the problems community service is designed to address. This leads students to assume that what is needed to solve these problems is simply more community service by more people. A focus on community service and service-learning tends to reinforce this thought, and to this extent it is naïve in not appreciating the nature of the problem and obfuscating in its tendency to mask the necessary solutions. In contrast, a political approach to these problems would lead students to ask the critical question about why people in need are in need, and this would lead to recognition that political action may be necessary. This is not to reject the value of community service and service-learning, but to see them as needing to be balanced, in theory and in practice, by an appreciation of the political dimensions of social change. Pedagogically, I point out to the students the need to consider the moral values that may be embedded in particular social policies and institutions, and the role these values may play in either promoting or undermining solutions to the problems of human need.13

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The second line of criticism is that community service and service-learning tend to mask the important contrast between charity and justice. This point applies generally to service-learning courses, but is especially relevant to a course in ethical theory. An important distinction in ethics is between acts that are morally good to do but not obligatory, acts done “out of the goodness of one’s heart,” and acts that are morally obligatory. The former are acts of charity and the latter acts of justice. The model on which community service is usually based (though this need not be the case) is that service is charity, that it is morally good to do, but not morally required.14 To the extent that this is the model, service, and a course in service-learning, may fail to represent the true nature of our moral relations in community. This can be related to the attitude with which students approach service, which is sometimes a classist one of paternalism or noblesse oblige directed toward the less fortunate. We are good people if we provide charity for those in need, but we have no obligation to do so. This attitude is sometimes implicit in the way we refer to those at the receiving end of our service as “clients.” Or our attitude may be the precise reverse, that is, we may see those to whom we provide service as giving something to us; the servers are the needy. We make use of them for our educational purposes. In either case, the clients are treated as means rather than as ends, to use Kant’s distinction. The alternative to both of these approaches is to see relationships within community as a matter of reciprocity, not a one-way street (in either direction). The third line of criticism is closely related to the first two. A focus on community service and service-learning fails to appreciate the distinction between public and private morality. It puts forth a model in which private action becomes the sole solution to public problems.15 But both individuals and the community have obligations to address social problems; we have obligations to others as private individuals (private morality) and obligations to others as members of the community (public morality). Obligations of public morality are for the community as a whole and require governmental action. The government must be involved for several reasons. In many cases, only the government has the financial resources and expertise to solve the problems, the ability to coordinate the assistance so that it is used effectively and efficiently, and the transparency to insure that help is provided without a violation of the rights of those helped. But also, only a government can insure fairness in the contributions from all individuals in the community to the solution to the community problems. Because government efforts are supported by a (presumably) fair system of taxation, everyone pays their fair share and the burden does not fall only on a minority of the citizens. Only in this way is there a solution to the “prisoners’ dilemma” that tends to suppress private contributions. According to this criticism, those who emphasize community service either (a) fail to recog-


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nize the public dimension of efforts to solve social problems (in which the third criticism is close to the first one) or (b) are seeking, in the name of minimal government or a denial of the existence of public moral obligation, to put an end to government efforts in this area. The fourth line of criticism is very different from the others, and I owe it to Nietzsche, whose work on ethics we read at the end of the course. Nietzsche offers a basic criticism of our commonsense morality, which he refers to as a “slave” morality. To put it very roughly, in his view, the source (or genealogy) of this morality is a kind of intellectual revolt in the past by the ruled against their rulers. The rulers were naturally superior, natural aristocrats, and the ruled were naturally inferior. In resentment over being ruled by their superiors, the inferiors managed to impose a new moral code on society according to which natural superiority and inferiority had no moral relevance, all humans were morally equal, and “the meek shall inherit the earth.” In contrast, the old or aristocratic morality emphasizes self-assertion and the free exercise of one’s powers as an individual. The criticism arising from this view is not against community service or service-learning as such. Instead, it is against the way they are usually conceived in the context of our commonsense or “slave” morality. Nietzsche tends to see the obligations that, according to our commonsense morality, bind individuals as so many fetters against the free exercise of their natural powers. If community service is seen as obligatory in this way, he would presumably oppose it. In class, we discuss what community service in the way Nietzsche would endorse it would be like what community service would be like as a free exercise of an individual’s powers. In some respects this takes us back to the beginning of the course and the work of Aristotle, a return to moral narcissism.

IV I will close this chapter by rehearsing five key notions I ask the students to keep in mind as they relate their service activity to the nature of morality and the material of the course. First, motivation: What is your motivation for community service? For example, is it found in the activity itself or in the activity as a means to an end, such as fulfilling a course requirement? Second, enjoyment: Do you find your service activity to be enjoyable? If so, why, and if not, why not? Third, benefit: Does the service activity benefit you and does it benefit others? What is the overall balance of benefit and disbenefits? Fourth, change: Has the service activity changed you? Has it made you a different person in any significant sense? Fifth, identity: Is doing service crucial to or part of what you are, or is it something you could take or leave?

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NOTES 1. In this chapter, I will use the terms “ethics” and “morality” in somewhat different senses, with “morality” referring to rules about how people ought to behave and “ethics” referring to a study of or a theory of morality. 2. Interestingly, the self-interested activity students most often cite as one they must forego in order to do their community service is sleeping—doing the service often requires students to wake up earlier than they would like to. 3. Many have, of course, already faced significant moral problems in their lives. One of the ways I seek to make use of such experiences is to ask the students at the beginning of the course to write for me their moral autobiography, discussing how they have, to that point, developed as moral beings, including any significant moral problems they have faced and the effect this has had on them. 4. This view is, I believe, the basis of the students’ initial idea that morality and self-interest diverge—an action is moral only if it is done for the sake of others, not for one’s own sake. If I act as morality would require in order to impress others, then it is not really a moral action. 5. At least as something about which we can have knowledge. 6. Some students are very committed to the welfare of animals and do their community service in animal shelters. I point out how such service can be seen as moral in terms of Mill’s utilitarian theory, in that animals, like people, can suffer, and utilitarian theory is concerned with the alleviation of suffering. This contrasts with the view of Kant, who thought primary moral obligations are owed only to rational beings. 7. The discussion of these differences in how the theorists would view service and service-learning drives home to the students that there is not one theoretical framework for understanding the value of service and its role in the course. 8. One student, working off of Mill’s remark regarding the quality of pleasures, that it is better to be a Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied, suggested that it is better to be a participant in community service dissatisfied than a nonparticipant satisfied. 9. On this distinction, see Eugene Valentine, “Service-Learning as a Vehicle for Teaching Philosophy,” in Beyond the Tower: Concepts and Models for Service-learning in Philosophy, ed. David Lisman and Irene Harvey (Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education, 2000), 139–66, at 142–43. 10. See Sally Scholz, “Service-learning in Ethics: A New Pedagogical Approach to the Old Theory-versus-Practice Challenge,” in Beyond the Tower, ed. David Lisman and Irene Harvey (Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education, 2000), 185–92, at 185–86. 11. For example, for a few years now, all incoming students at my institution perform community service as part of their first-year orientation program. 12. This is confirmed by my colleague Craig Rimmerman, the editor of this volume, who periodically does surveys in his political science and public policy classes about the political consciousness and activity of his students. 13. An example of this is offered by Eugene Valentine, who raises the question whether the neediness of individuals with whom our students work is due more to a lack of values on their part (their fault) or a lack of social and economic opportu-


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nities (society’s fault). See his “Service-learning,” p. 152. Which of these assumptions is more embedded in our social service policies and institutions, and does this help or hinder addressing the needs? 14. This is complicated, in ways I will not explore here, by the distinction between perfect and imperfect moral obligations (as presented in Kant’s theory). Both sorts of obligation must be performed, but perfect obligations are owed to particular individuals, while imperfect obligations are not. We have choice, in the case of imperfect obligations, about whom we assist in carrying out the obligation. 15. I refer to this as the “thousand points of light” criticism, after the phrase used by the first President Bush in recommending an increase in private efforts, rather than an increase in public efforts, to address the problems of need in our society.

2 Service-Learning: Process and Participation Jack D. Harris

As an experiential learning experience attached to a course, service-learning requires additional preparation and attention to process. Service-learning does not happen by itself and much can go wrong if it is not done correctly. Students may be indelibly imprinted to their prejudices, relationships between the college and service agencies may be damaged, and those receiving the services that students provide could come to harm. To insure that the service-learning experience meets our pedagogical needs, to insure that there is a reliable stable of community partners willing to collaborate with us to provide effective service-learning activities, and to insure that our service-learning agenda provides bona fide service to the community, careful planning must be accomplished together with the community partners. On the one hand, service-learning is not unlike other forms of experiential learning through which students enrich their study of a subject by having some practical, hands-on experience. The intention is for students to deepen their theoretical understanding of a component of everyday human activity by enacting the theory from a practitioner’s point of view. However, service-learning, unlike most other experiential learning activities, places students in an emotionally charged and value-laden environment in which there may be a myriad of hazards. For example, in such environments, interactions may be strained by the students’ superior status by virtue of their economic class, education, social success, or race. Agency clients may be especially vulnerable and require particular care. Information on a person may be held in strict confidence. Neighborhoods may be less than safe in which students travel and do service tasks.

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To complicate matters, we teach students that service-learning is not “charity” and that an attitude of noblesse oblige is an archaic and elitist stance (of course, by virtue of their university student status they are elites in American society). Certainly, requiring course-based service-learning declares an imperative about the good: Civic engagement, citizenship, and personal responsibility are invoked as a social virtue that challenges our students’ moral and ethical values. Students are to learn they should be, routinely, community participants and activist partners in community wellbeing, Moreover, the human beings and organizations who are the subjects of our study and with whom we interact (it is, after all, learning that is the primary point of the service-learning experience) often do not behave as neatly as our theories describe, nor are they as grateful as we hope they will be, nor are our students necessarily as sympathetic as we would like to imagine. Who of us teachers has not had a student return from a service experience confirmed in their prejudices about the persons or groups for whom they are providing service? As a result of these complexities, structuring and staging experiential service-learning experience to work through these nuances and minefields requires an awareness of these issues and very careful planning. Campus Compact (2007) has a thorough and especially useful website with excellent resources for faculty about service-learning, including pointers and references to other service-learning-related sites. Service-learning course planning should consider several issues: • • • • • •

Student placement method; Student orientation to service-learning; Engaging a “service-learning colleague”; Including service-learning community partners; Tactics for classroom-based service-learning; Institutional integration.

STUDENT PLACEMENT There are many different venues in which students can do service-learning and be civically engaged. Some agencies provide social services, some provide educational services, and others provide civic services. The social service agencies provide community service opportunities for our students to work for and with people who are often destitute, hungry, or sick. Mentors in these agencies, such as a free lunch program, work in a nursing home, work at the food pantry, and the like provide models of leadership and a thoughtful caring that are of great benefit to our students.

Service-Learning: Process and Participation

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Educational agencies, primarily schools, provide opportunities for our students to work with groups of students or as tutors to a single student. Students can be placed into government-sponsored programs such as America Reads and America Counts, or community-based agencies such as Boys and Girls Clubs. Students can work with bilingual preschoolers, children with learning challenges, or students with disabilities. Such experiences often lead to emotional bonds and a sense of accomplishment, along with the realization of how much there is still to do. Civic agencies are generally not-for-profit or government agencies that provide some tangible benefit to citizens. Students can work in environmental awareness agencies, downtown redevelopment, housing authorities, fine arts councils, and the like. Students often like doing service-learning in these settings because the work is often project-oriented with a chance of completion before the semester has ended. While there may be debate about which forms of civic engagement are of the most value to the community, and which forms cultivate the most effective service-learning, the quality of the organization and the talents of the mentor are a better index of value for the purposes of classroom-related activity than perceived social value. There are three primary strategies for student placement, and there are combinations of each: 1. Random assignment of students to a multitude of community partners; 2. Allowing individual students to choose based on a list of community partners and descriptions; 3. Creating teams of students who deliberate and choose an agency with which to work. The first model too often seeks to liquidate the number of requests for student volunteers from potential service sites. This distorts the pedagogy in several ways. Students go in without having participated in a deliberation or education about the agency or site. The second model seeks to allow individual students choice with the idea that they might be more motivated. Asking students to rank their choices also allows for coverage of the requests from potential service sites. This promises better learning than random assignment. Attaching student clusters (teams) to a community partner to create site coverage (which provides for reciprocity) and to allow small group work provides for common experiences among students. Teams can be the basis of teamwork between the students and with the community partner. Exercises can be devised that make them liaisons between the community partner and the campus, conveying to the campus

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information about the agency and service, producing lesson plans for the course with community partner, presenting public poster sessions and recognition events, managing Blackboard discussions about their site and their experiences, and producing a team paper on their service-learning experience.

STUDENT ORIENTATION TO SERVICE-LEARNING How we convey the context of service-learning to students is a challenge that must be addressed in the orientation to service-learning prior to the students’ initial engagement. It is here that students can have a discussion that explores the differences between public service–based servicelearning, community volunteering, and charity, a subject that invariably finds its way repeatedly into class discussion. An orientation must be unambiguous about the primary focus of the activity, which is the learning related to the course material, but also about the nature of civic engagement and ongoing good citizenship, identification with the commonweal, and a sustaining community connection. In this way, there is always context, text, and subtext. Pedagogically, service-learning links theory with practice, and is part of our interest in developing the feeling intellect. Service-learning integrates the real world with the academic world. Service-learning affirms the idea that the individual citizen can be involved and active in his or her community and make a difference. Service-learning and acts of public service are acts of creating community. In the process of service, students become leaders and active agents in community making, and become a critical component in affirming self and other, as they create a web of relationships through acts of public service. Students are unlikely to be prepared for many of the initial experiences inherent in a service-learning work environment. Throughout the semester, students will reveal a set of cognitive and emotional responses in their service engagements that should be understood rightly as cognitive and affective developmental challenges. These must be addressed transparently during the orientation. This will provide students with a framework for cognizing, and recognizing, these social and social-psychological responses as they participate in self-reflection and self-reflexive discussions inside and outside of the classroom. It is likely that students will display considerable disengagement to the service-learning component of the course. There are plenty of reasons why students are disengaged. Some arrive at college self-absorbed, or needing to earn money, or simply into a student routine. Students often say that they do not have the time to fit the service required by the service-learning


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course component into their busy day. Surprisingly, after the service-learning experience they often confess that they did not realize how much time they were wasting. When students register for a course, they may not be aware that there is a service-learning component. When they discover this, it is often too late to drop the course and register for another. Our claims that service-learning is voluntary is, frankly, suspect. Students are captives to our syllabus. The first effort to engage their enthusiasm for the service-learning activity is in its initial presentation to students when introducing the syllabus, and next at the service-learning orientation. The introduction to the syllabus is a critical learning moment because it sets the stage for student engagement in the course and the service-learning activities. It requires thoughtful persuasion on the part of the faculty member to begin a dialogue about why and how students should embrace the responsibilities and rewards of engaged citizenship. Avoid preaching, ask questions to understand where the students are about their role as citizens in their society, and work through with them the idea of civic engagement that is at the core of the service-learning enterprise. Another problem to be addressed during the orientation is one of social distance. Depending on a particular student’s social location (class, ethnicity, race, gender), they often feel significant social distance between themselves as college students and their new clients. There are many barriers of difference to overcome. What is the nature, and the desired outcome, of the social interaction between our students as service providers and the people whom they will encounter who are the recipients of their service? Agencies have different concepts of these relationships. Names for the recipients of services vary from clients, consumers, and partners, and these names all help faculty to understand what social relationship the community partner seeks to establish. Depending on that relationship, students may be expected to close the social distance or to maintain it. Certainly, students will be challenged about their motives and credentials, and should have authentic responses that do not confuse the relationship. In addition, in the classroom some faculty may talk about the participants as “subjects” and this must be held distinct from the relationship to which the community partner is oriented. A third challenge to be addressed at orientation and throughout the semester reflections is student stereotypes and prejudices. Many students have grown up in a society in which their understanding of class, racial, and ethnic differences are filled with stereotypes and prejudices. Not surprisingly, students are likely to deny that they have any prejudices at all. Without a proper orientation to the dynamics of prejudice, students may believe that what they are seeing confirms prejudices (“See, they spend their money on junk food . . .”). The other result is often exceptionalism. Students may

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present their service story by referring to the people for whom they are providing service as “different” from others of their race, ethnicity, religion, or social class. In this way students can imperfectly reconcile maintenance of their stereotypes and prejudices while having a more open and kindly approach to the person who is receiving their service. How then are we to help the students to build bridges based on feelings of empathy and the recognition of human commonalities and differences? How are we to confront prejudices and stereotypes? In all of these cases, establishing boundaries, clear operating procedures, and unambiguous discussion of these issues with the students, in a dialogue with the community partners, will do much to fostering the learning objectives of the service-learning experience. Confronting students often fosters shame or guilt that may lead students to be silent rather than to participate openly in class discussions. By recognizing, first in oneself, and supported by course materials, that prejudice is an everyday dynamic of our society and pervasive and deeply embedded in the culture, students can create an intellectual framework for processing their own thinking and feeling and begin to come into dialogue with others on these hard issues for self and group reflection. Careful reflection, less as personal therapy and more nuanced by the texts, lectures, and discussion, can provide a context where students will realize that they belong to a bigger human circle, and their own humanity and their awareness of themselves and others can become more expansive as well. It is through reflecting on their interaction with others in less familiar situations that students begin to understand the nature of difference, the organization and purpose of social institutions, and an appreciation for the unequal life chances and unequal opportunities that are so fundamental to our experiences in American society. As part of the service-learning orientation, students might be presented with a list of activities and asked to evaluate and rank how each might be understood as “civic engagement” (see figure 2.1). The list might contain activities such as joining the armed forces, helping to start an after-school program for children whose parents work, talking with a friend about a social issue of importance to you, giving blood, working for a candidate in a local election, serving on a jury, and the like. Having the students rank each activity provides an opportunity for value clarification and an opportunity to discover what the class values as well. It provides a basis for lively discussion when students discover that aggregation of their selections displays a consensus or dissensus among students in the classroom. Once students have a sense of the range of activities that constitute civic engagement, they are better prepared to understand several critical concepts related to the service-learning experience. There are several ways to talk about service-learning, with its emphasis on citizenship and civic engagement. The first is to introduce our students to the concept of community. Certainly, in a world in which, as Disraeli re-

Service-Learning: Process and Participation Figure 2.1.

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How Do You Define Civic Engagement?

The concept of civic engagement is about acting in such a way that it contributes to the public good. People define civic engagement in many different ways. Some people think of it as activities centered around being a good citizen, while others think of it as activities centered around serving the community. Represented below are actions that people might cite as exemplary civic engagement. Place a 1 next to the action that most closely models your own idea of civic engagement. Place a 2 next to the action that is the second closest, and so on, up to 15. Joining the armed forces. Helping to start an after-school program for children whose parents work. Talking with a friend about a social issue of importance to you. Working for a candidate in a local election. Serving on a jury. Picketing and protesting at a local plant that has laid off a large number of its workforce. Giving to a not-for-profit charitable organization. Leaving your car at home and biking or walking to work or school every day. Tutoring a migrant worker. Attending a neighborhood meeting. Providing dinner once a week at a homeless shelter. Visiting different houses of worship (churches, synagogues, mosques, etc.) every week to learn about different religions in the community. Giving blood. Driving within the posted speed limit in a school zone. Voting. Source : Adapted from Rick Battistoni “How do you Define Citizenship?” (2002), originally from Nadinne Cruz, “How Do You Define Service?” (2002) [February,1996].

marked, “modern society acknowledges no neighbor,” our students, more often than not, have not experienced community. Such a community, however sentimentalized, is represented in the American imagination by the small town, its volunteer fire department, and neighborhood and often faith-based assistance to neighbors. It is a social entity that continues to exist in the United States but is challenged by the sterility and monotony of a suburbanized and bureaucratized America. One task, then, is to reground the students in the concepts of community and mutual aid.

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In addition, students often suggest that they need to “settle down” in one place after college before they can engage in civic participation. But our students are not settling down—they have several careers and move about the country (and countries) across their careers. The challenge for the teacher is to help the students conceive that their school, and the community in which it resides, is the first of many communities they will join, and that civic participation will be a series of engagements in community making and building throughout their lives. Several diagrams are useful to help students understand these themes. The first is a representation of the “concentric circles of community” (see figure 2.2). From village to town, from Vietnam to the United States, traditional communities have had the property of embracing the individual in concentric circles of attachment and obligation. As such, individuals defer to the

Figure 2.2.

The Concentric Circles of Community


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group, positive membership and negative shame are the primary social psychological drivers, and communities generally take care of their own. The second diagram represents a “segmented society,” one that students generally recognize immediately as closer to their own (see figure 2.3). Sociologically, this type of society is based on the individual as the primary social unit, and contract as the basis of agreement and obligation. In such societies the experience of community is generally limited to family. Specialized agencies, whether governmental, not-for-profit, or faithbased, typically substitute for the mutual aid found in the local village, community, and neighborhood. A third diagram, a simple grid, demonstrates that there are multiple opportunities for engagement, and that engaged citizens discover what they value and make choices about where to put their energies (see figure 2.4). The “Point X” moment is a time and place in which a person chooses to self-consciously act and to engage. We all have many Point X moments every day in which, through our action in various settings, we express our full commitment, our focused engagement to our mission or our goals and objectives. For a teacher, for example, Point X opportunities happen in the classroom, when advising a student, when engaging in scholarship, or when participating in curricular discussions. Service-learning is an occasion for Point X engagement in the civic life and well-being of the student’s oncampus and off-campus community, while exploring the practical parameters and consequences of a classroom lecture or text.

Figure 2.3.

Segmented Society

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Figure 2.4.

“Point X” Opportunities

One challenge to us, and to our students, is the paralysis of choice, in which there are so many social needs and so many venues for civic engagement that it is difficult to choose to commit to any course of action. The other challenge is a claim that one act of civic engagement is more valuable than another. While for practiced social analysts and cost-benefit experts that may be so, the reality is that people engage in what they value, in the context of competing demands and time and energy constraints. One of the key benefits of service-learning is the opportunity for our students to individually and collectively clarify their own values, develop new ones, and make choices that are right for them. A final theme is one of leadership and responsibility. During the servicelearning experience students often find themselves struggling with the social distance between themselves and their “clients.” Perhaps students are working in an alcohol rehabilitation clinic where clients are disheveled or have been economically unsuccessful, or they are working in an educational setting where the parents seem disinterested in their child’s education and progress. What are our expectations of students, emotionally and politically? This is a tricky business. Do we want them to feel sympathy? Do we want them to suspend personal judgment and their sense of disappointment in another? We cannot be too proscriptive here and preach, but what we can do is teach. What do our texts say, what is the stance of our disciplines or our perspectives? Good citizenship and good leadership go hand-in-hand. A compelling view of good leadership is that of the inverted pyramid (see figure 2.5).1 Good leadership is “customer driven” and is a critical component of good service, and it creates effective partnerships between collaborators.


Figure 2.5.

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Inverted Leadership Pyramid

Leaders are at the bottom of this pyramid (as distinct from the top) because they provide the firm foundation for the organization or activity. Their authority as a leader is their ability to sustain, take responsibility for, and organize critical activities. The leaders’ broad shoulders support the mission of the organization as it serves the “client.” At its best, this is the role we imagine for our students in their adult lives, and students are likely to see this form of service leadership enacted in the community partner mentor. Our use of the service-learning experience is to provide a grounded understanding of the social and personal contexts of the human experience and to value forms of social engagement that honor the humane and the just. This is the goal of service-learning, especially as it is practiced in the liberal arts. All of these themes may be introduced in the orientation to servicelearning. Teachers and students will find in these themes a useful baseline to return to throughout the course. Student reflections on the value of the service they are doing, the needs of the people who are being serviced, and the student’s responsibilities as a member of a community are fruitful points of discussion as students move though the developmental stages of their service-learning experience.

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ENGAGING A “SERVICE-LEARNING COLLEAGUE” If the faculty member is lucky enough to have a public service office with experienced students trained in service-learning, or if there is a practiced student from the faculty member’s previous course, it is extremely useful to have a “service-learning colleague.” A student in this role has two critical tasks. First, the student is a teaching assistant and a thoughtful model of reflective learning activity. The service-learning colleague becomes a critical conduit for discussion that inspires the students in the course. In cooperation with the colleague, teachers can develop a series of classroom and homework exercises that match the developmental stages of student services experiences with the sequence of course materials. Second, the student is likely to be present in class and, more often, at the student service sites and will be an experienced hand at working directly on student issues with the community partner. It is best when service-learning colleagues earn credit (rather than cash) for an independent study or course equivalent.

INCLUDING SERVICE-LEARNING COMMUNITY PARTNERS An effective relationship with community partners is critical to the success of service-learning activities. Launching students into an agency, institution, or a department is a serious endeavor and it will be the community partner who is the primary supervisor of student service activities. While students are appreciated for the added value they bring in extending services or providing additional support, the service-learning component should not be merely “dental extraction” where we ask the agency to meet our curricular needs, but not in a reciprocal and collaborative relationship. Bringing the community partner into the planning process, and including them in classroom sessions, are effective ways to create reciprocity and collaboration. It is important to narrow the focus to specific agencies, institutions, or departments so that distribution of students is manageable, the servicelearning objectives can be reliably met, and programmatic themes can be developed and mature. This will allow the development of long-term relationships with several well-seasoned and trained community partners who are ready, willing, and able to be mentors to students. Community partners will do their own orientation to their agency, institution, or department, and this orientation should cohere with the orientation provided by the teacher. The point is that this must truly be a partnership, and it is worthwhile to ask community partners to be present at the student orientation, to make a contribution to the presentation, and to be prepared to come


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into the classroom to participate in discussions. Workshops held for prospective and current community partners that provide them with the context for service-learning allow them to help define their role in the experiential activity, develop collaborative themes (diversity, leadership, and civic engagement work well), and generate authentic service activities critical to the maintenance of student motivation, all insuring greater success and honoring the expertise community partners bring to the table.

TACTICS FOR CLASSROOM-BASED SERVICE-LEARNING Service-learning can be placed in the syllabus as something that is supplemental and periodic, or it can be used as the experiential base of the course with a full array of activities and exercises to support it and to amplify course material. At its most ambitious, it is a full-court press. The following is a design that makes service-learning a collective, collaborative, and central course component: 1. Service teams are created around each community partner agency and a community partner mentor. 2. The faculty member (and/or the service-learning colleagues) mentors service teams and develops agency relationships. 3. Teams are the liaison for the class to community partner. They take on the following tasks: a. Development of a service-learning website about the agency and its service; b. Create a lesson plan with the community partner mentor, and conduct a class session about the agency in the context of assigned readings; c. Service teams create a public poster session and a recognition event. 4. The faculty member (and/or the service-learning colleagues) manages and encourages use of Blackboard discussion board. 5. Each service team writes a public problem statement. 6. Each individual team member writes an initial paper demonstrating his or her understanding of the organization’s strategic objectives and operations. 7. Each team writes a final paper reflecting on individual and collective service-learning experiences, lessons learned, and an assessment about the services performed, including self-reflective evaluation of their own attendance, attentiveness, and performance.

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Note that this model is relatively labor intensive and requires the faculty member or service-learning colleague to be directly involved in monitoring service-learning activity. Some schools also have public service offices with staff that do the on-site follow-up and monitoring of student service activity. Modifications are possible to this most ambitious plan, based on what else is planned for the course, what other course demands there are that semester, and the energy and commitment of community partner mentors. A more streamlined effort might eliminate the development of the website and the public poster session activity. In addition, one could also eliminate the class sessions with the community mentor and students, although this has proved to be quite valuable in cementing the servicelearning experience and the relationship between the community partner and the faculty member. In students’ first encounter with the service-related organization, and prepared by course readings, students can be asked to write a public problem statement for their community service organization.2 In such an exercise, useful for their first formal assignment, students are asked to consider the following: • • • • • • •

Why does the problem exist? What are the consequences of the problem? What makes it a “public” problem? How many people does it affect? Is there more than one cause? Are there political, cultural, economic effects? Are the causes interdependent?

This exercise creates opportunities for careful and significant reflection, and is likely to tie directly back to the course texts and critical concepts. It is an example of how designing the process of the service-learning experience, combined with participation in significant and critical reflection activities, can contribute to achieving the learning objectives of the course. As students commence their service experience they can be assigned to collect the mission statement of the community partner’s agency, an organization chart, and annual reports and statistics about the agency’s services. This is a great exercise in context making and broadens the student’s experience of his or her service activities. Specifically, it teaches the students to be attentive to the strategic goals and objectives of the program, agency, or institution, including the claims of purpose, resolve, results, and value made to the larger funding audience. It also helps students to understand the supporting tactics that are used in service of the strategic claims, and that as student volunteers they are enacting a part of the tactical in service to the strategic. A second and perhaps final paper can be an assessment that reconsiders the strategic goals and supporting tactics.


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A good example of how a student can link the tactical back to the strategic can be found in this brief excerpt from a student’s final paper. The firstyear student has understood the need for, and the unfortunate absence of collaboration that is hindering the program from achieving its objectives. Note that she is suggesting a practical communications plan, a critical part of any successful project:

Figure 2.6. There are two parts to this paper. The first part is a description of the organization within which you are working. The second is a contextualization of the organization’s function in the context of current readings. For the first part you should: 1. Identify the mission of the organization within which you are participating in community service; 2. Identify the nature of the clients for whom the organization serves; 3. Produce an organization chart indicating the nature of the formal social relationships between coworkers and workers and clients; 4. Recognize and report the actual processes of interaction that you have observed and interpret and report the meaning that the participants give to their behavior; 5. Interpret and report any other structures of meaning that may be embedded in the interaction and behavior. For the second part you should consider the mission of the organization within which you are participating in community service in the applicable national contexts described by George Ritzer in McDonaldization of Society, Derber in Pursuit of Attention, the maps, and the class lectures.

Figure 2.7. In this paper I want you to do the following: 1. Identify, analyze, and explain the social forces and social problems that create the conditions your volunteer site seeks to ameliorate. Be sociological! Use sociological concepts such as social organization, social stratification, stereotyping, and the dynamics of race and gender, to analyze and explain. 2. Evaluate and discuss the success of your volunteer site in terms of its mission. 3. Are the site coordinators optimistic or pessimistic about what the agency is accomplishing, and the future of its services? Why? Are you optimistic or pessimistic about what the agency is accomplishing, and the future of its services? Why? Based on your sociological analysis, what would you do differently to ameliorate the conditions that are the context for the agencies services?

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For my community service project, I volunteered through the America Reads organization. America Reads is an organization that works to promote child literacy and to “ensure that every child can read well and independently by the end of third grade.” The organization was founded because there was and continues to be a high instance of illiteracy in the United States, due in part to inadequate education in public schools, especially for children with learning disabilities. . . . There are, however, several things I would change. First of all, the amount of time spent each session is not sufficient to get a substantial amount of work done. We are supposed to be there for an hour, but we usually arrive a bit late, and the children lose interest when they know that their parents will be picking them up soon. I also think that the communication between the child’s teacher, the parents, and the tutor needs to be improved. The way I see it, each child’s success is the number one goal of the three people involved in terms of the program, and without that communication, the child may feel confused. I felt disadvantaged for several reasons because I had so little communication with Sean’s parents and teachers. First of all, a child like Sean needs to be in a highly structured environment where people can make sure that he is in fact on top of all of his assignments and that he understands what is expected of him. There were several instances where Sean would say that he did not want to work on a particular task with me because his Mom liked to help him with it. At the next session, he usually had not done it. . . . To solve this problem, I think that I would set up a meeting at least once or twice during the year to simply meet the child’s teacher and parent, even if it were for a few minutes one day after school. This would serve as a forum to plan a communication system for the year and for the parent and teacher to inform the tutor a little bit about the child, his/her strengths and weaknesses, and possible goals for the year. Obviously, the tutors have lives outside of this program, as do the parents, so a solid basis of checks would keep the child’s progress a priority. [Andrea Katkish, William Smith College]

SERVICE-LEARNING AS AN INSTITUTIONALLY INTEGRATED ACTIVITY IN TIME AND SPACE Service-learning has a life beyond the single classroom. In many cases several faculty are providing service-learning opportunities as part of their course curriculum. There are significant opportunities to leverage all of this service-based activity. The success of this may depend on formal administrative structures, or it may be the result of organized faculty collaboration. In its fullest form, service-learning can be integrated into campus and student life and diffused and infused into the larger college curriculum. While such an institutional enterprise can be thematically agnostic, the most effective programs are likely to settle on a set of conceptual themes, or a particular set of concrete service goals and objectives. Much of what is en-


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acted as service-learning already coheres with some of the national themes espoused by Campus Compact and the AAC&U. Such themes as diversity learning, leadership development, and the value of civic engagement are infused in service-learning programs nationwide. See figure 2.8 for an institutional service-learning model that focuses on particular conceptual themes, uses strong partnerships with selected community partners, and eschews the silos so common on college campuses to reach out in collaboration with faculty and administrative units beyond the classroom. Such a model provides several venues for service-learning, infusing and integrating a campus, and providing students with the opportunity for consciously designed integrative service-learning experiences throughout the student’s on-campus career. An institutional strategy for effective civic engagement would embrace the planning and processes discussed earlier in this chapter. As isolated learning experiences, courses that include service-learning have their own value. However, an integrated approach would maximize and reinforce the service-learning experience. Our students would come to understand that service-learning is not an isolated activity and that their local service work is linked to broader global service activities. In uniting the theoretical and analytical with practical action, our students would be reinforced that ideas have consequences and that they can make effective contributions to the world in which they live.

SERVICE-LEARNING AND OUTCOMES FOR THE STUDENT AND THE COMMUNITY What are we seeking when we encourage students to go out and serve the community, and more specifically when we ask them to participate in “service-learning” courses? Too often we work to sell the students on “civic engagement,” our often-used term for citizen participation in one’s community. Most students understand this, and a large number will testify that they found the experience satisfying and will do it again. In fact, based on solid research from scholars of service-learning such as Zlotkowski, Astin et al., Eyler et al., Vogelsgang and Astin, and Steinke and Buresh,3 among others, we know that service-learning creates positive cognitive outcomes and an affective disposition that may motivate students to additional volunteer community service after the service-learning course. However, hopes that the majority of students will continue to find service placements during their college career, and later become active citizens in their communities, may be overestimated. Two approaches may secure powerful benefits for our students and for the community. The first, mentioned earlier, is a more integrated approach that demonstrates to students that civic engagement is an important part of

Figure 2.8.

A Model for Institutionally Integrated Service-Learning


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everyday life. The second is to provide, in the context of service-learning and community service, essential skills that will serve them now and in the future, and that students’ value. Such skills include developing and practicing the arts of persuasion and leadership, developing effective communication skills, becoming a problem solver, learning to be an analyst, and learning to be a good organizer.

NOTES 1. The source of the idea of the “inverted pyramid” is unknown. It is a concept used in management in many customer-service-oriented and public service, not-forprofit organizations. 2. Adapted from Community Service Practicum (Fall 1999), Rick Battistoni and Dana Farrell, instructors, Providence College. 3. See Edward Zlotkowski, Successful Service Learning Programs: New Models of Excellence in Higher Education (Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing Co., Inc., 1998); Alexander W. Astin, Lori J. Vogelgesang, Elaine K. Ikeda, Jennifer A. Yee, “How Service Learning Affects Students” (Los Angeles: Higher Education Research Institute, 2000), available at: www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/PDFs/HSLAS/HSLAS.PDF (accessed May 24, 2007); Janet Eyler, Dwight E. Giles Jr., Christine M. Stenson, Charlene J. Gray, At a Glance: What We Know About the Effects of Service-Learning On College Students, Faculty, Institutions and Communities, 1993–2000, 3rd ed. (Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University, 2001), available at: servicelearning.org/filemanager/ download/4192_AtAGlance.pdf (accessed May 24, 2007); Lori Vogelsgesang and Alexander Astin, “Comparing the Effects of Community Service and ServiceLearning,” Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning 7 (2000): 25–34; Pamela Steinke and Stacey Buresh, “Cognitive Outcomes of Service Learning: Reviewing the Past and Glimpsing the Future,” Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning 8, no. 2 (2002): 5–14.

3 Understanding Service at the Service of Understanding: An Exploration of Service-Learning in the Arts Patrick M. Collins

The educational goals and objectives that may be served by service-learning are both various and variable and depend on factors such as the population to be served, the needs of the students involved, the demands and structures of the academic discipline in question, and the pedagogical preferences of the instructor.1 Despite this potential variety of purpose, service-learning is often justified on two grounds. First, service-learning is promoted as a means of educating students for civic engagement. In this case, though as Battistoni points out civic engagement may be understood in many ways, the argument is that community service is significant as a tool for developing the kinds of attitudes, skills, and knowledge necessary for one to function as a socially responsible member of a democratic society.2 Second, many argue from a Dewian perspective that service-learning is justified as a form of experiential education. Genuine education requires active learning, learning that calls for both action and reflection, and, in so far as community service actively engages students in meaningful experiences for reflection, it represents a powerful pedagogy regardless of discipline.3 On this view service-learning serves an epistemic function beyond that of civic understanding. The suggestion here is that it can foster understanding in domains other than the civic. Clearly, both experiential learning and civic education are noble ideals and so their intersection in service-learning seems to provide a double-barreled case for service-learning. One of the assumptions at work here is that the civic and the epistemic dimensions of servicelearning reinforce, or at least complement, each other. But is this necessarily the case? Much service-learning is aimed at civic education, but there are also many instances in which civic aims are secondary to more 41

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traditional academic, or what I call epistemic, aims of a course. Are there instances in which the civic requirement of service may undermine other epistemic aims of experiential learning?4 I intend to explore this issue by examining a course that I teach entitled Drama in a Developmental Context.

ON THE ARTS, EDUCATION, AND THE LIBERAL ARTS Drama in a Developmental Context is a liberal arts course taught within the Education Department at Hobart and William Smith, but it is not a teacher education course designed for pre-service teachers. Faculty in the Education Department split their time between teaching within the teacher certification program and teaching liberal arts courses in education. In order to fully understand the nature of Drama in a Developmental Context, one first needs to understand these two aspects of our work as they relate to the liberal arts education we try to provide our students. The teacher certification program at Hobart and William Smith Colleges is based on two assumptions: (1) People best learn to teach by teaching and then systematically reflecting on that practice, and (2) good teachers need a background in the liberal arts that is both broad and deep. All students who wish to certify as elementary or secondary teachers do so by completing the teacher education program in addition to completing a full academic program in the liberal arts. The colleges do not offer a major in education. Students who wish to certify do so by completing four semesters of part-time fieldwork in local classrooms and at least five professional “teacher seminars” that do not carry any academic credit but are recognized by New York State as meeting the requirements for certification.5 The teacher seminars are designed to provide students with background on the nuts and bolts of teaching (methods and techniques) while also providing them with opportunities to reflect on their work in schools. Students complete these practica and seminars concurrent with a full load of liberal arts courses, which means their work in the teacher certification program is essentially an overload.6 Education Department faculty spend half of their time teaching these professional seminars and supervising students in the schools and spend the other half of their load teaching liberal arts courses in education. The Education Department offers a wide range of liberal arts courses. These are not traditional courses on methods of teaching and they are independent of the teacher certification program. Liberal arts courses in education, which are open to all students at the colleges, are theoretically based courses that explore issues of education from a variety of disciplinary and often interdisciplinary perspectives. In addition to traditional courses on the foundations (e.g., history and philosophy) of education, the department offers courses on topics such as literacy, multicultural education, sci-

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entific and mathematical thinking, special education, popular culture, and education and the arts. The purpose of these courses is not to prepare teachers (the majority of students in most courses are not in teacher certification). The primary purpose of liberal arts courses is to provide students from across campus with a rich array of opportunities to examine the meaning, significance, and potential of education on a variety of levels: personal, social, cultural, and historical. These courses often examine the theory and practice of education in terms of each other with the ultimate goal of helping students gain a better understanding of the nature of educational endeavors as they relate to the human condition. Drama in a Developmental Context is one of these courses. My own approach to teaching this course within the context of the liberal arts is based on my assumptions about the aims of education and about the nature of the arts as ways of knowing. The basic aim of a liberal arts education is to provide students with the tools they need not only to understand themselves and the worlds in which they live, but also to help them acquire the wherewithal to ultimately be able to change, remake, or recreate themselves and those worlds. The aim of a liberal arts education is to help students develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, and dispositions necessary to engage in acts of what Nelson Goodman referred to as worldmaking. Goodman’s use of this term does not necessarily have social or political implications, but it is meant to capture the transformative power of cognitive activity at large. For Goodman, worldmaking is essentially a cognitive act and different kinds of thinking constitute different “ways of worldmaking.”7 Howard Gardner has followed in the footsteps of Goodman in arguing for a symbol systems approach to human cognition.8 In this view, the primary means by which humans come to gain knowledge and understanding is through the use of various symbol systems. The most familiar of these is language, but other common symbol systems of note include systems such as mathematics, biology, physics, history, philosophy, painting, dance, and drama. Each of the symbol systems available to an individual potentially provides that individual with a different view of the world. Different symbol systems provide us with different kinds of knowledge and understanding. The actor and the biologist may each study human movement, but they apply different symbol systems in doing so and therefore they each provide us with a different set of understandings about that movement. Different symbol systems provide us with different ways of worldmaking. The various symbol systems mastered by an individual provide a person with a number of windows through which he or she may learn about the world, and one of the primary purposes of a liberal arts education should be to provide students with a variety of such windows. One of the measures of a liberally educated person is the degree to which he or she has mastered a wide range of symbol systems. A fundamental goal of a liberal arts education should

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be to move students toward what may be called symbolic literacy by helping them develop a working understanding of multiple symbol systems central to the arts, sciences, and everyday life.9 One of the implications of this view of education is that each of the arts, as symbol systems, cannot just be viewed as natural modes of expression or creativity, but that they must be recognized (and taught) as fundamental ways of knowing and that as such we have a responsibility to move students toward literacy in the arts as well as in language, mathematics, science, or technology. The arts are basic ways of worldmaking.

DRAMA IN A DEVELOPMENTAL CONTEXT I have been teaching Drama in a Developmental Context at the colleges for approximately a dozen years. The underlying epistemic aim of the course is to move students toward dramatic literacy by helping them develop a basic understanding of the potential of drama to influence human development at both the personal and sociocultural levels.10 As used here, the term drama is best defined as “an improvisational, nonexihibitional, process-centered form of drama in which participants are guided by a leader to imagine, enact, and reflect upon human experiences.”11 In this case drama does not include dramatic literature but is a participatory activity that is related to, yet distinct from, both theatre and the natural play of young children. Within these parameters drama is a comprehensive term that applies to a variety of pedagogical approaches, including creative dramatics, improvisation, drama in education, informal drama, and process drama.12 The goal of the course is not to prepare students to teach drama but to help them develop an understanding of the potential of dramatic activity for furthering human development in the hope that such an understanding will inform the lives they lead and the work they do (as citizens, parents, taxpayers, community activists, professionals, etc.), regardless of the paths they choose upon graduation. My hope is that the course will provide students with the motivation and conceptual background they need to become genuine advocates for the inclusion of drama (and the arts at large) in education. Drama in a Developmental Context is a small course that is generally limited to eighteen students. The course draws students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds: Some have backgrounds in theatre or education, but many don’t. There are no prerequisites. The course, which meets for two eighty-five-minute periods a week, integrates three different kinds of pedagogy: reading and discussion, drama workshops, and educational outreach. During the first ten or eleven weeks of the course, class time is divided between discussion and workshops. After initially exploring the nature of drama, especially as it relates to both theatre and the dramatic play of young children, students read and discuss a wide range of theoretical and


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research-based material that examines the potential functions of drama. The issues addressed in these discussions include the role of drama in developing aesthetic sensibility, language skills, critical thinking abilities, and social skills; the expressive and therapeutic functions of dramatic activity; drama as a mechanism for personal and social problem solving; drama and diversity; and drama as a vehicle for learning in other disciplines. The objective here is to provide students with an opportunity to critically examine (in small and large group discussions) contemporary literature on drama and education in order to help them attain an overview of the theoretical landscape of the field. Concurrent with these discussions about the nature and functions of drama, I also engage students in a number of ongoing drama workshops. These are essentially studio classes in which I lead students through a variety of drama exercises and improvisational activities. The specific activities engaged in here depend upon the experience, needs, and interests of the students in the class. However, over the course of the semester I attempt to provide them with first-hand experience with a number of approaches to drama, including traditional creative drama techniques, theatre games, process drama, teacher in role, and mantel of the expert.13 In contrast to drama workshops in more traditional courses in educational drama, my primary purpose here is not to teach my students how to teach drama by providing them with a set of tools for doing drama with children. My purpose is to provide them with personal experiences, as participants in dramatic activities, which will help them better understand the role of drama in human development. The workshops provide an experiential base for the theoretical material in the course. Though the direction of the workshops remains flexible, I generally attempt to design workshops that reinforce, exemplify, or extend the theoretical material under consideration at the moment.14 For example, when reading about the connection between drama and writing, I engage students in drama work that requires them to write, generally in role, from within the drama itself. Students keep a daily reflective journal throughout the course. The purpose of this journal is to provide students with a structured opportunity to personally reflect upon the relationship between their experience in the workshops and their own personal growth, especially in terms of the theoretical views presented throughout the course. In addition to describing each activity as they experienced it, students are asked to use the journal to analyze and evaluate their personal responses to the dramatic work by addressing questions such as: How comfortable were you with the activity? Did the activity challenge you? How? Why? Why not? What did you learn about yourself from the activity?

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What kinds of learning and personal growth did the activity foster? Why? Did the activity somehow stunt or constrain your personal growth? If so, why? What connections can you make between the activity and class readings or discussions? How does the activity relate to other workshop activities we have completed? In addition, class discussions often demand that students draw upon their journals in making connections between their participation in drama workshops, their own development, and course readings. The final component of the course, which serves as a culminating activity, is an educational outreach program that we call Drama Worlds. For four or five classes toward the end (final month) of the course, my students run an after-school drama program for local children in kindergarten through the fifth grade.15 Students work in pairs or trios designing a series of drama lessons that they then teach to a group of between ten and fifteen children. This means that in about the fifth week of the course students need to begin thinking about, researching for, and planning the units they will be teaching in the after-school program. In addition to planning and teaching the unit, each of my students keeps a teaching journal and portfolio (separate from the reflective journal described earlier) in which they evaluate and reflect upon the effectiveness of each of their lessons in terms of the goals and objectives they set for their group of children and in terms of developments they are able to observe within individual children. At the end of Drama Worlds they also write an extended entry assessing the overall success of the project. My initial impetus for including the outreach program as part of Drama in a Developmental Context was rooted in the local community. Since 1986 I had been running a large summer theatre program for local children in grades four through twelve. By the early 1990s I regularly had parents and teachers indicate that there was a substantial community interest in having some sort of drama program, especially for younger (K–3) children, during the school year. Drama Worlds was initially conceived of as one way to meet this need while at the same time providing my students with an experience that would further enhance their understanding of drama as a way of worldmaking.

THE CONUNDRUM Initially, the idea of developing an after-school program seemed to be a win-win proposition: My students could be involved in a project that would


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address a genuinely perceived need in the local community while at the same time being engaged in a learning experience that would deepen and extend their understanding of dramatic activity. Drama Worlds seemed to be an ideal way to integrate service-learning with experiential education in the arts. However, it didn’t take long for doubts to begin to set in and for me to begin to sense an emerging tension between the service component of the course and my larger epistemic aim of moving my students toward dramatic literacy. Indeed, after two or three years of teaching the course, I began to wonder if the after-school program wasn’t actually undermining the basic aim of the course. The problem was that I was feeling pressure, from students and from myself, to more overtly prepare students to teach in the after-school program. The potential of the Drama Worlds experience to positively affect my students’ understanding of dramatic activity was contingent on the degree to which the teaching experience was successful, which depended on how well prepared they were. More importantly, the civic responsibility of undertaking this project required that my students be adequately prepared to make a success of their work with children. Adequate pedagogical preparation seemed to be a necessary condition of fulfilling both the civic and the epistemic goals of Drama Worlds. As a result I began to change the way I approached the design of the inclass workshops in Drama in a Developmental Context. My tendency became to use workshops to provide students with as many techniques for working with children as possible without compromising the level and depth of their own dramatic work. This would not have presented such a difficult problem in a teacher education course where understanding is largely placed at the service of learning to teach. But this was a liberal arts course in which I was essentially trying to use teaching to enhance understanding. The more I focused on pedagogy and provided students with tried and true activities, methods, and resources for using drama with children, the less time I was able to spend on the kind of extended, in-depth, dramatic experiences that were developmentally more appropriate for helping college students (not necessarily interested in teaching) more fully understand the power and potential of drama in their own lives. My sense was that I was compromising the fundamental aim of the course. For several years I continued, somewhat blindly, to try to serve both masters while remaining uncomfortable with the sense that I wasn’t serving either very well. In hindsight, much of this discomfort was due to my inability to clearly articulate the tension I was experiencing between the epistemic aim of the course and the responsibilities of the community service. I assumed that both the workshops and the after-school program were valuable experiences and therefore continued to pursue both. I simply perceived the problem as the typical pedagogical dilemma of how to make everything

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work given the time constraints of the course. Then two years ago I finally realized that the question I needed to be asking wasn’t, “How do I fit it all in?” Given the aims of the course, the prior question needed to be, “Does the after-school program help my students deepen their understanding of the potential of drama to foster human development?” If the answer to that question was no, which I feared it was, I would need to consider the possibility that the service project was undermining the epistemic goals of this course and possibly eliminate it. If the answer was yes, then I would at least be reassured that trying to make everything fit was worth the effort and might even conclude that the effect of the pedagogical changes brought about by the need to prepare students to teach was a benefit rather than a liability.

DOING, SEEING, AND THINKING ABOUT DRAMA The question has yet to be fully answered, but over the last two years I have been more focused on ascertaining the answer. In addition to more carefully reviewing course evaluations for evidence of the effects of Drama Worlds, I have added the following item to the course evaluations that are completed by students at the end of the course: “Did your Drama Worlds experience help you deepen you own understanding of the potential of drama to foster human development? If so, how? If not, why not?” I have also tried to focus class discussions of the Drama Worlds experience as much on the impact of the experience on my students’ own thinking about drama as I have on the efficacy of the teaching experience itself. Though at best informal, these efforts are beginning to provide me with a better understanding of how my students experience the after-school program within the larger context of the course. My initial findings are encouraging. Historically, when asked on course evaluations “has this course deepened or extended your understanding of the relationship between drama and human development?” students have overwhelmingly responded in the affirmative. This pattern has held over the past two years with twenty-five of the twenty-eight students who have taken the course indicating improved understanding. In elaborating on their responses to this question, students have occasionally alluded to the role of the after-school program in enhancing their understanding, but since the question is a relatively open-ended one, their responses do not provide any substantial evidence that Drama Worlds was a key factor here. Further generalized support for Drama Worlds is found in examining student responses to the following item: “What (if any) aspects of this course


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should definitely not be changed for next year? Explain.” Nineteen students cited Drama Worlds as something that should not be changed. The second most common response was “workshops,” which was indicated by six students.16 Once again, since this was an open-ended question these responses do not provide any evidence that the after-school program improved student understanding, but they do provide solid evidence that students found Drama Worlds valuable for one reason or another. However, for the last two years I have also included the item that explicitly asks students to address the import of Drama Worlds (“Did your Drama Worlds experience help you deepen your own understanding of the potential of drama to foster human development? If so, how? If not, why not?”). Of the twenty-four students who responded to this item, nineteen indicated that Drama Worlds did play a significant role in developing their understanding, one said that it did not, and four gave mixed responses or indicated that they were unsure. These are heartening but hardly surprising results: Students generally enjoy working with children and in this case it can be expected that they would construe this experience in positive terms. Furthermore, others have long illustrated the connection between service and understanding. Indeed, among the results of their extensive study of college students, Eyler and Giles concluded that students consistently reported that service-learning enhanced their understanding of course content.17 What is more interesting are the reasons students gave, and the language they used, to describe the positive effects of Drama Worlds. Given student responses to the items described above, combined with observations made by students in class discussions and their writing (reflective journals, teaching portfolio, and final paper) in the course, there appear to be three common reasons they found Drama Worlds to be “imperative,” as one student put it, to their experience in the course.18 The first of these reasons, that the service-learning helped students integrate theory and practice, is not surprising; however, the second and third explanations caught me a bit off guard. Students in Drama in a Developmental Context often made comments such as the following when describing how Drama Worlds helped them develop a better understanding of drama as a way of worldmaking: Because I saw the theories from the books put into action, I feel as though I gained a much greater understanding of the potential of drama It was nice to have a hands-on experience with the theories. I had a chance to apply my knowledge through community service. [Drama Worlds] proved first hand how drama fosters human development.

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The repeated enthusiasm for hands-on learning and for being given an opportunity to apply theories learned in class also echoes the findings of Eyler and Giles. The service-learning students in their study agreed it was easier for them to make sense of material because “hands-on experience is definitely a lot better than hearing it, because it doesn’t click in your mind until you experience it or relate to it.” They found that the understanding attained from service-learning enhanced what they learned from books and lectures. “We learn these theories and ideas in school, but until we really apply them or see them in action, they’re not real. And we come out of school . . . not understanding.”19

Of course hands-on learning and the application of theory are not exclusive to service-learning and are longstanding hallmarks of experiential education at large. Therefore, my students may very well (if prompted) have made the same case for the importance of the in-class drama workshops. In fact, these are precisely my reasons for designing Drama in a Developmental Context as a studio-based or workshop-based course. In doing so I was following a long tradition in American education that views learning in the arts as largely a function of “doing” or “making” art.20 As indicated earlier, the objective of the workshops is to provide students with firsthand experiences as active participants in dramatic activity in order to help them better understand the theoretical underpinnings of the course. My assumption has been that the best way to help students develop a full understanding of drama as a way of knowing is to give them an inside view of drama by actively engaging them as “actors” and then helping them reflect on that experience in terms of theory. The purpose of the workshops is to allow students to experience the application of theory from the inside-out. Until now, I have always assumed that, given the goals of this course, doing drama was a more effective form of experiential learning than teaching because it provided a more authentic inside-out experience with the art. Unfortunately, I have not yet attained the same sort of explicit feedback concerning the efficacy of the workshops as I have acquired on the after-school program. Therefore I do not want to hazard a judgment about the relative merits of the two activities. But an examination of the second reason students used to explain the epistemic efficacy of Drama Worlds will prove to be both surprising and instructive. I have been struck by the degree to which students regularly used the language of sight to describe how Drama Worlds helped them develop an understanding of dramatic activity. As the following examples illustrate, students often used verbs such as see, observe, view, and witness to explain their experience: Drama Worlds . . . helps an individual see how drama can help in human development.


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Actually giving the kids the activity and observing their behavior had such a more powerful impact compared to reading about it. [Drama Worlds] allowed me to personally view the impact on growth and development that drama has on a student. While working with the children through[out] our five sessions with them, I witnessed some sort of development through the work of drama . . . I saw a huge growth [in] our children. I personally saw the use of drama increase their [the children’s] ability to develop into intelligent and happy people. I could see multiple differences and changes within the children.21

Many students also went on to describe in detail specific developments they had seen, observed, or witnessed among their children. One student described the impact of an outer-space drama she and her partners lead with a group of fourth and fifth graders as follows: We were able to . . . engage the children’s imaginations and emotions on several levels. The children were able to imagine and develop a setting where [space] aliens, that they could originally only conceive of as hostile, could evolve (through dramatic interaction) into helpful intelligent beings with similar needs and wants. This wouldn’t have happened in as much depth, say, if we had just read a story, taught a lesson, or just asked them to write based on preconceived notions of what “aliens” were.

Students not only claimed that the service-learning project had helped them see the power of drama, but they often described what they had seen in terms that clearly illustrated they had acquired a deep understanding of drama as a way of knowing. Far from undermining the epistemic goal of the course, this anecdotal evidence suggests that Drama Worlds may be a key to helping students meet the primary goal of the course. My initial fears about the possible deleterious effects of the pedagogical alterations forced upon me by service-learning appear to have been unfounded. The question is, why is this the case? Why does teaching drama appear to be at least as effective as doing drama in a workshop setting? One answer to this question is implied in the visual language used by students to talk about the teaching experience. For years I have been working on the assumption that the inside-out view of drama was the most effective way to help students deepen their understanding of dramatic activity. However, students seem to be suggesting that an “outside-in” view may be at least as important. I wanted to provide students with every opportunity I could to reflect on their own personal experiences with drama, but they are telling me that the experience of seeing others (children) engage in drama

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may be just as significant. Students need, if you will, both inner and outer views of artistic development. The in-class workshops, by definition and design, provide students with a subjective view of dramatic experience: They demand that students look inward. Teaching, and service-learning at large, requires students to look outward. It may be that the epistemic value of Drama Worlds is to be found in the act of reaching out to, connecting with, and seeing others engaged in dramatic activity. My sense is that students seldom use the more objective language of “seeing” in writing about their workshop experiences; they are more naturally inclined to use the subjective language of “feeling.” But, as Goodman also indicates, developing literacy in any art form requires a combination of both objective and subjective kinds of knowing.22 And Dewey himself claimed that one of the basic principles of experiential education is that “it assigns equal rights to both factors in experience—objective and internal conditions.”23 Far from undermining the experiential base of the course, the service-learning component has helped insure its success by bringing the subjective and objective, the inner and outer, views of drama into balance within the course at large. There is one other possible interpretation of the use of visual language by my students. We all know that it is often easier to see some things in others than it is in ourselves. It may simply be easier for students to recognize the effects of dramatic experience in others than it is in themselves. There is no doubt that students in this course regularly have intense learning experiences within our drama workshops, but in so far as these tend to be highly personal and subjective experiences, it may be difficult for them to see (or at least articulate) this learning as having more objective value. But being able to observe others engaged in similar activities may provide them with the cognitive distance necessary to recognize developments in others that they cannot see in their own dramatic experience. Once again, understanding benefits from the interaction of both subjective and objective experience. In addition to being able to apply theory and see the effects of drama, there is a third explanation students often suggested in explaining the epistemic efficacy of the after-school program: planning. As one student noted: “Going through each step of the process, from the planning to the actual execution of the lesson plans, allowed me to think about, create, and then teach different ways of learning and looking at things. I was able to see first hand how drama can be applied to learning and as a result how it can foster human development as a whole.” Indeed, this student highlights all three explanations (application, seeing, and planning) being examined here, and she is not alone in doing so. Initially this recognition of the importance of planning was unexpected, but in retrospect it is not so surprising. The planning component of Drama Worlds is substantial. Students have to meet repeatedly with the other members of the their teaching teams and with me in developing relatively detailed plans for each of the five days they


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are to teach. As we all know, there is no better way to learn something than to have to teach it. But it isn’t so much the actual teaching that teaches, it is the learning we do in the process of planning to teach which is most instructive. As the student cited above suggests, the planning involved in Drama Worlds forced students to think about the nature of drama in ways that they otherwise would not have had to consider. The planning process literally put students into dialogue with each other, with me, with the theoretical literature, with their own experience, and ultimately with their own students in ways that required them to think deeply, yet practically, about the connections between drama and human development. In this case it was the planning that provided them with further opportunities to see and understand the potential of drama in new ways, ways that were not accessible to them through readings or even through workshop experiences. In sum, the evidence suggests that students found the after-school program to be a vital factor in their emerging understanding of dramatic experience and that they did so for good reason. Drama Worlds enabled students to do, see, and think about drama in ways that workshops and class discussions didn’t make available. It allowed them to test their understanding by allowing them to apply what they learned in class. It provided them with an outside-in view of drama that balanced the inside-out view emphasized in workshops. And it forced students to think deeply about the educational and developmental functions of drama. It is still hard for me to judge whether student understanding would benefit more from a greater emphasis on personal dramatic experience and less on preparation for teaching in our workshops, but as far as my students are concerned Drama Worlds is clearly paying some substantial dividends in terms of their view of drama as a way of worldmaking. Rather than undermining the epistemic aim of the course, the service project appears to be enhancing it in significant ways.

LESSONS LEARNED AND QUESTIONS RAISED This exploration started on a skeptical note by asking whether servicelearning might sometimes undermine what I have called the epistemic aims often embedded in experiential learning. I have provided a brief sketch of the evolution, and subsequent de-evolution, of that skepticism as illustrated in my own teaching. Some of that skepticism still remains, but this exploration has provided me with a better understanding of the ways in which service may engender varieties (other than the civic) of understanding in the liberal arts, especially understanding in the fine and performing arts. Along the way lessons have been learned and new questions have been raised.

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Pedagogically, the most significant lesson learned for my own teaching is that I need to make more purposeful use of the opportunities for seeing drama in action that are offered by the educational outreach component of Drama in a Developmental Context. Students need to be more conscious of the roles that both objective and subjective experience play in the construction of their own understandings of drama. As such, I intend to engage students in conversations, writing assignments, and perhaps even dramatic activities that make them more cognizant of the interplay between the inner vision of drama experienced in workshops and the outer view presented to them in Drama Worlds. In addition to helping students sharpen their ability to see and observe the effects of drama more carefully, such an approach will hopefully provide me with more sources of feedback on the epistemic efficacy of both the after-school program and the inclass workshops. This analysis has also raised a number of questions that require further exploration: How effective are the workshops in helping students develop an understanding of the relationship between drama and human development? Do the workshops really help students develop an “inside-out” view of drama as suggested here? Is the after-school program more, or less, effective than the workshops in helping students achieve the epistemic aim of the course? Is there really a trade-off between preparing students for Drama Worlds and providing them with developmentally appropriate experiences with drama? If so, are their ways to minimize the trade-off? All of these questions need to be examined in a more deliberate and structured way than they have been to date. This analysis also raises a number of broader questions: Are there preexistent conditions under which service-learning is more likely to compromise epistemic aims? My sense is that there are, but that they can often be managed and that one can often alter pedagogy without compromising goals and objectives. I have altered my workshop pedagogy in ways that I still find questionable in terms of artistic value, but this compromised pedagogy apparently has not compromised the primary aim of the course. Students indicate that this altered approach apparently aids them in developing a deeper understanding of drama. My guess is that one of the conditions under which service-learning is more likely to threaten the development of understanding is when the service project requires extensive training, expertise, or prior experience to be successful. It is more difficult to prepare novices to teach drama than it is to prepare them to rake leaves or even to read a book to children. It is more difficult still to prepare the novice to effectively teach a musical instrument. There are surely other conditions that make service-learning in the service of epistemic aims difficult. It is important to recognize and understand them so they can be managed in ways that may minimize their effects on student learning.


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Are there preexistent conditions under which service-learning is more likely to complement or enhance epistemic aims? There is a rich literature that identifies conditions that need to be created in order for service-learning to be successful.24 But there are also preexisting conditions that need to be recognized as conducive to using service for epistemic ends. For example, one of the reasons students cited in explaining the effectiveness of the after-school program was that it allowed them to apply what they learned in class. One may surmise from this that having a well-defined body of knowledge with clear practical applications increases the chances of designing an epistemically effective service-learning experience. The likelihood of service-learning being successful may also be greater in domains where there are fairly accessible structures or schemata to guide work in the domain.25 Both drama and teaching are complex phenomena that take years to master, but preparing my students to teach drama was probably aided by some fundamental principles and strategies that I was easily able to share with them. Once again, if we can identify those conditions that are conducive to fostering understanding within a domain, we will be better able to capitalize on them in designing successful service-learning experiences. If we assume that one of the aims of a liberal arts education should be to move students toward symbolic literacy, what role can service-learning play in helping students master various symbol systems? Since different symbol systems have different structures that place different demands upon users, the answer to this question will vary by symbol system. But I will venture a few thoughts here about drama and the fine and performing arts at large. While each of the arts has its own structure, becoming literate in any of them does seem to hinge on some shared kinds of knowing. Dancers, actors, painters, and poets each need to become familiar with a basic set of techniques necessary for dancing, acting, painting, or writing. They all need to know how to apply those techniques in new and imaginative ways. They all need to understand ways in which their work may affect others and how others (audiences) may affect a given piece of work. But becoming artistically literate requires more than understanding how art is made. A variety of other abilities are also essential: the ability to perceive intelligently within the art form; the ability to form critical judgments about the merits of specific works; the ability to understand and interpret works within their social, cultural, and historical contexts; and the ability to use the art form as a means of personal exploration and expression.26 Literacy in any art requires a functional understanding of how the art form may be used, both expressively and receptively, as a way of worldmaking. Literacy in any symbol system is not acquired in one place, at one time, or in one course. The acquisition of literacy is cumulative and ongoing. No one course is going to make a student dramatically literate, visually literate, or mathematically literate. All we can do as teachers is try to move our

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students further down the road to literacy, and it seems as though (civic engagement aside) service-learning may be able to help us. But we need to be careful about what we expect service-learning to do for us. In most cases it seems unlikely that service would be an especially effective way to help students master the basic tools and processes of an art form. The students in my course may have tasted the work of the actor, but they did not master the basic skills of acting (e.g., script analysis, vocal projection, stage movement, etc.). That was not the aim of the course. But the service component of the course did help them achieve the actual aim of the course because it provided them with an opportunity to see the interplay between drama and other members of the community. It is here, at the intersection of the arts and the other, at the point where the arts naturally intersect with the community, that service-learning holds its greatest promise for moving students toward artistic literacy. In so far as the arts, especially the performing arts, are communal in nature, service in the arts does have the potential to generate not only a sense of civic engagement, but also fundamental understandings about the arts. Despite images of the solitary artist locked in the studio, learning in the arts is not a wholly personal, individual, or subjective experience. An inside view may be necessary to become literate within a given art form, but it is not sufficient. Artistic literacy also requires an outside view that may be found in carefully designed servicelearning projects.

CONCLUSION Service-learning clearly has great potential for educating students for civic responsibility. I have raised the question here of whether the civic responsibility which comes with service may sometimes interfere with other epistemic aims of a liberal arts education. Whether or not this analysis has significant implications beyond Drama in a Developmental Context is for others to determine. It may be that the problem posed here is peculiar to the course in question. It may be that the way the problem has been framed is peculiar to my experience as a member of an education department at an institution that often bills itself as “ferociously and totally liberal arts.” Where I speak of epistemic aims others may prefer to think about academic learning, learning in the disciplines, or content knowledge. But regardless of one’s situation, it is important to remain both skeptical of and open to the perils and promise of service-learning. I still remain somewhat skeptical about the effect of service-learning on epistemic aims in certain situations. But this exploration has alleviated some of that doubt and revealed some of the promise of service-learning. It has provided hints of how and


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why service-learning, especially in the arts, may contribute, epistemically as well as civically, to the development of a liberally educated person: a person who not only recognizes his or her responsibility to be a worldmaker, but who has also become literate in multiple ways of worldmaking.

NOTES 1. Joan Schine, Service Learning (Chicago: NSSE, 1997), 187–89. 2. See Richard Battistoni, “How Do You Define Citizenship?” Civic Engagement across the Curriculum (Campus Compact, 2002), and Craig Rimmerman, The New Citizenship: Unconventional Politics, Activism, and Service, 2nd ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001). 3. Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles, Where’s the Learning in Service Learning? (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999), 7–9. 4. The term “epistemic aim” (goal or outcome) will be used throughout this analysis to refer to aims that are primarily concerned with the development of knowledge and understanding other than that associated with civic engagement. This is not meant to minimize the importance of civic engagement or the role of knowledge and understanding in being educated for engagement. Civic education clearly requires the acquisition of significant knowledge. But the primary concern here is to examine the effects of service-learning in cases (courses) where the civic aims are secondary to other epistemic aims. The term “epistemic aim” is simply intended to provide an efficient shorthand for making the distinction between these two kinds of aims. 5. Students must also complete a semester of full-time student teaching for which they do receive academic credit. 6. All students pursuing certification (including students pursuing certification to teach elementary school) must complete a major outside of education (in one of the arts or sciences). Students may elect (but are not required) to take a minor in education. 7. Nelson Goodman, Ways of Worldmaking (Indianapolis: Hacket Pub. Co., 1978), 7–17. 8. See Howard Gardner, Art, Mind, and Brain: A Cognitive Approach to Creativity (New York: Basic Books, 1982) and Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (New York: Basic Books, 1983). It should be noted that Goodman himself built upon the work of both Ernst Cassirer (An Essay on Man; An Introduction to the Philosophy of Human Culture [New Haven, CN: Yale University Press; London: H. Milford / Oxford University Press, 1944]) and Susanne Langer (Philosophy in a New Key; A Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Rite and Art [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1942]) in suggesting that understanding how humans use symbols is key to understanding how we acquire and generate knowledge. 9. For a cogent description of symbolic literacy in the arts, see Elliot Eisner, “The Role of the Arts in the Invention of Man,” New York University Education Quarterly, Spring 1980, 2–7.

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10. For a description of dramatic literacy as an aim of education, see Patrick Collins, “Toward Dramatic Literacy: A Position Paper,” Children’s Theatre Review 34, no. 4 (1985): 3–6. 11. Jed Davis and Tom Behm, “Terminology of Drama/Theatre with and for Children: A Redefinition,” in Theatre, Children and Youth by Jed Davis and Mary Jane Evans (New Orleans: Anchorage Press, 1987), 262. 12. Betty Jane Wagner, Educational Drama and the Language Arts: What Research Shows (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998), and Nellie McCaslin, Creative Drama in the Classroom and Beyond, 8th ed. (Boston: Pearson Education, 2006). 13. On creative drama, see McCaslin, Creative Drama in the Classroom and Beyond. On theatre games, see Viola Spolin, Theatre Games for the Classroom (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1987). For descriptions of process drama, teacher in role, and mantel of the expert, see Cecily O’Neill, Drama Worlds: A Framework for Process Drama (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1995), and Dorothy Heathcote and Gavin Bolton, Drama for Learning (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1995). 14. It should also be noted here that since much of the work done in workshops is improvisational and depends on the emerging skills, energy (or lack thereof), and interests of the group, the distribution of time between workshop days and discussion days remains fluid. There are some weeks where we are able to have one workshop day and one discussion day. There are other periods where we may have two, three, or even four workshops in a row followed perhaps by two or three days of discussion. There are other days when we split the time between workshop and theory. 15. For the first several years of the program, Drama Worlds was held on campus at the colleges. However, for the past two years the program has been folded into an already existing after-school program which takes place in the Geneva City Schools. Generally speaking, Drama Worlds serves between sixty and eighty children per year. 16. When asked “what should definitely be changed,” one student did indicate that we spent too much time on Drama Worlds, but three students also indicated that we should spend more time on Drama Worlds. 17. Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles Jr., Where’s the Learning in Service Learning? (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999), 68–81. 18. In addition to keeping a reflective journal and a teaching portfolio, students are assigned a final paper in which they are “to draw on [their] experience in this course (including, course readings and discussions, class workshops, and [their] Drama Worlds experience, etc.) in writing a logical and coherent analysis of what [they] consider to be the most important function(s) of drama in education.” 19. Eyler and Giles, Where’s the Learning in Service Learning?, 69. 20. George Geahigan, “The Arts in Education: A Historical Perspective,” The Arts, Education, and Aesthetic Knowing: Ninety-first Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, ed. Bennett Reimer and Ralph Smith (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992). 21. These comments, as well as the excerpt below, are all quoted from student responses to the question on the course evaluation asking whether Drama Worlds enhanced student understanding. 22. Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1976).


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23. John Dewey, Experience and Education (New York: Macmillan Company, 1938), 42. 24. For example, see Norris M. Haynes and James P. Comer, “Service Learning in the Comer School Development Program,” in Service Learning: Ninety-sixth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, ed. Joan Schine (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), and Eyler and Giles, Where’s the Learning in Service Learning? 25. For more on the significance of the structure of domains, see Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1996), 36–41. 26. See both Ralph Smith, Culture and the Arts in Education (New York: Teachers College Press, 2006), and Bennett Reimer, “What Knowledge Is of Most Worth in the Arts?” in Reimer and Smith, The Arts, Education, and Aesthetic Knowing, for detailed descriptions of kinds of knowing required in the arts.

4 Teaching the Unteachable: Service-Learning and Engagement in the Teaching of Genocide and the Holocaust Michael Dobkowski

Teaching the Holocaust is both impossible and imperative—teaching a subject that defies both language and conventional explanations. There are enormous limits—of thought, imagination, comprehension, language— that hinder any attempt to grasp and express the experience we wish to tell. “I wanted to return to Sighet,” explains Moishe the Beadle in Elie Wiesel’s Night, “to describe to you my death so that you might ready yourselves while there is still time . . . only no one is listening to me. . . .”1 In these few words we have a paradigm of the dilemma facing teacher and student— what to tell so that it can be integrated into the consciousness and consciences of our students? How does one deal with the inevitable tensions between the need to be reasoned and analytical and the equally strong urge to be passionate and emotional and engaged? One voice says be removed and objective and quiet; the other says teach in a constant scream. Neither voice worked for Moishe. He tries to warn us of the collapse of meaning and the distortion of the human and divine image taking place around us, then and now. We listen, but we seem not to understand. Few topics or subject matters in teaching are fraught with such limitations, nor are teachers in other fields confronted by such a pervasive sense that what they seek to accomplish may well be unattainable. In part, genocide is hard to come to terms with because of the magnitude of the subject—the sheer numbers killed, the methods used, the breadth of complicity, its pervasiveness in history. Addressed directly, the Holocaust is overwhelming, provoking constant temptations to stop talking about it and ignore its reality, to intellectualize or abstract it from people thereby destroying its reality, or to despair and sink in the mire of believing that 61

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genocide is all of reality. The philosopher John Roth asserts that “the Holocaust—its reality, history, politics—creates burdens. These burdens are not abstract, nor are they impersonal. . . . The burdens of Holocaust history are immense because the Holocaust itself was immense.”2 The agony of confronting the material, the struggle to balance one’s intellectual and emotional responses to the content and to the students, the challenge of restraining oneself from imposing values, and the difficulty of dealing with an abundance of complex, painful content characterize the challenges of Holocaust teaching. The difficulty is not that Auschwitz cannot be imagined; indeed it consisted of everything imaginable. The problem, rather, is that it cannot be thought. Recall Jean Améry’s observations on the function of the intellectual in the camps. “It was not the case that the intellectual—if he had not already been destroyed physically—had now become unintellectual or incapable of thinking. On the contrary, only rarely did thinking grant itself a respite. But it nullified itself when at almost every step it ran into its uncrossable borders. The axes of its traditional frames of reference then shattered.”3 Those of us who try to “teach” the Holocaust or situate it within a curriculum are faced, in some small measure, with similar obstacles. Yet, I am convinced that the teaching of the Shoah is an effort of uncommon importance, one that is pivotal not only to our understanding of the past, but also to whatever prospect there may be for a more decent and humane future. Genocide presents some of the deepest philosophical and religious questions we can face in the classroom. Students often query: in light of so much suffering and killing, what does it mean to say one is human? They raise questions concerning God’s existence and the possibility of intelligibility in the universe. If there is a Supreme Being, what kind of Supreme Being would allow such perverse evil and suffering to exist? From the point of view of secular values and institutions, they ask whether it is possible to believe any longer that history leads to progress. How could a nation that prided itself as modern, cultured, and educated perpetuate such an atrocity? Is modern civilization itself implicated? No assessment of twentieth-century civilization can ignore the fact that science and technology, celebrated as the conduits of progress, then climaxed in the factories of death, and the realization that the unlimited, value-free use of knowledge and science, had paved the way for the mass murder by a faceless, mindless bureaucracy. The Holocaust was an advance warning of the genocidal potential in modern culture. Students are drawn to these questions and to courses that confront them. And teachers are as well, even though, constantly stalked by despair, most teachers, I believe, are idealists. However jaded we may become, most of us became teachers because we wanted to play our part in mending the world. That hope, however, encounters discouragement aplenty. Genocide’s history provides it. So does teaching. No

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matter how hard we try, indifference persists, prejudice remains, and ignorance endures. Education’s gains take place slowly and imperceptively. There is nothing inevitable about the process. So what can be learned by studying the Holocaust? We learn that the moral order around us is very fragile and that some ideas and their institutional forms can lead to genocide and that ordinary people established Auschwitz and that these ordinary people are not fundamentally different from the generations that followed. It is one thing for students to be interested or stimulated by a topic; it is another question whether or not they are adequately prepared to confront the material and the issues that will face them; for once you immerse yourself in the Shoah and the other genocides of our time, the world is never the same again. The events can shatter us even as they free us from our confident and comforting illusions. There may be a pedagogical position that holds the idea of shattering the illusions of students as a good thing, but we must not forget that shattered illusions can also be profoundly painful. Why, then, teach a topic so laden with the dark impulses of the human experience—a subject matter that does not elevate but depresses, a history that is not inspiring but rather filled with the worst that the human species is capable of? The dangers it presents are faced by teachers and students who, as they explore the evils that define the Holocaust and genocide, can easily become depressed and even cynical. Historian Omer Bartow argued that its very nature prevents us from learning anything from this genocide. “The Holocaust is a tale that signifies nothing. Indeed, it is precisely the meaninglessness of the event, made all the clearer now . . . the senselessness of it all, the total and complete emptiness in which this hell on earth unfolded, that leaves us breathless, bereft of power of thought and imagination.”4 My many years of teaching about the Holocaust, despite the despair that permeates the topic, suggest a very different conclusion. Even more, such teaching makes me understand that despair is not the appropriate response because to let it have its way would be, to paraphrase theologian Emil Fackenheim, to give every genocidal act a victory it does not deserve and must never have. It has convinced me that there is much to be gained, in fact, for both instructors and students. Rather than promoting cynicism or apathy, the courses often stimulate student engagement and activism through fostering a greater appreciation of justice and equality. One of the ironies of teaching this field of human history is that despite the darkness that surrounds it, it is very rewarding. Most rewarding are the questions the students raise about religion, humankind, morality, democracy, values, and civilization—for it is from such probing questions that serious learning within a moral framework takes place. As they become aware that the genocidal impulse is part of the human condition, students often relate what they are learning about the Holocaust to the problems of extreme poverty,

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racism, and intolerance still pervasive in the world, as well as to the later genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, the Balkans, and Darfur. Many also come to appreciate the profound truth of Jean Améry’s insight that we need to create memory since “no one can become what he cannot find in his memory.” Or Elie Wiesel’s admonition that “if we stop remembering we stop being.” I have come to believe that one cannot teach effectively about the Holocaust and remain a disinterested bystander passing on instrumentalist knowledge not informed by a moral theology. The Holocaust was about power and about the ultimate reification of ideas and ultimately people who were manipulated, exploited, and when drained of all further use, were turned into refuse to be consumed by fire. Teaching will necessarily involve us personally, exposing who we are and what we do and why we choose to do it. At the college and university level, where dispassion and objectivity are very highly valued, it is often forgotten that the very term professor denotes in its most literal sense someone who has something to profess— something worth declaring and considering by those who hear it. It is not about imposing one’s views, but about professing and pointing, as Martin Buber suggested, in the direction of the idea being explored. So, how does one teach the incomprehensible and the overwhelming to contemporary students? How can a cause be configured so that you maximize the probability that students will derive the greatest benefit and come away empowered not deflated? I begin with the premise that the study of the Holocaust should be metadisciplinary because it goes beyond the parameters of any given discipline or combination of disciplines. And this is so because the Shoah is distinguished by its assault on the premises of meaning and truth that define any discipline. Eli Wiesel has said that a novel about the Holocaust is either not a novel or not about the Holocaust. “There is no such thing as Holocaust literature—there cannot be. Auschwitz negates all literature as it negates all theories and doctrines; to lock it into a philosophy means to restrict it.”5 A Holocaust memoir is not the reflective recollections of one’s life; it is the desperate testimony of one’s imminent death in an effort to give meaning to a life that was not meant to be lived. A Holocaust history is not the recounting of events; it attempts to bear witness in such a way as to transform its listener into a witness. My efforts are guided by a fundamental distinction between the process of learning and the process of integrating the meaning and implications of that learning into consciousness and conscience. One can study the Holocaust by consuming and assimilating the factual data, but though this can be an important act of witnessing in itself, it is not sufficient because learning does not necessarily indicate understanding. The latter is the result of integration and some level of engagement and action. If understanding and integration are the larger goals, then offering students ways they can process this material reflectively and ways they can take this “learning” and reinforce it and


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actualize it in deed outside the classroom presents new pedagogical challenges and objectives to strive for. By integration I mean that the subject matter has been somehow successfully absorbed by the students into their moral and intellectual world so that it helps inform how they will now view that world. The point of venturing into the Holocaust universe is not to get lost in it and succumb to despair, even though that is a risk that we take. No, the point is to acquire a deeper capacity for response—a deeper responsibility to and for other human beings. I want students to become sensitive to the cause of genocidal destruction, and in the best case that sensitivity will lead to engagement, the actions of resisting anything that reflects a genocidal process. From the point of view of developing an understanding of genocide, there seems to be a prevailing good reason to force ourselves and our students to confront so much pain and suffering, and that is to make teacher and student more deeply aware of and resistant to the conditions and processes that are involved in the destruction of a people. It is these additional goals beyond covering the history of the phenomenon—making students aware of statesupported violence, heightening their readiness for activism and exposing them to complex moral dilemmas—that both intensifies these courses and makes the effort difficult and frustrating. Holocaust courses are more about the future than the past. Many students who delve into the marrow of Holocaust history for the first time experience a certain cognitive disorientation. They think they know a great deal about the subject, but most come to understand that they don’t, and this realization can upset and confuse them. Teaching the Shoah imposes on the instructors a sensitivity toward students and a responsibility to them and to their cognition and emotional well-being. Christian students, for example, are likely to experience a particular dissonance and even feelings of guilt. They are likely to question assumptions about the influence of Christianity in preparing the context and paving the way for the perpetration of the Holocaust. They have to face the history of the long tradition of Christian antiJudaism, “the teaching of contempt,” and are compelled to reconcile that history with genocide and with the teachings and actions, or inactions, of the Church. Secular and non-believing students are forced to confront the values of modernity that also provided a fertile soil for genocidal ideas and deeds. The role of Nazi doctors and scientists, as well as judges and academics along with their students, who were either actively complicit or actively indifferent, may undermine their faith in education and the professions as forces of civility and humanitarianism. Jewish students have to struggle with the realities of Jewish victimhood and reconcile that experience with their connections to Judaism as a religion of faith and future. A classroom environment and curriculum should be created that is open, non-judgmental, and safe and that encourages students to feel hopeful about the future.

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Based on these ultimate challenges and goals, I have attempted to incorporate introspective writing and service-learning components into the curriculum, asking the students to do extensive introspective writing that aims to help them find their own voices and to recognize how they might use their voices as a force for change and progress. In writing, perhaps more than in any other academic act, we are compelled to face the consequences of our words and to make ourselves vulnerable, known, exposed to those we write to. If, indeed, words have consequences, if words are the impetus for action, as the Holocaust powerfully confirms—all genocides begin with words—then we have the responsibility as writers to exercise care about the way we express ourselves on the page. Although students may feel at times overwhelmed by the weight of their own thoughts and narrative, I believe that writing instills a “healthy” sense of responsibility in students that the words they use have political, ethical, and cultural implications and they need to be aware of these implications when they express their thoughts. Writing is a fundamentally social act, a communication act, and an act that gestures outside of itself—however personal a given issue may seem to be. The study of the Holocaust should provide questions, should unsettle us. Reflective writing and interactive grappling with selected Holocaust texts are used to engage students in meaningful dialogue. They are encouraged to express their own experiences, ideas, and emotions concerning these texts with each other. As they respond to other students through spoken and written dialogue, they learn history and they learn about themselves. The hope is that their shared inquiry will enrich and enhance their understanding of what transpired, its importance, that it will raise questions and unsettle, and that it will encourage them to “brush history against the grain,” as Walter Benjamin advised. “Under Hitler,” philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas argued, “the Jews endured an ordeal that is without name, and cannot be placed in any sociological category. It is a lie to locate it within the series of natural causes and effects or to defer to ‘human sciences’ and seek to explain it by examining the thoughts and ‘readings’ of an Eichmann, . . . or the ‘structures’ of European society between the wars.”6 The statistics that social scientists invoke, the analyses that historians and psychologists apply, the methods that shape literary and philosophical investigations have the potential of transforming the event into something that it is not, something that can be studied and understood in conventional ways thereby rendering it more harmless and comfortable and distant. In order to make it present for students without numbing them and to reinforce the metadisciplinary nature of the study of the Shoah, I have incorporated service-learning projects into the curriculum as a capstone experience. Edward Zlotkowski, one of the national leaders of service-learning, argues that “it produces the best outcomes when meaningful service activi-


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ties are related to the course material through reflective activities such as directed writings, small group discussions, and class presentations.”7 After being exposed to the history and experiential realities of these horrific events, students often express the need to do “something,” to take what they have now learned and apply it to their lived realities, their communities, and their campus. They feel that knowledge, even understanding, without action is somehow inadequate in the face of what they are studying. They have become witnesses to atrocity, but they don’t want to be silent witnesses. They feel a moral obligation to pass their knowledge on, to tell someone, to effect some change. In that spirit, I have encouraged students to participate in a number of projects that may provide that outlet, that integration between what they are studying and how it can be applied to the world in which they live that is still characterized by genocidal tendencies. These projects have included working with middle school students in a local public school who are studying the Holocaust as a unit and reading Elie Wiesel’s Night. They pair up with these students, do a careful reading of the text together, share journal entries, work on a reflective paper, and help them prepare a creative project. They also have the option to work in the Holocaust Resource Center in Rochester doing a variety of research and academic tasks, as well as interacting with survivors of the Holocaust. Students are encouraged to design ways to share what they have learned about racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, discrimination, and so on, with the college community or with their religious communities in their home towns. They can also get involved with and organize on behalf of human rights and genocide awareness organizations such as the Save Darfur Coalition, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International. They can work on and plan the annual Yom Hashoah Holocaust Commemoration. They are encouraged to become active participants in the Genocide and Human Rights Symposium Committee on campus, planning events and speakers, raising funds and awareness, doing publicity, and so on. They are invited to join the March of Remembrance and Hope, an interfaith leadership study tour to Holocaust sites in Poland with the expectation that they will bring back to their communities insights derived from this extraordinary educational opportunity. And they can participate in the “adopt a survivor, surrogate survivor” program. This option pairs a student with a survivor of the Holocaust or other genocide who lives in the region. The student does extensive interviewing of the survivor, learning as much as possible about their lives and experiences. After many hours of interaction and contact, the student may feel qualified to become a “surrogate” survivor of sorts, an individual who is competent on some level to represent that survivor’s experiences to others in the future when the survivor is no longer able to do so. These service-learning options allow the student to appropriately channel their desire to put what they have learned into a form of action. It also helps

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them deal with the inevitable “compassion fatigue” that most students face at some point in the course. Accumulated accounts of genocide over a semester can create a condition of fatigue that leads to less integration of material and less engagement with the world, rather than more. Genocide is horrible, but presenting only the horror without giving the students a way to process that horror or a sense that there is something to be done can induce a kind of vicarious trauma or burnout. Service-learning experiences, I have found, energize rather than numb, embody the issues, vitalize them rather than objectify them, and provide the students with a richer intellectual experience as well as a sense of personal accomplishment and fulfillment. They can also help protect against the tendency that teaching about genocide can be potentially exploitative. Exposing students to genocidal tales of horror can play with students’ emotions in a manipulative fashion that can turn into a psychological or emotional exercise of power. Teaching itself can be about power and power relationships, if the instructor is not careful. This is especially true when the material is so emotionally charged and when students are particularly vulnerable. Empowering students is a wonderful way to diffuse this tendency. I encourage them to take what they have learned in the classroom and find ways to actualize it in their various communities. “No one can become what he cannot find in his memory.” Actions, deeds, and service help contextualize memory, help bring the ashes of history back to life in some small way, and help merge that memory into our consciousness.8 Maybe Moishe the Beadle was wrong, maybe we will listen, but only by doing, by following the ancient proclamation of the Israelites at Sinai during the Revelation—“we will do and then we will listen and understand.”

NOTES 1. Eli Wiesel, Night (New York: Hill and Wang, 2006), 7. 2. John K. Roth, Holocaust Politics (Louisville, KY: Westminster Knox Press, 2001), 38–39. 3. Jean Améry, At the Mind’s Limits: Contemplations by a Survivor on Auschwitz and Its Realities, trans. Sidney Rosenfeld and Stella P. Rosenfeld (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980), 19. 4. Omer Bartov, “An Idiot’s Tale: Memories and Histories of the Holocaust,” in Murder in Our Midst: The Holocaust, Industrial Killing, and Representation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 89. 5. Eli Wiesel, A Jew Today, trans. Marion Wiesel (New York: Random House, 1978), 197. 6. Emmanuel Lévinas, Difficult Freedom: Essays on Judaism, trans. Séan Hand (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), 129.


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7. Edward Zlotkowski, ed., Successful Service-Learning Programs: New Models of Excellence in Higher Education (Boston: Anker Pub. Co., 1998), xiv. 8. This essay was informed by the insights contained in Testimony, Tensions and Tikkun: Teaching the Holocaust in Colleges and Universities, which owes it origins to the Pastora Goldner Holocaust Symposium that I have been a participant in, as well as Teaching the Shoah in the Twenty-first Century.

5 Service-Learning and Public Policy Craig A. Rimmerman

[T]he ingenuity and idealism of the younger generations represent a potent resource for civic renewal. —Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community Today’s young adults are less politically interested and informed than any cohort of young people on record.

—Thomas Patterson, The Vanishing Voter: Public Involvement in an Age of Uncertainty

What does it mean to be a citizen in a country that calls itself a “democracy?” How does one take a charity model of helping, of service, that our students have been socialized into and know so well and inspire students to instead contemplate a more centrally focused political and policy model, one rooted in the language of social movements and participatory theories of democracy? In what ways does a service-learning course in a liberal arts institution provide a unique space for encouraging students to reflect on the real meaning of service for their lives as well as the lives of the members of the community with whom they interact? This chapter broaches these questions within the tensions represented by the above quotations and within the context of a 300-level public policy course—Social Policy and Community Activism. This analysis begins with several claims. Virtually all of the students who I teach in all of my courses have participated in some form of service after 71

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they have arrived at college. Very few of these same students have been involved in anything that we would remotely call politics: (1) political organizing in their communities; (2) working on a campaign; (3) going to a town meeting and participating at that meeting; and (4) working with others to develop or influence policies for the communities in which they live. When I ask my students on the first day of class if they have a good understanding of the American political system and the policy process that governs our lives, many of them readily admit to me that they know little about the larger political system in which they live. They have little sense of history, especially of various social movements that have been so important in serving as a catalyst for policy change on behalf of those at the margins of American society. And they generally think of politics merely in terms of the vote and cannot conceive of a more expansive vision of what it might mean to be a citizen. One of the central goals in all of my courses is to inspire students to think about what it means to be a citizen from a number of perspectives. What role do citizens play in the American policy process? What role should they play? The argument of this essay is that service-learning courses afford faculty and students a unique opportunity to explore these questions and issues related to democracy and public policy. In doing so, we integrate the model of critical education for citizenship as the underlying theme of the course.

CRITICAL EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP AND THE NEW CITIZENSHIP The critical education for citizenship model is at the basis for what I have called the New Citizenship. This model of education contains the following elements: (1) it should present the full critique of American democracy to the student; (2) it should allow students to see the importance of participating in public decisions; (3) it should ask educators and students to conceive of democracy broadly to include community discussions, community action, public service, and protest politics; (4) it should ask students to conceptualize participation very broadly to include workplace and community opportunities for participation; (5) it should encourage students to take into account the important relationship among gender, race, sexual orientation, and class concerns in the participatory process and to develop a respect for and understanding of difference; (6) it should place a discussion of democracy within its appropriate historical context by focusing on democratic movements, such as the African American civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, and the women’s movement; (7) it should ask students to confront their assumptions regarding power and leadership as well as the

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sources of such assumptions; (8) it should prepare students for their place in the world by affording them a chance to make an informed choice about what it is that they want to do with their lives and how they connect what they do with the communities where they live and work. How does the critical education for citizenship model connect to the New Citizenship? It is the foundation for a more expansive vision of the role that the citizenry plays in a society that purports to adhere to democratic goals. The New Citizenship is rooted in participatory democratic principles and emphasizes grassroots organizing, mobilization based on community building, cooperation, and alliance formation. It embraces unconventional politics when they are necessary to achieve public policy goals. It is reflected in the rise of citizen organizations at the grassroots and in the proliferation of college student organizations committed to economic, social, and environmental justice. It is reflected in the increased use of the Internet for political organizing across campus communities. Finally, the New Citizenship encompasses the commitment on college campuses to service-based learning. Service-based learning is a pedagogical method that combines student (and sometimes faculty) participation in the community with curriculum-based learning. It requires students to have an opportunity to build in time for students to reflect on their community experiences and to explore various elements of the New Citizenship. As the chapters in this volume suggest, it is also very much interdisciplinary in nature.

SOCIAL POLICY AND COMMUNITY ACTIVISM: COURSE OVERVIEW This is a course about social policy and community participation and activism; it is also a course about democracy, community, and difference. All students are required to be fully engaged in a semester-long community activism/service project. In addition, students are afforded an opportunity to reflect upon how their participation in the community influences their own lives, their perspectives on democracy, and their understanding of democratic citizenship. Several questions are at the core of the course: (1) What should the role of the citizenry be in the American political system and the American policy process? (2) Is it possible to construct a society that encourages people to asset their identities and celebrate their differences, while maintaining the community, stability, and civility of that society? Would we want to live in such a society? Why or why not? (3) What role should the federal government play in funding and overseeing social service programs at the local level? How might modern conservatives, modern liberals, and democratic socialists respond to that question? (4) How are all of these questions played out in Geneva, New York?

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In answering these questions, students consider their service/public policy work in the larger Geneva community. The course requires them to engage their service experience from at least two perspectives. First, Geneva itself is a community that represents, in many ways, the negative consequences of the deindustrialization of America. Students’ work in the community involves them, in many cases, with human beings who have been cornered by a very limited menu of social and economic choices. How they negotiate these interactions is a significant part of their service-learning experiences. Students are given the opportunity to do so within the context of a public-policy-focused course, one that interrogates education, welfare, health care, AIDS, and criminal justice policy from a number of perspectives through the course readings, discussions, films, and lecture materials. In addition, community members visit the course throughout the semester to share their diverse perspectives on the many challenging issues raised in the course. All of this is meant to complement and to enhance the work that students do in the community as the course unfolds. Second, the service/policy work that the student does within the context of the course (and any work that they have done before the course began or after it concludes) is, itself, a project in citizenship. The course asks students to connect their service-learning experiences with the nature of and challenges to democratic citizenship in our time. This component of servicelearning is an essential and quite important commitment in its own right. What does citizenship mean now? What ought it mean? How does it relate to various perspectives on justice, democracy, community, and difference? The service-learning model allows us to consider and possibly rethink these very basic and quite critical concepts by requiring students to engage various theoretical approaches to citizenship, including the democratic theory of elitism and participatory democracy. In addition, the service-learning model enables faculty and students to explore challenging issues of power and inequality as they are played out in the community at large as the policy process unfolds at the local level. A further course theme is the relationship between a privileged liberal arts campus, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and the surrounding Geneva, New York, community. Service-learning affords an excellent opportunity to explore this theme in all of its complexity. Throughout the course, students are asked to consider these questions: Just what is that relationship? And what should that relationship be? How might we achieve a more positive relationship? What are the barriers? How might the barriers be overcome? Various community members visit the class throughout the semester. The underlying rationale for bringing community members into the classroom is that we have much to learn from the Geneva community; and what better way to signal that commitment to learning than to break down the artificial barriers that colleges and universities often construct. If


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students are going out into the community as a required component of the course, then those same students should have an opportunity to hear from community members within the context of the classroom. For example, the local director of the Head Start program and the director of Family Services for that organization discuss the evolution of Head Start over time with particular attention to funding issues (and issues of federalism) in the Clinton/Bush years. What role should the federal government play in terms of funding, implementation, and oversight? How do Head Start administrators address the paucity of funding for their program initiatives? These are important public policy questions that students will have an opportunity to access first-hand, depending on the nature of their semester-long community project. One of the most interesting, moving, and inspiring moments in the course occurred when I asked the Head Start representatives to discuss how they maintain their commitment, energy, and positive spirit from year to year. One of the organization’s representatives responded by saying that she is “inspired every day by the people she interacts with, people who have so much stacked against them in life but who won’t allow that to defeat them.” In amplifying this point, she described one woman who walks many miles several times a week to visit the Head Start office even though she has physical disabilities. The administrative assistant to the Geneva Episcopal Church also visits the class to discuss the Neighbor’s Night Program, which she coordinates. Her visit is an important component of the course because her program represents the kind of faith-based initiative that President Bush has extolled as a part of his compassionate conservatism. Her contribution is also important because it nicely connects to Marvin Olasky’s book, Compassionate Conservatism, which is required reading for the course. What happens to those Geneva residents who need legal assistance but cannot afford proper legal representation? The executive director of the Legal Assistance of the Finger Lakes addresses that question when she visits the course. Some students who are enrolled in the course are interested in the intersection of community activism, public policy, and the law. This class session enables students to make appropriate connections across race and class divides. Hobart and William Smith Colleges president Mark Gearan visited the course to discuss his sense of the relationship between the colleges and the larger Geneva community with attention to how that relationship has developed over the course of his presidency and areas where improvement is also needed. President Gearan also brought his expertise as former chair of the National Campus Compact, as a member of the Partnership for Public Service, and as former Peace Corps director under President Clinton to the classroom. Dean of faculty and provost Teresa Amott visited the class, as well, to discuss some of the same themes but

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also made an invaluable contribution to the class by discussing her work as a welfare rights organizer in Boston in the late 1960s. Her presentation and discussion facilitation allowed students to make useful connections to Michael Katz’s book, The Price of Citizenship: Redefining the American Welfare State, which is required reading for the course. How does all of this relate to the course assignments? Students were required to participate in community fieldwork for at least two hours per week for the entire semester. Many of the students worked longer hours given their commitment and interests. Students are engaged in an array of community-based organizations, including literacy programs, the local food pantry, the Boys and Girls Club, the Geneva Family YMCA, Neighbor’s Night at the Episcopal Church, after-school tutoring, the Geneva community lunch program, the Geneva Housing Authority, and Legal Assistance of the Finger Lakes, among others. Our campus Office of Public Service placed students, offered an evening of orientation and training before they went into the field, provided field assessment and offered overall logistical support. A central component of the course is a required course journal. The idea behind the journal is that communication, experience, and critical reflection are crucial components of intellectual and ethical growth. In addition, I asked students to relate their twice-weekly journal entries to the public policy issues that we were discussing in class and, most importantly, the course readings. The journal is meant to provide opportunities for communication and reflection while also creating a community of learning within the course itself. The goal is for our students to write journal entries that enable them to reflect upon their field work in some detail so that they can see how their observations have changed as the course unfolds. There are opportunities throughout the course for students to offer substantive observations regarding their fieldwork in light of the course material. In this way, the students learn from one another and get a much richer understanding of the larger Geneva community. Another important course requirement is a major course research paper, one that examines a public policy issue from a number of perspectives, by providing an historical overview of their chosen issue, discussing past policy solutions, outlining where the issue stands now in the legislative process, and then proposing policy recommendations in light of their understanding of the American policy process by discussing possible barriers to their recommendations and how those barriers might be overcome. Students are required to integrate relevant course readings (as well as material presented by our guest speakers/discussion facilitators) and to engage in considerable outside research. They are also encouraged to integrate their community fieldwork to enhance their overall policy analysis.


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THE CRITIQUE OF SERVICE Many of those opposed to courses that require students to participate in community or public service believe that such service simply cannot possibly achieve all that it purports to achieve. For example, “community service is not a cure for young people’s political apathy,” because “it teaches us little about the arts of participation in public life.”1 In addition, it falls far short of providing the everyday connections to the political process that students must have. Furthermore, most courses that require community service fail to afford students the opportunity that they need “to work effectively toward solving society’s problems.”2 Other critics of service-based fieldwork lament the fact that most student participants avoid tackling larger policy questions and issues. In this sense, the participants often conceive of service as an alternative to politics. Indeed, service is often a way for participants to avoid talking about politics.3 Boyte points out, for example, that the language of community service is infused with the jargon of “helping” rather than “a vocabulary that draws attention to the public world that extends beyond personal lives and local communities.” Service volunteers rarely have the ability to grapple with the complex intersection of class, race, and power that is created when middleor upper-middle-class youths engage in projects in low-income areas. In the absence of “a conceptual framework that distinguishes between personal life and the public world, community service adopts the ‘therapeutic language’ that now pervades society.”4 It is this therapeutic approach that cannot begin to deal with the inequalities that structure the relationship between the so-called servers and the served. Boyte explains further that “the current emphasis of volunteerism ‘dumbs down’ citizenship by highlighting personal traits like caring and individual acts of kindness and eclipsing questions of power, collective action, the cultures and functioning of institutions, and larger systemic problems.”5 In the end, service activity is devoid of politics, and, therefore, it is a relatively empty way of tackling the complex structural issues that arise out of the conditions that prompt service activity in the first place. Some contend that it ultimately contributes to “the narrowing political role of American citizens.”6 Yet another set of criticisms raises questions about the relationship of the individual to the State. According to Eric Gorham, “Community service is an institutional means by which the State uses political discourse and ideology to reproduce a postindustrial capitalist economy in the name of good citizenship.”7 For Gorham and other critics, community service reinforces the worst form of clientelism and tacitly accepts the structural inequalities growing out of the limited American welfare state. It does so by largely working within the confines of the current system without always affording students the opportunity to critique that system in a fundamental way. It

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thus promotes an invidious form of authoritarianism. In addition, service assumes that all participants can afford to volunteer for little or no pay. Unfortunately, many students need one or two jobs merely to make ends meet while they pursue their undergraduate education. As a result, many are prevented from participating in service opportunities because of economic barriers. Gorham raises serious practical considerations that need to be addressed by proponents of any community service. To Gorham, these are the most important questions: 1. How well can the practice of national service fulfill its theoretical goals? 2. What does “inculcating civic education” mean in concrete terms? In what sense will national service offer opportunities for democracy, equality, and participation to those who serve? 3. Is the goal of citizenship appropriate to all people, regardless of their race or gender? 4. Does national service contribute to citizenship in any material way? 5. Furthermore, how should citizenship be nurtured? 6. Do the ideas of the planners of national service coincide with those of the philosophers who might view it as appropriate to their ends?8 Critics such as Eric Gorham point out that most proponents of service fail to ask these questions and, as a result, avoid discussing the kind of theoretical underpinnings that should be at the core of any courses that require students to participate in service activities. The libertarian perspective offers a final critique of national service programs. Libertarians—for example, Doug Bandow—point out that President Clinton’s national service proposal will ultimately lead to government coercion because all government service programs assume at their core that citizens are not responsible to one another, but are responsible to the State. In this way, the “volunteers” are actually coerced by the government to participate in service programs, thus losing their liberty and freedom. Bandow’s critique is particularly relevant to the present analysis because it raises interesting questions about whether students should be required to participate in any service experience as a part of a college course or courses.9

ONE RESPONSE TO THE CRITIQUE OF SERVICE In addressing the critique of service, I return to the course that underlies this chapter. One way to engage the critique is to inspire students to engage the


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arguments offered by those who criticize service-learning and to offer thoughtful responses in light of their own work in the community. Indeed, a service-learning public policy course affords many opportunities to do so. For example, one of the most important issues is to try to ascertain how the community perceives student fieldwork. And what does the community think of a service-learning requirement that ends once the course is over? Students invariably make important ties to human beings who come to count on their presence in their lives. This is always a difficult issue to negotiate and does not have easy answers, since it is built into the very nature of the relationship between the community and any college or university that offers service-learning courses. The key is to confront it head on and to ask students to write about it in light of their community participation. In addition, the Office of Public Service should work with the sites where students are placed to insure that the relationship is a positive one from the vantage point of the community. Another useful way to engage the critique of service-learning is to establish clear criteria at the outset for evaluating service-learning courses. Anne Colby, Thomas Ehrlich, Elizabeth Beaumont, and Jason Stephens pose these important evaluation questions: 1. Are the service-learning placements challenging (providing growth in important moral and civic skills)? 2. Are the students well prepared for the placements? 3. Do the field experiences contribute directly to the academic goals of the course? 4. Does the course have a structured reflection component that examines the issues addressed by the service in terms of systematic causes and policy responses as well as in interpersonal terms? 5. Do students use the reflection opportunities to think through their assumptions, values, and identities when appropriate as well as to focus on the substantive issues raised in the service experience? 6. Was the student participation effective from the point of view of the community partners?10 In addressing these questions and the critique of service, what students report as the course unfolds is crucial. The sources for this material are student observations in class, their course journal reflections, and their discussions with me in my office or in other campus settings. In its most successful moments, the course encourages students to develop the democratic imagination and personal commitments to be an active citizen. One compelling example of student growth involved a young female student working with a local food group that is responsible for distributing groceries to low-income individuals and families. She wrote in her journal

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about her intense feelings of guilt and her privileged position in society when compared to the plight of the people she worked with as a part of her service experience. She came from a middle-income family in New England, a family that embraced fairly progressive political positions and had keen sensitivities to the needs of others. Nevertheless, she experienced deep anxiety about her own feelings of social distance and privilege. Ultimately, however, she worked through these emotions to grapple coherently with issues of class, race, and difference within the context of her fieldwork. In doing so, she was discovering crucial elements of what it means to be a citizen. Another student worked at the local food pantry and had a transforming interaction there one morning. He reported in class discussion that a young man who shared his birthday (and was also the same age) came in to get food for his girlfriend and their two children. The student, who came from a privileged background, stared in the face of poverty like he had never seen it before. What he described in class to all of us made for a spellbinding listening experience, one that helped to set a context for issues regarding inequality and poverty that helped to frame the entire course. The student later wrote about this experience in his course journal by connecting it to larger analytical issues of poverty policy. What was particularly interesting about this journal entry was how he was able to situate his interaction in the community within the context of broader public policy course themes. Individual student experience varies among the service opportunities. Some students challenged their own value systems, whereas others had routine involvement with agencies. One young woman working with a women’s organization confronted issues of sexual abuse that resonated with her own personal experience. Her journal revealed deep reflection about the assigned readings, especially those that discussed the intersection between gender and poverty. Although her field experience was deeply personal, it was not so qualitatively different from the experiences of many of the other students. Most of them were able to relate their service work to issues of equity, justice, individualism, and community. For almost all of them, it was their first opportunity to frame their community work in a larger context of rigorous intellectual work and group reflection. Other students encountered firsthand some of the fundamental social barriers to ethnic and racial harmony within the Geneva community. Working with neighborhood improvement groups, they witnessed the underlying racial antagonism that surrounds such issues as providing program services to low-income people, usually Latino or African American. Over time, the depth of racial and class divisions became very real to them, and most students increase their determination to reduce these divisions. The ability of some of these students to grapple with race, class, and social justice con-


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cerns within the context of their service experiences is a positive reason for requiring service in appropriate college courses. In addition, most students witnessed first hand the pernicious consequences of funding cutbacks in the implementation of social programs such as Head Start. How do social service agencies and not-for-profit organizations cope with funding challenges and uncertainty? What do these cutbacks mean for the operation of the organization and the provision of services on a day-to-day basis? These are important public policy questions that students had an opportunity to engage in light of their fieldwork. They were also required to connect their observations about program funding and fiscal austerity to required course books that addressed HIV/AIDS policy, poverty policy, affirmative action, and economic policymaking. None of this could have been accomplished without the required service/fieldwork component of the course. At the same time, however, the course has suffered from some of the weaknesses identified by critics of service-learning. For example, some students were reluctant to relate the course reading and discussion materials to politics and the broader issues of democracy and citizenship. There are several possible explanations for their unwillingness to do so. First, it is possible that the faculty facilitator was not tough enough in encouraging the students to make the appropriate connections. Yet it is difficult to be forceful in a course that is rooted in participatory democratic principles. Second, there can be little doubt that most students have been socialized to accept the basic elements of American “democracy” without the questioning or critical self reflection that the course and the notion of critical education for citizenship requires. As a result, we should not be surprised that students are reluctant to engage in this important critical process. Third, as some critics have pointed out, it may well be that there is a flaw in the structure and nature of courses that require service to the extent that they fail to connect service appropriately to issues of democracy, politics, and citizenship, as Harry Boyte has suggested.11 Some students probably resisted discussing issues of democracy, politics, and citizenship because, in their minds, their service activities had little relevance or connection to these broader issues. In addition, some students may hold antidemocratic or elitist attitudes, views that make them fundamentally hostile to the participatory democratic vision. Finally, a few students were uncomfortable with the servicelearning model and the radical critique, one that allowed them to think of politics much more broadly in terms of community organizing, advocacy, and creating progressive social movements. I am also convinced that one course cannot possibly tackle issues of democracy, citizenship, diversity, and difference with the kind of depth and attention to detail that such important concerns deserve. A central question underlying the course is, how are democracy, citizenship, diversity, difference,

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and multiculturalism connected to or disconnected from one another? One cannot just assume that these connections will be readily apparent to all students. Participation in service-learning gives some students an opportunity to confront some of these concerns, but it is in the classroom that the task of making important connections must take place. One semester-long course cannot possibly do justice to the magnitude of the issues raised by servicelearning and the literature on democracy, citizenship, and service. What all this means is that students need to have opportunities to tackle important citizenship issues within the broader context of several different policy courses. To be sure, courses on citizenship are limited to the extent that they do not connect students directly with politics and the policymaking process. But that does not mean that such courses should be abolished. Indeed, we need more courses that allow students to think as public citizens, that link their classroom discussions with concerns in the larger society. At a time when students are socialized to think in highly private ways, they need opportunities to connect to the larger public sphere, where they will spend much of their lives. Faculty should build on the obvious commitment to public service that many students bring with them when they arrive on their campuses. Robert Putnam has pointed out: Young Americans in the 1990s displayed a commitment to volunteerism without parallel among their immediate predecessors. This development is the most promising sign of any that I have discovered that America might be on the cusp of a new period of civic renewal, especially if this youthful volunteerism persists into adulthood and begins to expand beyond individual caregiving to broader engagement with social and political issues.12

This commitment on the part of young people is clearly a source for optimism about the future. Courses in community politics, organizing, public policy, and service-based learning can build on this commitment by addressing the goals associated with the New Citizenship and by engaging students who are alienated from the political system at large. This is not easy work, but it is important and necessary work that lends itself well to education in a liberal arts setting.

NOTES 1. Harry C. Boyte, “Community Service and Civic Education,” Phi Beta Kappan, June 1991, 765. 2. Boyte, “Community Service and Civic Education,” 766. 3. Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding Politics: How Americans Produce Apathy in Everyday Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 61. 4. Boyte, “Community Service and Civic Education,” 766.


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5. “Public Work: An Interview with Harry Boyte,” Higher Education Exchange (Kettering Foundation, 2000), 43. 6. Matthew A. Crenson and Benjamin Ginsberg, Downsizing Democracy: How America Sidelined Its Citizens and Privatized Its Public (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 9. 7. Eric B. Gorham, National Service, Citizenship, and Political Education (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992), 1. 8. Gorham, National Service, Citizenship, and Political Education, 131. 9. See Doug Bandow, “National Service: Utopia Revisited,” Policy Analysis, March 15, 1993, 1–20. 10. Anne Colby, Thomas Ehrlich, Elizabeth Beaumont, and Jason Stephens, Educating Citizens: Preparing Undergraduates for Lives of Moral and Civic Responsibility (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003), 263–64. 11 See Boyte, “Community Service and Civic Education.” 12. Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000), 133.

6 America Reads as Service-Learning: A Stereophonic Report Kathleen Flowers and Charles Temple

A decade ago the America Reads Challenge set in motion President Clinton’s dream of sending a million college students into local schools to help at-risk children learn to read. The period of active promotion of America Reads by the federal government was brief—it was proposed in 1996, funded by Congress in 1997, and quietly set aside by the Bush administration in 2001.1 But that period coincided with a spurt of enthusiasm for service-learning projects in colleges and universities, for which the America Reads Challenge was a ready vehicle. Besides, the rules governing federal work-study funding continue to require colleges and universities to use 7 percent of their federal work-study funds2 to support students involved in community service projects, expressly including tutoring in literacy; so America Reads projects continue cheerfully along on many campuses, even if the cheering from the government has stopped. The literature on America Reads tends to run in three veins. Some of it looks at the program as a vehicle for service—even as a partial resumption of the War on Poverty, when the imaginations of large numbers of young people in America were captured by the ideal of alleviating the injustices suffered by the many Americans surviving on low incomes and low levels of education. Some of the literature addresses America Reads as an opportunity for students to reflect on citizenship, especially in the spirit of what Professor Craig Rimmerman calls the “New Citizenship.”3 Most of it deals with the practical side of taking students with little training and having them make a difference in young children’s literacy levels with just a few brief meetings each week. In this paper we will look at some issues that arise between the service, the learning, and the practical strands. One is the 85

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strong tension that comes between using voluntary social service as a vehicle for liberal arts learning on the one hand, and on the other hand doing justice to the social service—devoting the time and specialized training to prepare students to perform the service well. Second, we acknowledge that for a project like America Reads to thrive on a college campus, it must have success over time, which means it must have buy-in from students for more than the semester in which a service-learning course operates. And that means it must have a support staff who do countless things to make the project successful—things most professors of the service-learning courses might not be aware of. In the sections that follow, we will take turns talking about an America Reads project on a liberal arts campus—Kathleen from the point of view of the day-to-day manager of the project, working out of the Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning at the Colleges, and Charles speaking from the perspective as a professor who helped set up the project and has advised it over the years. The narrator of each section will be identified in a heading.

TEMPLE The education course on literacy that I teach has supported the America Reads Challenge from the beginning—as it had America Reads’s predecessors on campus. For twenty-five years the course has been flexible in its aims, since Hobart and William Smith Colleges had long ago “decoupled” our education courses from our teacher certification programs. Students who want to be certified learn to teach by teaching—and because our education courses are not required for students preparing for a profession, they are framed as liberal arts courses, free to look broadly and deeply at interesting and important topics in the area of education and open to any student on campus. For the first several years the literacy course allowed students many pathways to experience issues related to literacy. We read about emergent literacy, and some students went to explore that phenomenon in primary classrooms. We read literary theory, and some went into schools to conduct discussion groups. We read Paolo Freire on critical consciousness, and some students volunteered in a GED class downtown to see how literacy and consciousness interacted. When Jonathan Kozol’s Illiterate America (1986) began circulating, the emphasis of the literacy course changed. Kozol called for college students to go out into their communities to teach the 60 million American adults who cannot read. Soon after his book appeared, Professor Craig Rimmerman brought his political science students over with a question. They were reading Kozol and wanted to go into the community right away and teach adults

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to read. Where could we find some? I introduced them to Bird Stasz, a local adult education teacher. She invited the students to come along to her GED classes, and soon a hefty group of students had been recruited to do so. Shortly afterwards, the Student Literacy Corps Assistance Act was funded, our students heard of it and wrote a proposal, and in 1989 we received one of the first twenty-five grants in the nation. The grant brought Bird Stasz to work on campus, and students’ involvement in literacy work exploded. They did bilingual writing projects with parents in the Head Start center, they taught reading in the GED center, they taught GED classes in the county jail, they ran writing workshops in the battered women’s shelter. Bird and I began to team-teach the literacy class, which became more focused on the problems of illiterate adults, as well as the young people who were on their way to joining them. It is true that we had less time in the course for our more long-haired topics, but the students had a feeling of urgency about their mission, and so did we. After a run of only five years, the Student Literacy Corps was zero-funded in 1994.4 Our literacy activities continued, nevertheless. The dean’s office, which had become been vigorously promoting service-learning under an American Commitments grant from the AACU, supported the salary of a volunteer coordinator. Students’ activity in literacy continued at a high level. The literacy course began to focus on ways of intervening with at-risk young readers, and as part of the course the class spent two days each week tutoring young children in a local primary school. We still do. America Reads was passed into law by Congress in 1997 as a body without a head, because it potentially sent students out to tutor children with no guidance from teachers dedicated to supervising them.5 Knowledgeable educators had long argued that for volunteer tutoring programs to succeed, they have to be tightly structured in lessons that contain the proper selection of activities; and the lessons have to work with children at carefully graduated levels of difficulty.6 This combination of factors essentially requires that a skilled supervisor be on site with the tutors and children to assess the children’s needs, supervise the tutors, and keep the instruction going at the right pace and on the right level for each child. The Clinton administration had proposed that teachers be hired under the act to serve this purpose, but Congress refused to provide them. We brought America Reads to campus in 1996 and patterned our program on the Howard Street tutoring model, designed by Darrell Morris at Appalachian State University.7 Our program, like his, had a structured lesson that would be used by the tutors during each forty-minute session. The lesson called for the tutor to guide the child as she reads one short book on the easy side and another on the challenging side of her reading level; then conduct writing, word study, and spelling activities; then preview a book to

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read in the next lesson; and finally read aloud to the child. The specifics of the lesson are written on one side of a lesson plan form. On the other side of the form was space for the tutor to write down quickly how each activity went—whether that part of the lesson seemed to be above, below, or right at the student’s level of competence. Each tutor had a portfolio containing lesson plan forms, books on levels assigned for the child being tutored, and word cards for word study. Site supervisors packed the portfolios, based initially on information gained from assessing each child’s reading level with a short test, and later on the basis of the tutor’s reports. Also, site supervisors were present while the tutoring was going on and would make suggestions for the lessons. But how would the site supervisors be trained? That brings us back to my literacy course. We could obviously use a cadre of students on campus who knew something about how children learn how to read. Ideally, they would become site supervisors for America Reads. The literacy course thus tightened its focus even further. Now, while the students still read much of the theoretical work about the linguistic, anthropological, and literary theoretical underpinnings of literacy, they read a lot more about assessment and teaching. Moreover, now the whole class became involved in tutoring. The class meets for three periods each week for a semester. After giving three weeks to orient students to the issues of the course and preparing to assess and tutor (mostly preparing to assess and tutor their children), the students and I begin going out to a local elementary school for two periods every week, meeting one normal class and one lab period on campus to conduct other course business. Out in the school, pairs of students work with one child, taking turns teaching and taking notes. I am free to move from table to table, supervising the assessment and the teaching, and collecting examples that can be discussed in a later class. Students keep journals, in which they record what happened when they tutored, and relate those experiences to the readings and class discussions. They write an extensive case study of the child they were working with, and they also write a term paper about some aspect of literacy that interested them. In the course of the term, the students learn how to administer and interpret several literacy assessment devices and also how to apply teaching methods for fluency, comprehension, and word recognition and writing. Several of them become long-term volunteers with America Reads, meaning that they may be site supervisors or are available to give advice to the student tutors.

FLOWERS The America Reads program is the most extensive opportunity for HWS students to participate in consistent service. It is housed in The Center for


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Community Engagement and Service-Learning, hereafter referred to as “The Center.” Approximately seventy-two tutors work with sixty-six children at six local schools two or three times per week for ten weeks each semester. The center’s staff, through service opportunities and related reflection, seek to meet students where they are developmentally in reference to their understanding of the definition of community service and help move them along a continuum of comprehension toward civic engagement, then civicleadership, and ultimately engaged citizenship. America Reads tutors are tasked with the challenge of thoughtfully addressing a major problem facing our community’s children and feel compelled to act. They utilize (limited) training in conjunction with classroom discussion to think critically about why some children arrive ill prepared to succeed in school and what they, as compassionate and capable college students, can do to help. We consider tutoring an example of the second stage of the continuum, “civic engagement.” The program would not function without the strong leadership of veteran tutors, known as coordinators. The coordinators facilitate each session and serve as role models to both the children and tutors; coordinators are living examples of “civic leadership.” The final stage in the continuum will ideally occur during the lifetime of our graduates. As “engaged citizens,” former tutors will be able to synthesize the knowledge acquired from training, related course work, and reflection to commit to a life of social justice. The majority of students who apply to become tutors are those that have federal work-study as part of their financial aid package. They receive minimum wage for their efforts to engage local children as the tutor and child work together to improve the child’s reading abilities and confidence. The tutors represent all academic majors and class years, although not surprisingly many hail from the humanities field. In addition to new tutors, there are numerous “veteran” tutors at each site since many students return to America Reads. Each site has one exceptional veteran tutor, known as the coordinator, who is responsible for the facilitation of each session. A positive trend at HWS Colleges has been for nonfederal work-study students to apply to become tutors (allocation and amount of federal work-study is based on financial need demonstrated by the student during the financial aid process). These students are considered “volunteer” tutors since they aren’t eligible to be paid. The expectations held of them are no different than their peers who receive a biweekly pay check in their mailbox. A challenge that I face regarding volunteer tutors is how to best recognize and appreciate their efforts since they aren’t eligible for compensation. More children receive tutoring support at no budgetary impact when volunteers are hired, but I have concerns that to distinguish their participation in the program above from that of their (paid) peers might reveal information that they would prefer not to disclose. Lastly, a small number of tutors receive service-learning credit as they are able

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and encouraged to utilize the America Reads program to meet the thirty-hour requirement for a class. To summarize, we’ve learned that tutors share many interests, which include their desire to invest in learning about Geneva beyond the campus limits and an idealistic “can do” attitude when it comes to the task at hand. They draw from positive interactions with teachers and mentors and seek to duplicate that in the relationships they form with their tutees. We recruit students who have financial need and pay them an hourly rate but strive to include volunteer tutors in the program. We hope that tutors are able to utilize their experience in conjunction with a service-learning class because we know they’ll likely gain a deeper understanding of the issues related to economics, race, and the subsequent challenges to succeed in school. Although the America Reads Challenge has a relatively simple mission, “for all children to read well and independently by third grade,” our center has lofty expectations. We hope to assist teachers by increasing the reading skills of the children they send us and we strive to generate civically engaged student leaders (archives).

TEMPLE America Reads is perhaps above all an opportunity for students to serve their community. As service-learning advocates like to remind us, colleges and universities acknowledge that obligation right in our charters; indeed, the expectation that our institutions will serve the communities in which we are located is a major reason private colleges are tax exempt. Sociologist George Farkas developed a literacy tutoring program that partly inspired the America Reads Challenge,8 and he is a good example of someone interested in America Reads because he values the service. Farkas sees tutoring projects like America Reads as an opportunity to help low-income children who desperately need this help, and he urges the academy in general and sociologists in particular to mobilize their students to the cause of helping lowincome children close the literacy gap. That is a worthy goal in its own right, he argues, because “[t]he continued existence of . . . disadvantage in one of the world’s richest and most powerful nations, which began a War on Poverty more than thirty years ago, is . . . scandalous.”9 Farkas does not see the benefits to the students to be the main point of their participation in community service programs like America Reads: Service-learning has been springing up on college campuses around the country. In two regards, however, these activities often resemble the poorly-designed training efforts of education and social work schools. First, the preparation of students in these courses often gives too little attention to the technical de-


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mands of training them to deliver worthwhile service. And second, the assistance given these students to learn from the experience, and thereby increase their and our store of knowledge, is too unscientific in its approach to data and evidence to produce knowledge of much value.10

For Farkas the big problem in service-learning as the basis for fielding tutoring programs like Americas Reads is that it results in minimal and, to his thinking, inadequate training for tutors to teach. He makes a good point, and it has two parts to it. One is that teaching reading well does require that someone know more than a little about the learning processes involved in literacy and best practices in teaching. Literacy is the most intensely studied topic in the field of education, and there is room for suspicion that whoever contemplated sending a million untrained college students out to teach reading may have underestimated the complexity of the task. The other aspect of Farkas’s complaint is that the reflection piece in a servicelearning course will take up valuable time that would be better spent training students to teach reading, which in Farkas’s view is a misallocation of time because the reflection work will not be done effectively anyway. In the literacy course I experience a similar tension in our teaching, too, in the extensive need to train students to be effective tutors. My problem in this area is different, though. I am capable of training students to tutor children in reading because I have a background in that area. But how much time should the students spend in class learning to be tutors? The course on literacy is a broadly based liberal arts course and not a training program. I am reluctant to turn it into an intensive training program in literacy—partly because there are many other issues I want the class to discuss in the course, but still more because on a liberal arts campus we don’t present only one way to do things, but rather encourage the students’ originality as thinkers and problem solvers.11

FLOWERS In concert with the ideal of a liberal arts experience, we provide the tutors with information and training, and we encourage them to use their creativity as they work to address the problem in our community of children who aren’t able to read at the appropriate grade level. I’d like not to make Farkas’s case that the tutors are inadequately prepared to make a significant difference to the child or make noteworthy gains in their own learning, but I can certainly appreciate that his concerns are sometimes well founded. The next few paragraphs outline in detail the training that the tutors receive, and sprinkled throughout are anecdotes taken from anonymous end-ofsemester tutor evaluations. During the three trainings that occur prior to the

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arrival of the first child, we discuss how a child’s socioeconomic status and race will impact his or her educational experience, and then we train each tutor on how to confront their tutee’s reading difficulties through utilization of the lesson plans. They don’t always apply the information the way we anticipate, but as noted below many creative solutions have arisen from tutors’ suggestions and resourcefulness. Tutors receive training to prepare them for what to do in each America Reads session and are made aware of resources available that they will (ideally) utilize to engage the tutee and keep behavioral issues at bay. During the initial training for new tutors I facilitate a variety of “ice breakers,” which include having a tutor recall a favorite childhood story, remember an event from the year on a coin drawn from a hat (coins are of course pre-selected to correspond with dates the tutors were in elementary school!) or remember a mentor or role model and the subsequent impact. These activities serve the initial purpose of getting to know names and faces of new peers, but they also help the tutor realize that the special bond formed between a caring adult often has an impact that is remembered long after the last encounter. The same training includes an interactive PowerPoint presentation that is largely a summary of Intervening for Literacy: The Joy of Reading to Young Children.12 Tutors aren’t surprised to hear information that supports what they can already infer, that children who have a strong vocabulary from being read to have an easier time acquiring additional knowledge to be successful in school when compared to peers from under-supportive literacy environments. They learn about how and why early and consistent involvement of caring parents, teachers, and tutors is so important to a child’s ultimate success; and they become versed in the probable outcome should caring adults not intervene. What the tutors don’t anticipate, though, are the huge obstacles that stand in a child’s way of proficient reading and learning success. The compelling statistics that describe the actual number of words that children from wealthy families are exposed to per hour when compared to children from poor families is both surprising and unsettling. Equally unexpected from the tutors are the realities of risk factors that are associated with reading success. “What do you mean children from racially segregated schools [will likely struggle with reading], we don’t have ‘segregated’ schools in America!” Since the reality of many of the tutors entailed rural or suburban public and predominantly white public or private schools, it’s difficult to fully grasp that race and ethnicity will largely dictate a child’s trajectory for school success. New tutors also learn how a “typical” America Reads session is organized, strategies to utilize during sessions, and reading and writing activities to do when the child finishes three books. Each session starts with reviewing a book from the previous session, reading a new book, and previewing a


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book for the next session. The strategy is not difficult to understand, repetition of a book breeds confidence (“Wow, you struggled with the words ‘neighborhood’ and ‘tricycle’ last session, and you just breezed right by them today!”), exposure to a new story provides an opportunity to acquire vocabulary (“sound it out; what sound does a ph make?”), and previewing a book is a fun way to get the child to be creative and lay the groundwork for future comprehension (“on this ‘picture walk’ don’t worry about the words yet; by looking at the illustrations, what do you think will happen?”). Additionally, they receive a “quiz” as prior instructions asked them to log on to the America Reads Blackboard site. Embedded in the links for activities, articles, and websites are logos for candy bars and local restaurants. It’s my (overly idealistic?) hope that while searching for the “Subway” logo, they’ll stop to see how many colleges and universities across the county host America Reads programs, or skim articles that explain why “fluency” and “phonemic awareness” are important to fledgling readers. Tutors print out the logo to prove that they were on the site and receive a corresponding prize. An extra prize goes to the tutor that found Maslow’s hierarchy of needs triangle and can explain what self-actualization has to do with America Reads. Most explanations will do, but variations of the “wet mitten syndrome,” which portrays the child with wet socks or mittens, will have a tough time acquiring new language and reading confidence if they are distracted. Finally, they are taught that how you read with a child is equally important to what you read with the child. “Scaffolding,” the term used to describe how a tutor and child read together (“I read this sentence and you read the next”) and the value of open-ended questions are discussed. Interactive reading is something that occurred naturally in many of the tutors’ childhoods, and they learn why asking a child how they would choose to end the story if they were the author is more important than they ever realized. We don’t delve into Leo Vygotsky’s “zone of proximal development,” but we do discuss briefly that reading books that are just challenging enough is the main objective of each session. The first training of the semester for “veteran” tutors includes a more indepth session with education professor Charlie Temple. Charlie goes farther into depth about how to teach to build fluency and comprehension. We discuss why a child’s ability to read smoothly and comprehend what was just read is of utmost importance to the child as it relates to the current testing standards under “No Child Left Behind.” The veteran tutors read passages from actual tests and uncover inherent biases and discuss the usefulness and futility of frequent testing in early grades. The veterans ask the professor specific questions that arose from previous encounters with their tutee. The responses to the challenges help all veterans become more prepared to have productive sessions and more confident in their abilities to positively affect the lives of the tutees.

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The second training for all tutors is held jointly in the newly formed groups that are the team of tutors for each of the six sites. The coordinator has an agenda to follow so that each cohort of tutors is exposed to similar material. There is room, however, for the coordinator to adjust to his or her preferences, including ice breakers and site-specific information, and advice passed along by the veteran tutors in each group. These meetings are held at the Geneva Public Library in the fall semester so that all tutors can obtain a library card. The children’s room at the library is stocked with a wonderful assortment of children’s books in English and Spanish, as well as other resources available to the tutors. The ideal is that after the tutor uncovers the tutee’s interests, he or she will use the newly acquired library card to augment books selected by the coordinator from the center’s “book nook.” The “book nook” has a small collection of children’s books, and as previously mentioned the coordinator packs a folder of three books for each child for each session. However, some tutors often comment that the child doesn’t like to reread books, “sometimes I felt my tutee was a little bored by the monotonous cycle of rereading books from the previous session. Group exercises like BINGO were a fun way to break the cycle.” The remarkable tutors are the ones that supplement each session with books from the Geneva Public Library that correspond to the child’s interests and reading level; predictably these tutors tend to have less behavioral management issues than the tutors that don’t utilize additional resources to enhance each session. However, I can’t necessarily fault tutors for not using the public library or America Reads Blackboard site because I can’t pay them for the additional investment of their time. The third and final training that tutors receive before their first day occurs on site with the principal or assistant principal and the teachers that will be sending children to the program. Teachers will advocate for the children who don’t receive much support at home to join the program. These teachers know first hand what the research tells us; when a child’s home life includes stories at bed-time selected from a personal “library” of books, that child will have an easier time achieving at school when compared to peers that don’t have similar home environments. The best onsite orientation I’ve seen is at the school where the teachers are visibly excited to meet their students’ new tutors. They bounce into the library or cafeteria and describe previous examples of progress made from past tutor/child pairings and jest with each other “I deserve more tutors this year!” They share stories of how many parents specifically request that their son or daughter is enrolled in America Reads because of a sibling or neighbor that had participated. Next, the teacher holds up a headshot of each child and describes the child’s personality, reading struggles, and corresponding reading level so that the coordinator can select books accordingly.


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The teacher describes the ideal tutor, for example, “Jake doesn’t have a dad in the picture and his first language is Spanish, so a positive male role model who speaks even a little Spanish would be great.” A Hobart student will inevitably raise his hand and say “I’d like to work with him” and the teacher and tutor meet separately to more fully discuss plans for young Jake and share contact information should there be questions or problems.

TEMPLE The literature about service-learning courses often speaks of the benefits to college students’ civic consciousness, their political awareness, and their empathy and problem-solving skills. Considering America Reads on one West Virginia campus as a service-learning experiment, for example, political scientists Hunter and Brisbin13 described the effects of participation as tutors on the college students’ civic knowledge and disposition toward engagement. They found that service by itself did a little to move students along this dimension, but most of the effects were felt if the professor hammered these points home: Volunteer service activities appear to raise students’ assessments of the values of paying attention to politics, racial diversity, and community responsibility for addressing problems like poverty and hunger. Service apparently has some value for increasing political knowledge and fostering civic responsibility. Specific attention by the instructor to the explanation of political meaning and interpretation of experiences should sharpen the students’ appreciation of their service experience. To the extent that faculty incorporate discussions of civic responsibility and democracy into these service-learning courses, it is likely that student understanding of these concepts will be enhanced.14

In my literacy course, the reflection pieces assigned have to do with literacy—how children learn to read, what the assessments show, the relations between what emerges from an assessment and what students observe when they are working with a child every other day, and how all this compares with what they have studied about the interactions of things like phonemic awareness, orthographic knowledge, schemata, fluency, and motivation. In the meetings students have in the America Reads program, a few other issues come up.

FLOWERS In an ideal world where resources and time were limitless, we’d have sufficient opportunity to delve into the complexities involved with how to teach

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a child to read as well as the devastating impact that illiteracy has on families and society. We’d discuss current policy and brainstorm new ideas with corresponding budgets that we’d send to our congressmen and congresswomen for contemplation. All the while we’d be able to pay tutors for each hour they invested preparing for the sessions in addition to the time spent actually tutoring. Alas, we have limited federal work-study funds that curtail the training we’d like to provide as well as the number of students we could send. In addition to the two or three weekly tutoring sessions, the federal work-study budget enables us approximately three hours of training for each tutor prior to sessions, one hour per tutor during the semester to problem-solve, and one hour per tutor at the conclusion of each semester to reflect. After the three pre-session trainings, a separate one for new and veteran tutors, a combined meeting when the tutors meet as a team, and the third meeting held on site to tour the school and meet teachers and the administrator, is it possible that tutors are adequately prepared to start working one-on-one with a child? They certainly know what they are supposed to do, but when the ideal of the session meets the reality of a challenging child, I struggle to adequately prepare all tutors for the situations that inevitably occur when the child is distracted, uncooperative, or disinterested in reading. The children have a wide variety of issues that they bring to each session, including feelings of incompetence, anxiety from watching rated “R” movies, an incarcerated parent; the list could go on indefinitely, and it is difficult for tutors to anticipate these issues and know how to respond appropriately. One tutor noted that “it was frustrating to see that Quincey would come to sessions hungry and exhausted, no one can think about reading when all they want is breakfast.” Another tutor questioned the balance between being a tutor with a reading agenda to accomplish and a caring adult to provide reassurance, “my tutee had many problems at home and I wasn’t always sure how to handle that, do I sacrifice reading time to listen?” A further example involves a tutor that was very concerned about his tutee’s well-being; “It was clear that Anthony had a lot of issues going on at home. I knew that he wasn’t encouraged to read, that his parents were going through a brutal divorce, and that his after school life basically consisted of watching television. I know it was nothing I could control however it was so frustrating to see him not get the help he needed.” During difficult situations, I hope that the tutor knows to reach out to me, the site coordinator, professors in the education department, the child’s teacher, or Blackboard. Certainly, the few tutors that are enrolled in servicelearning psychology, education, and public-policy courses are able to draw from rich in-class discussion and service outside the classroom. They are more prepared to view these challenges in the complicated context of a


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struggling child in an unsupportive family and school environment when compared to their peers that aren’t enrolled in such classes. This is the reflection from a tutor’s end-of-semester evaluation: “I felt like I was really helpless in a lot of situations, the students were sometimes out of control. When Rucianno refused to wear his glasses, I didn’t really know what to do to encourage him [everything I was saying was ineffective]. When Rucciano didn’t progress very far [just two levels] I was a little disappointed I wasn’t able to help him more. It’s really hard to build internal motivation.” A tutor noted that her tutee didn’t like to read so he didn’t like America Reads. Another tutor commented “my kid hardly ever wanted to read and came in each session already defeated; sometimes she would refuse to read altogether and would get easily frustrated.” Overall, it seems that new tutors are adequately prepared to start tutoring when the child is happy, but they struggle to thwart behavioral issues if and when they arise. Veteran tutors are noticeably more confident with their tutoring and behavioral management skills. Each semester, the tutors that return express a deeper respect for the role that caring parents, teachers, and mentors play in a child’s life and realize the power of positive influence. The tutors realize that they have become the advocates that many of them were lucky to have throughout their childhoods, and equally important they understand the devastating impact that can result when no one is there to support a child. Both new and veteran tutors show surprise at how quickly bonds are formed; one tutor noted how flattered he was when his tutee started to dress like him, “[he] showed up for sessions in khaki colored pants and a polo shirt.” Another tutor noted that she “was surprised . . . that [my tutee] really seemed to enjoy spending time with me.”

TEMPLE Within the education field, much of the literature on America Reads has focused on practical issues surrounding tutoring children in literacy. The question of literacy is of huge importance, as Farkas correctly declared. The National Assessment of Educational Progress15 showed that 40 percent of American fourth graders could not read with basic competence. For African American and Latino children the figure was over 60 percent. The National Adult Literacy Survey16 found the same percentages of adults reading poorly—and showed that people’s income and other quality-of-life factors (like having a good job, and staying off welfare and out of jail) marched precisely in step with their literacy levels. The adult literacy survey extensively tested 26,000 adults over the age of sixteen. A fourth of them could barely make sense of any printed language. Half of them could not intelligently distinguish between one-page descriptions of automobiles—or,

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presumably, of political candidates or retirement plans. Moreover, this study found that the people with the least ability to read, write, and calculate did not see that as a problem. (We will return to this later.) The findings of both these studies are shocking. What should be done? One clue is that reading problems have roots in early childhood. Hart and Risley17 showed four-fold differences in the language experience of poor people’s and professional people’s preschool children. Learning to read is easier for children who have more vocabulary, more background knowledge, and more metalinguistic awareness—awareness of language itself. It is also easier for children who have had early and continuing exposure to printed language.18 Some children are woefully behind others in these things when they enter first grade. Twenty years ago, schools were not likely to offer the necessary help to children who came to school under-prepared. When Connie Juel identified the bottom 10 percent of the readers in the fourth grade of one school, most of them—86 percent—were still at the bottom four years later, but by then their deficits were far more serious than they had been earlier.19 Keith Stanovich20 showed how risk factors—and success factors—compounded on each other, according to what he called “Matthew Effects,” after the Gospel according to St. Matthew (25:29).21 Fortunately, the experience of some tutoring programs showed that it is possible to intervene with first-grade children who show signs of reading failure and teach them what they need to know in order to learn adequately thereafter, right along with their classmates.22 But these tutoring interventions are normally quite expensive. The most widely used model of early intervention, Reading Recovery,23 requires that a specially trained professional teacher work one-on-one every day for some forty-five minutes with each, and that teacher typically works with only eight students in a year. The cost of professional tutoring programs leads people to ask if college student volunteers could achieve some of the same benefits. Research has shown that the student volunteers can indeed be successful.24 Fitzgerald,25 for instance, showed that children tutored by college students at the University of North Carolina gained one-and-a-half year’s growth in reading in six months of tutoring. With a good quality design and strategies to keep the instruction focused on things children need to know and at the proper levels of challenge, volunteer tutoring programs can help young children overcome reading failure, and do so at a fraction of the cost of the professional programs. This is why we are talking about America Reads. The close relationship between the literacy course and the America Reads program has worked well from many points of view. There is a strong connection between theory and practice in the literacy course. Just about every topic we discuss in the course is illuminated by the students’ practice in their tutoring. It is natural to extrapolate beyond our tutoring experience to


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other issues. For instance, we read a fair amount about the importance of literacy, about the connection between literacy and consciousness, and about attempts to improve literacy rates both in the United States and around the world. One thing that comes home to my students right away is how hard this work is. Even when the desirable supports are present in a child’s life, many children struggle to make progress in learning to read. What must the situation be like in parts of the world where children’s parents don’t read, where there are eighty first graders in a class, one textbook for every ten children, and no library? We sometimes go and see. In my life outside of college teaching I work extensively in literacy projects in Central Europe, the Caucasus, Central and South America, and East and West Africa. Three times in recent years students have come along, two to Tanzania and one to Argentina. But students wonder about the international situation with literacy because they often go overseas on their own, through the term abroad programs that go to thirty countries, many of them developing countries where they can visit schools and literacy projects.

FLOWERS In an attempt to join theory and practice, we hire one student annually to serve in a dual capacity of both site coordinator and “literacy office assistant.” The student is hired because of previously demonstrated exceptional work as a creative and engaged tutor as well as leadership potential. The position is so important to the success of the program, so we always recruit from the list of students that have taken Charlie’s class. We know that the experience in the class will prepare them to understand the challenges and opportunities inherent in pairing tutors that will receive just three hours of training with children that are reading below grade level. To provide additional support, the student is sent to the Student Coalition for Action in Literacy Education (SCALE) conference sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill or encouraged to partake in an equivalent professional development opportunity. Rachel Sumner, office assistant during the 2005–2006 academic year, commented about her experience at the SCALE conference: “I learned about the ‘Matthew effects’ in previous America Reads trainings, and I saw firsthand how success begets success (as well as the reverse) when I tutored. However, attending workshops at the SCALE conference made me realize how pervasive and devastating the problem of illiteracy in America is as well as how extensive the efforts are to address it. It was both overwhelming and energizing to witness. I have acquired subsequent internship experience and set future career goals with these experiences in mind.” Rachel

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interned at D.C.-based non-profit “First Book” last summer and plans to apply to “Teach for America” upon graduation in May 2008. The literacy office assistant creates activities for the tutors to complete with the children each week. The position often serves as an “assistant coach” and hears firsthand what the “head coach” might not. The range of feedback, both informally conveyed or formally posted to Blackboard, serves as a good indicator for how the tutors and tutees are progressing. An indirect benefit of the America Reads program occurs when engaged and thoughtful tutors become friends and allies. I believe that participation in America Reads, and similar extracurricular activities, serve as a positive retention tool. These are excepts from the evaluations, Blackboard, and anecdotes that either the literacy office assistants or I have heard in the past three years: “I love the America Reads program. I think it has taught me a lot and I love being able to help kids,” “working with my kid usually brightened my day,” “AR was a refreshing break from school work and sports,” “I think that AR is one of the best programs at the colleges, what it does for students (both tutors and tutees) is amazing.” Perhaps disconcerting, although not astonishing, are the following comments: “Sometimes it was the only reason I got out of bed in the morning” “I think I would have transferred if I hadn’t found this program.” Tutors create Facebook groups and buy America Reads t-shirts; it’s clear that they are proud of what they do, and they want to belong to a larger group of people who care about children, literacy, and service.

TEMPLE The literacy course supports a program that does a lot of good for young people in our city of Geneva. Most years, it is said that between our America Reads program and the special reading services the schools provide, we are reaching every child or nearly every child in the first three grades who needs a tutor. People sometimes stop me on the street to speak of the difference a tutor has made in a child’s school life. The America Reads program has led to career paths for many of our students, either into the teaching field, or through the Peace Corps, or through publishing, or through other kinds of community service work. Still, there are issues, cautions, that must be pointed out. The America Reads program has thrived, it is true, but that success has depended very heavily on the excellent day-to-day support it has enjoyed from dedicated supervisors and a committed group of student leaders and student tutors. Our America Reads and similar projects have had tireless and excellent leadership over the years, first from Matt Adams, Dave Mapstone, Karen Wiszniewski, Jenna Logue, and now from Katie Flowers. Good projects don’t run themselves.


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If a tutoring project in literacy is to be successful, so the experts tell us, the tutors must do the right thing, just about every hour they are with their children. That means their efforts must be fairly closely prescribed by a knowledgeable teacher. Too much inventiveness on an untrained tutor’s part is not likely to be beneficial for the child being tutored; this time is precious, and we owe it to the children to use it as best we can. Yet it is surely true that the tutors must have some leeway to be creative— first because their motivation requires that they be in control, and second because they often do have better ideas about what will work with this child at this time than a professor at some remove. Maintaining the balance between a responsible level of professional direction and room for the tutor’s creativity is critical and difficult.

FLOWERS I am constantly amazed at tutors’ thoughtful suggestions and creative solutions for improving the sessions. A few years ago, tutors would play “hangman” with the children when the three books were completed. A tutor told me about an uncomfortable conversation he had with a child when asked what a “noose” was while playing the game. We agreed that “hangman” was not the best activity tutors and children should play when taking into account all of the other resources available, and together we created a new version of the last resort game where a smiley face would be created instead. Additional changes to the program include the group training at the Geneva Public Library, which is a result of a coordinator suggestion. Tutors often send me links to wonderful websites they’ve found and want me to post on Blackboard so that others might benefit. They create games like the “folding fortune teller” to practice vocabulary and bring in flash cards, Mad-Libs, jokes, and riddles. One tutor, who took note of his tutee’s obsession with skate boards, would have the child call his friend who was a professional skate boarder to tell him about the books they read that day. The best tutors go to great lengths to make each session a positive and productive experience for the child and realize in hindsight that they too learned something on the journey. They have “aha” moments like the children, evident with the tutor that realized “I couldn’t make him learn. This semester taught me to let go of that a little, as long as I work my hardest as a tutor, I just have to hope for the best.” They learn to laugh along the way, like the tutor that fondly recalls that his tutee said he didn’t know how to spell “Supercalafragalisticexpialadotious” because he didn’t speak Spanish. Another tutor commented that “my tutee would make all sorts of sounds when she was reading. Just like meows and other animal noises, but the funniest by far was her goat impression.”

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TEMPLE In order for the literacy course to serve the America Reads program well— and also to be prepared for the tutoring the students do in the class—we have had to devote much class time to teaching and assessment matters, and we have devoted less time to other topics (Patrick Collins is addressing the same issue in his chapter in this volume). I believe the trade-off is worth it, but it is a trade-off that should be acknowledged. For example, during the three weeks before we go out into the schools for the first time, the class is working almost full time on reading assessment—not on assessment of learning in general, but on how to do this assessment. On those items that have to be covered in exact detail—because the students are working with a live kid, and it is imperative that they know what they are doing—I try to relate the specifics to larger issues, through readings, class discussions, and reflective journals. But there is never enough time to do this adequately. Finally, as a policy issue, it strikes me as odd that the federal government has lost faith in the power of college students to serve as volunteer tutors and that few people have commented on that. In the debates over the America Reads legislation in 1997, conservatives in Congress wanted for-profit companies rather than volunteering college students to offer supplemental teaching to children who needed it. Their wish was eventually written into the No Child Left Behind legislation that became law in 2002.26 Many of the consequences of this law are only now being felt, as schools that are deemed to be failing are facing federally mandated sanctions. Parents of children in those schools are entitled to ask for their child to be moved to a better-performing one, or else to receive supplemental educational services—that is, tutoring. It is still early to tell how successful the tutoring efforts will be. But two observations can be made. First, a great many of these service providers are commercial companies, along with faith-based groups, Boys and Girls Clubs, and a few non-failing schools. But very few are programs staffed by volunteer college students.27 The second is that not many parents are availing themselves of these services. A report on supplemental educational services recently released by the Rand Corporation showed that even for children who were performing well below grade level and were eligible for services by virtue of attending under-achieving schools, only one family in eight requested the services. (This low rate of participation should not completely surprise anyone who has read the National Adult Literacy Survey.) It is tempting to compare those figures with the anecdotal estimates from our America Reads project: virtually all of the students in the first three grades in our town who need a tutor get one—and they get it because the child’s teacher asks for it.


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FLOWERS Is it a sign of success or failure that each of our six program partners have all requested additional tutors? We worry that we fall short in our commitment to each tutor and child because the ideal of the America Reads Challenge can’t get beyond the reality of a “body [operating] without a head,” and the on-campus training cannot make up for the lack of on-site supervision. We worry that we have not done all we could, because budget limitations entitle each school to receive only twelve tutors even though there exists far more interest on behalf of the college students. On the positive side, it’s a sign of success because the tutors gain an understanding of the problems facing elementary school students and get a “sneak peak” into how and why literacy education is of utmost importance to a child’s success. Possibly, it’s a sign of our success that tutors strive to make legitimate progress with the children and take steps toward the “engaged citizenship” that we hope will have a lasting impression long after graduation as alumnae become parents, PTA members, and policymakers. Ultimately, we have experienced some of both, and we continue to move forward with a new group of tutors each semester, new modifications to the program, and creative solutions to problems as they arise.

NOTES 1. Perhaps the best contemporary sign of an abandoned priority is an archived website. That is what rewards a search for “America Reads” on www.ed.gov, at the U.S. Department of Education. 2. Colleges and universities were authorized to use part of the federal work-study dollars to pay students for work “in the public interest” from the time federal workstudy funding was introduced in 1964. Starting in 1992, schools were required to use “at least 5 percent of the total amount of funds granted to such institution under this section in any fiscal year to compensate students employed in community service.” The requirement was raised to 7 percent in FY 2000, under a law signed by President Clinton in 1998. (See Campus Compact, www.compact.org/policy/ fws_history.) 3. Craig A. Rimmerman, The New Citizenship: Unconventional Politics, Activism, and Service, 3rd ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2005). 4. There was much talk about literacy in Congress, though. President Clinton had proposed the America Reads program during his second election campaign in 1996, and when Congress resisted he took steps to launch as much of the idea as he could through administrative rules changes. Students earning federal work-study funds could continue to be paid for serving as tutors of reading, and they were encouraged to. The Clinton administration asked Congress for money to pay more collegebased tutors, and also funds to hire qualified teachers in the schools to supervise

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their work. They asked to channel money to AmeriCorps for volunteers who could coordinate tutoring projects. Republicans in Congress were willing to go along with providing tutors, but they were skeptical about having tutoring done by student volunteers. They preferred to have commercial tutoring companies provide the help. They did not endorse hiring teachers in the schools to supervise the work of the tutors. In the end, the idea of college students working as tutors carried the day, but funds for the teachers to supervise them were not approved, and neither was the funding for coordinators that was to have been provided through AmeriCorps. See Riddle, 1998. 5. See Rimmerman, The New Citizenship. 6. Darrell Morris made this point to me repeatedly when I worked with him at Appalachian State University for a semester during a sabbatical leave in 1993. I had gone down to learn more about his Howard Street model, which is the oldest and best-documented program in the country that sends volunteer tutors out to help atrisk children learn to read. See his book, Darrell Morris, Howard Street Tutoring Manual: Teaching At-Risk Readers in the Primary Grades, 2nd ed. (New York: Guilford Press, 2005). See also a review of the program in Morris, Shaw, and Perney, 1990. Connie Juel later published a study on what works in volunteer tutoring programs. She found it helped if tutors “scaffolded” their students’ learning (that is, provided finely tuned help), and if they taught books with repetitive language on reading levels that carefully matched each child’s current ability. Her tutors were college athletes at a large university, though, many of whom read at low levels themselves. See Juel, 1996. 7. See Rimmerman, The New Citizenship. 8. George Farkas, “Teaching Low-Income Children to Read at Grade Level,” Contemporary Sociology 29 (2000): 53–62. 9. Farkas, “Teaching Low-Income Children to Read at Grade Level,” 53. 10. Farkas, “Teaching Low-Income Children to Read at Grade Level,” 59. 11. It is odd that Farkas advocates offering courses that are very narrow “methods” courses, especially since he evinces little faith in the people who normally teach such courses. For example, Farkas urges sociologists to show education professionals how to read their own research: [S]ociologists could make a major contribution to the achievement of low-income children. Within the sociology of science and the sociology of the professions, we might investigate and attempt to reduce the tendency of faculty and training staff in education and social work to ignore the excellent research on effective practices for low-income children (phonics reading instruction) while embracing ineffective practices (whole language reading instruction) (56).

Farkas practiced what he preached and set up an effective tutoring program using college students to teach low-income children (George Farkas, “Reading Oneto-One: An Intensive Program Serving a Great Many Students While Still Achieving Large Effects,” pp. 75–109 in Social Programs That Work, ed. Jonathan Crane [New York: Russell Sage, 1998]). Indeed, the program was one of the models considered by the Clinton administration in designing the America Reads Challenge. Unfortunately, after the Clinton years, all that remains of Farkas’s thinking in the Bush


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administration is a single-minded faith in phonics instruction as a cure to the literacy problem The Bush administration abandoned the use of volunteer tutors, preferring to hire the job out to for-profit companies and faith-based groups. In fact, the difference between George W. Bush and George H. W. Bush on the use of volunteers is striking. The senior Bush started the “Thousand Points of Light” campaign and First Lady Barbara Bush started the Barbara Bush Foundation to encourage people to volunteer their efforts to help people learn to read. Younger Bush, in contrast, has created a windfall for Socratic Learning, Inc., an online tutoring service from Plano, Texas; Sylvan Learning Systems; Academic Advantage, from Los Angeles; Academic Achievement Tutoring Services, from Redford, Michigan; and others. 12. Charles Temple and James MaKinster, Intervening for Literacy: The Joy of Reading to Young Children (Boston: Pearson/A and B, 2005). 13. Susan Hunter and Richard Brisbin, “The Impact of Service Learning on Democratic and Civic Values,” Political Science and Politics (September 2000). 14. Hunter and Brisbin, “The Impact of Service Learning,” 626. 15. National Center for Educational Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 1994). 16. National Center for Educational Statistics, National Adult Literacy Survey (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 1992). 17. Betty Hart and Todd Risley, Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of American Children (New York: Paul Brooks, 1995). 18. Temple and Makinster, Intervening for Literacy, 2005. 19. Connie Juel, “Learning to Read: A Longitudinal Study of Fifty-four Children from First through Fourth Grade,” Journal of Educational Psychology 80 (1988): 437–47. 20. Keith Stanovich, “Matthew Effects in Reading: Some Consequences of Individual Differences in the Acquisition of Literacy,” Reading Research Quarterly 21 (1986): 360–406. 21. “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” 22. Diane DeFord, Cynthia Lyons, and Gay Su Pinnell, Bridges to Literacy: Learning from Reading Recovery (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1991). 23. Marie M. Clay, Reading Recovery: A Guidebook for Teachers in Training (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1993). 24. R. Darrell Morris, Beverly Shaw, and Jan Perney, “Helping Low Readers in Grades 2 and 3: An After-School Volunteer Tutoring Program,” The Elementary School Journal 91, no. 2 (Nov. 1990): 132–50. Barbara A. Wasik, “Volunteer Tutoring Programs in Reading: A Review,” Reading Research Quarterly 33, no. 3 (1998): 266–91. 25. Jill Fitzgerald, “Can Minimally Trained College Student Volunteers Help Young At-Risk Children to Read Better?” Reading Research Quarterly 36 (2001): 28–46. 26. Says the Education Department web page: In conducting its approval process, the SEA [State Education Agency] must ensure that each provider [of supplemental education services, i.e., tutoring] it approves: 1. Has a demonstrated record of effectiveness in increasing student academic achievement [Section 1116(e)(12)(B)(i)];

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Kathleen Flowers and Charles Temple 2. Will use instructional strategies that are high quality, based upon research, and designed to increase student academic achievement (see C-17 for additional information) [Section 1116(e)(12)(C)]; 3. Provides services that are consistent with the instructional program of the LEA and with State academic content and achievement standards (see C-18 for additional information) [Sections 11116(e)(5)(B) and 1116(e)(12)(B)(ii)]

Note that these requirements are substantially the same as those proposed by the Republican majority in Congress in 1997: Tutorial services would be provided in locations near pupils’ schools by entities that “have established a record of effectiveness” in providing reading (or reading readiness) instruction, based on “reliable, replicable research,” which is consistent with the instructional methods used at the pupil’s school. Recipient LEAs [local education agencies] would establish criteria for determining the eligibility of tutorial services providers, and maintain lists of entities in the local area that meet these eligibility requirements. Both LEAs and schools could assist parents of eligible children in selecting among the listed tutorial services providers for their child, but the final selection among eligible providers would rest with the parents. (U.S. Library of Congress, 1997)

27. See, for example, New York State’s list of approved supplemental educational service providers, at www.emsc.nysed.gov/nyc/SES/ApprovedProviders/AlphaList.html. See also the latter part of note 10.

7 Incorporating Service-Learning in Quantitative Methods Economics Courses Jo Beth Mertens

The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) commissioned a study in 2000 to examine education in the United States and to make recommendations for effectively educating citizens for the twentyfirst century. They concluded that colleges and universities in the United States need to concentrate on creating intentional learners who are: “(1) empowered; (2) informed; and (3) responsible.”1 The authors of the study define empowered learners as those who have “mastered intellectual and practical skills.”2 A learner is informed when she has acquired knowledge about both the physical and social world, when she knows how to effectively increase that knowledge base, and when she knows how to critique that knowledge base. A responsible learner is one who understands ethical and moral issues and is willing to take responsibility for his actions in both the private and public spheres, knowing how to bridge the gap between the classroom and the “real world.” An intentional learner is a student possessing all three of these characteristics.3 I believe that creating intentional learners is the true mission of a liberal arts college. The mission statement of Hobart and William Smith Colleges states, “we seek to ensure that all students acquire a breadth of understanding of human endeavor across the humanities, the sciences, and the social sciences.”4 This is an empowered learner, “emphasiz[ing] the interdependence and connectedness of all knowledge.”5 This is an informed learner. “[F]aculty members . . . teach in ways . . . that reflect on the social consequences of [students’] knowledge.”6 This is a responsible learner. Our raison d’etre is to create intentional learners, and service-learning is a powerful tool to achieve that goal. 107

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We who teach economics have largely concentrated on creating empowered learners by teaching our students about economic theory and models and how to use those models to analyze the world. In statistics and econometric courses, we create empowered learners by teaching students statistical measures and techniques (e.g., calculating expected values, performing statistical tests of significance, performing linear regression analysis and how to interpret the results, etc.) and how to use those techniques to make sense of data. We create informed learners when we teach students how to analyze statistical information and how to critically examine the data analysis of others. For example, the first chapter of the text I use in my statistics class is titled “Cautionary Tales” and looks at the misuse of statistical studies. The last chapter is titled “Turning Data into Wisdom” and enumerates “Ten Guiding Principles” for using statistical information to make decisions. In between the first and last chapters are myriad examples of “statistics gone bad.”7 We spend less time on the third characteristic of an intentional learner: being a responsible learner. David Colander makes this point in his article, “Integrating Sex and Drugs into the Principles Course: Market-Failures Versus Failures-of-Market Outcomes,” in which he argues that we in the academy spend too little time looking at thorny policy issues for which economic theory does not provide a clear-cut answer. These issues often require moral decisions to determine the correct policy, and as economists trained in the power of “positive” economics, many of us say, “that, of course, is for the politicians to decide.” Colander gives several examples of such moral issues, for example, the selling of body organs, the selling of babies, the selling of sex. We spend most of our time extolling the virtues of the free market, and even when we discuss market failures we often do not make the point, so well put by Amartya Sen, that, “In short, a society or an economy can be Pareto-optimal and still be perfectly disgusting.”8 Colander makes the case for principles texts to include more policy debates where the market does not give a clear-cut, better-for-everyone answer. In this way, students are introduced to the moral and ethical dilemmas involved in policymaking and learn from the beginning that policymaking is rarely easy and most always messy. This is certainly an excellent place to start, and this approach could be easily extended to advanced courses in micro and macro theory. But an understanding of moral and ethical dilemmas is just one aspect of a responsible learner as it was defined by the AAC&U study. To be a responsible learner, as the Greater Expectations study recommends, students need to make connections between their acquisition of knowledge and their responsible use of that knowledge both within and across the curriculum, and not just in certain courses. Incorporating service-learning into economics courses is one way of adding the responsible learner aspect to teaching, and thereby creating intentional learners.9 Service-learning has at least two distinct components:

Incorporating Service-Learning

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(1) application of techniques and concepts learned in the classroom or from texts; and (2) direct service or production of a good or service for use by others. As McGoldrick points out, “service-learning is a method of experiential learning that links the classroom with the local community.”10 McGoldrick discusses how service-learning can be used to introduce both diversity and alternative pedagogy into economics courses. She uses her own course on Women and Gender Economics as an example. As another example, at my colleges we teach a course on the Economics of Caring in which service-learning is a major component. These non-core economics courses do appear to lend themselves more easily to incorporating service and experiential learning than the core theoretical and quantitative courses. I believe that quantitative courses like statistics and econometrics can also be adapted to successfully incorporate service-learning. According to Becker and Watts, there has been little change in the way statistics and econometrics courses have been taught from 1995 to 2000. “Chalk and talk” is still the method used most to teach these courses: the median time spent on traditional classroom lectures and writing on the chalkboard in statistics and econometric classes were both 83 percent in 1995 and again in 2000. This teaching method continues, despite: (1) research indicating that lecturing is not the most effective way of teaching; and (2) an increase in demand within the discipline for different teaching methods in economics.11 For statistics and econometric courses, chalk and talk is an efficient method for teaching the technical skills students need in order to master the material. Math-oriented course materials are best learned by working problems. The chalk and talk method is necessary for creating empowered learners: those who have “mastered intellectual and practical skills.”12 A successful quantitative economics course teaches students specific skills and tools that can be utilized for life, thereby creating empowered and informed learners. But can we design courses like statistics and econometrics to incorporate the tools necessary to create responsible learners? In other words, can we structure these courses in such a way that students will make the connection between the newspaper article on a new drug study and the problem of confounding variables discussed in statistics class, and then be prepared to use that knowledge for responsible decision making? Incorporating service-learning projects into quantitative economics courses is one way to achieve these goals.

WHAT ARE THE OUTCOMES OF “SERVICE-LEARNING”? In their book, Where Is the Learning in Service-Learning? Eyler and Giles report the results of two extensive national research projects conducted by the authors: (1) Comparing Models of Service-Learning, funded by the Fund for

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the Improvement for Postsecondary Education (FIPSE); and (2) a project developed for the Corporation for National Service.13 The first project culminated in a national survey of over 1,500 students from twenty colleges and universities in the United States. These students were both participants and non-participants in service-learning projects. To measure the effects of servicelearning, data were collected from subjects two times: at the beginning and end of a semester. The authors used the survey information to measure various outcomes on students, ranging from personal and interpersonal development (e.g., tolerance, self-knowledge, connectedness to community, etc.) to changes in students’ ability to understand and apply knowledge and changes in critical thinking skills. The second study involved extensive interviews with sixty-seven students at seven colleges and universities. In these interviews, students were asked about the reflective activities engaged in during a service-learning project in order to assess the importance of reflective activities on the learning outcomes of service-learning projects. Eyler and Giles measured the effects of service-learning on twelve learning outcomes and discovered that a majority of students who participated in service-learning reported the following: 1. Students believed they learned more and worked harder than in nonservice-learning classes; 2. Students reported a better understanding of the course subject after service-learning; 3. Students felt better prepared to apply the course subject material to real world situations; and 4. These results were more pronounced when service-learning projects were linked clearly to course work and when there were opportunities for formal reflection by students on the service-learning project.14 Does service-learning have intellectual value-added outcomes? Measuring learning outcomes of service-learning projects has been less than definitive. Eyler and Giles hypothesize that studies measuring value-added outcomes using grades as the dependent variable are not adequately capturing the link between service-learning and “academic learning.”15 They suggest these studies are capturing only “inert knowledge—knowledge that was memorized but went unused when the learner confronted real-life problems.”16 Real understanding of material is demonstrated when the learner can use that information responsively in new contexts. Experiential learning theorists distinguish between the ability to recall information from a text and true understanding of that information. “To understand academic material is to be able to see its relevance to new situations; without that capacity, the student’s knowledge is useless.”17 Students often complain what they are taught in the classroom is not relevant to the “real


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world.” Eyler and Giles provide solid evidence that well-designed servicelearning projects are an effective tool for bridging the gap between the classroom and the real world. Bridging this gap is an important aspect of becoming a responsible learner, because a responsible learner is one who can take knowledge learned in the classroom and take it out of context, apply it to new situations, and then use that knowledge in an effective and responsible way. In another effort to measure service-learning outcomes, Astin et al. conducted a well-designed, longitudinal study on 22,236 undergraduates at a sample of baccalaureate degree colleges and universities. They compared the effects of regular community service and service-learning courses and no participation with either community service or service-learning courses on several academic outcomes as well as values, self-efficacy, and leadership skills.18 They controlled for individual characteristics and academic institution factors before examining the effects of service-learning and community service activities.19 They found that “For all academic outcomes as well as for some affective ones, participating in service as part of a course has a positive effect over and above the effect of generic community service.”20 The academic outcomes used as dependent variables in their analysis were: writing skills, college GPA, and improved critical thinking skills. Astin et al. found that for all three of these academic outcomes, both generic community service and service-learning courses had statistically significant positive effects. Moreover, they discovered that service-learning effects are stronger than generic community service on both writing skills and GPA.21 It is important to note that these effects were found even though they were not controlling for “good practice” service-learning. It is reasonable to expect that the positive effects of service-learning would be even stronger if analysis was limited only to those projects incorporating “good practices” (discussed in the section “Assessment Techniques of Measuring Service-Learning Outcomes.”) Finally, when students realize their work has the potential to improve an aspect of their immediate community, they take the project more seriously and work harder to do quality work, and these factors are indicators of increased learning. “Students believe that the learning that results from their service-learning experiences is richer and more applicable to the real-world contexts than material they learn in traditional classes. . . . High-quality service-learning enhances understanding of subject matter.”22

AN EXAMPLE OF USING SERVICE-LEARNING IN A QUANTITATIVE ECONOMICS COURSE Traditionally, the economics statistics course at Hobart and William Smith Colleges has always incorporated a project of experiential learning, where

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students are required to ask an overarching question, design and administer a survey instrument to collect the data needed to answer that question, and then use statistical analysis to test hypotheses created around the central question or theme. I have incorporated service-learning in my statistics course by taking this project a step further and offering the services of my class to organizations on campus that need institutional research. One class performed a social climate survey for the intercultural affairs office, other statistics classes gathered and analyzed data for the Hobart Statesmen Athletic Association (SAA). Social Climate Survey In the spring of 2002, the director of intercultural affairs was bemoaning our colleges’ lack of an office of institutional research during a presentation to the faculty. She needed a campus climate survey to help assess the experience of minority students on campus in order to design effective programming for all students. I offered the services of my statistics class to the Office of Intercultural Affairs. Over the course of the semester, the students developed and administered a social climate survey, analyzed the collected data, and presented their findings to the president of the colleges, the provost, and the director of intercultural affairs. They also wrote a final report, “Perceptions of the Campus Climate at Hobart and William Smith Colleges,” which was submitted to the president and the Office of Intercultural Affairs. Finally, each student was required to write her or his own research paper, using the data collected to test at least five different hypotheses. Athletics Survey In the fall of 2004, the Hobart athletic director (AD) approached me about a project to assist the SAA, a group that supports the Hobart athletic program. The SAA wanted to develop a marketing campaign and work to more closely integrate the local community into campus sporting activities, and the first phase of their plan is data gathering and analysis. Our client, who is a board member of the SAA, and the Hobart AD met with the class the second week of the term and described the kinds of information they needed and how they planned on using that data. In the fall semester of 2004 and spring semester of 2005, my statistics classes developed and administered surveys to alumni/ae who live within a three hour driving radius of the campus and the attendees at football, ice hockey, and basketball games. The goal of the surveys was to profile those attending games and to gather information from alumni/ae on their attendance (or lack thereof) at sporting and other events on campus. I supervised the development of sur-


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vey instruments, data collection, and data analysis. The AD attended the final presentations, and all data was forwarded to the SAA. In the fall of 2005, my statistics class took the analysis further, examining how sports may affect the relationship between the colleges and the community. For example, they wanted to answer questions like: Do people who regularly attend sporting events have different attitudes about students than those who do not? Who feels welcome on campus and who does not? Answers to these questions can help the colleges to create policies to improve the relations between students and residents, and help the community to feel comfortable to take advantage of the many opportunities available on campus. It also provides students with a stake in the larger community.

WHAT MAKES THESE PROJECTS SERVICE-LEARNING? Service-learning is one type of experiential or experience-based learning. It differs from experiential learning in that one of the goals is to provide a service for others. In most service-learning programs, students are placed in non-profit organizations where they do a variety of activities, including observation and reflection about clients; actual service provision; and advocacy work for clients of the organization.23 The projects in which my classes have engaged fit in between traditional service-learning and experiential or client-based programs. I argue that they belong on the service-learning end of the spectrum because the “client” in both cases has been a not-for-profit group and because their projects benefit the larger campus community. I believe this community connection is crucial for the learning aspect of the project. Too often, students see themselves as isolated from the larger community in which they live and learn. This is counter-productive to creating responsible learners—people who are able to take knowledge gained in other circumstances and use it to respond appropriately to their environs. That the social climate survey project was understood by students as a service-learning project is demonstrated by the students themselves, who wrote in the executive summary to the Campus Climate Report, The goal of this statistical survey was to better understand the overall social climate on the Hobart and William Smith campus. Through this project we hope to better understand the way minority and non-minority students feel about diversity on campus and any real differences between the two groups. The survey questions covered a wide variety of social and academic concerns based on the ideal of a highly diversified campus. We took a simple random sample, stratifying the student body by minority and non-minority students, and distributed the survey. We used tests of statistical significance to analyze the data, providing results that are supported by

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empirical evidence. However, the information necessary to wholly understand the social climate at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS) is not permitted through this study. Further qualitative research needs to be conducted in order to understand reasons for feelings and differences that occur on campus. This is imperative to formulating effective solutions and responses to problems on our campus. . . . The statistically significant differences apparent between the two populations surveyed in this study verify that minorities feel differently than nonminorities on some issues. If it holds true that minority and non-minority students have differing experiences at HWS, and that it is more difficult for minority students to relate to and embed themselves into this campus, then serious changes need to be implemented in order to increase the comfort level of minority students and allow for more evenly balanced experiences.24

Students’ individual papers revealed that many were surprised to learn that minority students feel differently, and they were disturbed by this fact. It is clear from the group-written summary that the students understood that this project was meaningful for their community. Research indicates that students take projects more seriously when they know their work will benefit others.25 My own preliminary assessment of student outcomes from using these service-learning projects concurs (see the section “Measuring Outcomes from My Service-Learning Projects.”)

ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES FOR MEASURING SERVICE-LEARNING OUTCOMES For a service-learning project to be “well-designed,” Eyler and Giles have identified four important factors: 1. Student placement—it is very important that the work the student is doing is meaningful, that the student sees a direct relationship between his or her activities and client benefits; 2. The client needs to value the input of the student; 3. Students need to understand the importance of the project for the larger community; and 4. Students must reflect on their activities for there to be intellectual value-added.26 Learning outcomes from a service-learning project are highly dependent on the applicability of the project to what is being learned in the classroom. With community placement service-learning, the application of the service to classroom learning may be difficult to tease out. A service-learning project as a component of a quantitative economics course makes a strong con-


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nection between classroom learning and application: students are actually required to practice those techniques learned in the classroom in order to complete the project. The second factor is also less an issue with the type of project I am proposing, because students are working together on one overall project with one major client. The issue then becomes insuring that students understand the community aspect of the project, and that they reflect adequately on their experiences. Gray et al. found that within service-learning projects, those that followed “good practices” had stronger effects on student outcomes than service-learning courses that did not. These “good practices” coincide with those found by Eyler and Giles and included, “strong connections between course content and students’ service experiences; volunteering for more than twenty hours within the academic quarter or semester; discussing service experiences in class; receiving training; and receiving supervision.”27 Most of these “good practices” are built in to the kind of project I use. There is a direct connection between what we are learning in class and their service-learning project. The time spent on the project is much more than twenty hours and includes interaction with the community as they administer the surveys and collect data. The most onerous burden for faculty is (1) ensuring that adequate time in class is spent discussing the service aspects of the project, and (2) the supervision of students. I supervise at least the initial administration of the surveys to ensure our agreed-upon sample design is followed. Faculty participation likely emphasizes the importance of the project and encourages students to take it more seriously. The reflective activities students undertake are very important for learning outcomes. This project assignment includes a final paper in which students must use statistical methods to test hypotheses (e.g., on average, men attend more hockey games than women). This provides students considerable opportunity for reflection, especially with respect to course content and the use of statistical techniques for data analysis. But it is also crucial that students be asked to reflect upon the community service aspect of the project and how that affected their learning of the material. There are many different ways of offering reflective activities—from informal journals to formal, directed in-class writings. I have used a technique of a “letter home,” where I ask students to write a letter to a family member or friend about the project. I begin the process with a short discussion, asking if they have talked with family or friends about the project, and we reach a consensus on concerns people have, what the purpose of the project is, and so on. I then ask them to write a letter home that addresses some of these issues. For example, parents may express concerns about projects that take students into the community, and the letter format allows students to address their parents’ issues as well as their own.28 The letter format directs their thoughts toward explaining the project and its role in their

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learning of statistical procedures, but it allows them to use their own descriptive phrases. A survey format would have limited the phrases they could have used in describing the project and its learning outcomes. I was interested to see how often phrases were used that could clearly link the service-learning project with learning the course material. In the class that administered a survey to the Geneva community, I asked them to write two letters: one at the beginning of the term before the project was started and another at the end, when the project was near completion. I performed content analysis on those letters to determine if this type of project elicits the kinds of outcomes predicted by research (e.g., Eyler and Giles.) Specifically, is there evidence that students 1. Believe they learned more, worked harder and took the project more seriously because it was being done for others (i.e., service-learning); 2. Have a better understanding of the course material than they would have without the service-learning project; and 3. Feel that the project helped them bridge the gap between the ivory tower and the “real world.” I must note that this analysis is preliminary and merely suggestive of results, as my sample size is quite small and the results are based on student selfreporting. Nevertheless, my findings are consistent with much larger studies done within the past few years.29 In table 7.1, I show the results of a content analysis of the twenty letters written at the end of the fall 2004 term and the eighteen letters written at the end of fall 2005.30 Each row of the table indicates a phrase used by a Table 7.1.

Percentage of Students Using Phrases Reflecting Learning Outcomes

Phrase

Real world project Took the project more seriously because it was “real” Project made statistics fun Feel better that we did this for a cause Learned a lot Learned more [from the project] than I would have from a text or regular class Referenced specific statistical techniques the project helped learn [Project] helped analyze data [Project] improved statistical skills Project made statistics easier [Project] was too time consuming Did not learn that much

% of students using phrase

53% 32% 29% 37% 24% 29% 21% 11% 21% 32% 8% 3%


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student, and the column indicates the percentage of students using that phrase in her or his letter. While my sample size is small, my results seem to support findings of previous research: 53 percent referenced the “real world” aspect of the project, 32 percent of the students said they took the project more seriously because it was a service-learning project, and 29 percent said they learned more doing the project than they would have from regular class.31 Only two students out of forty-three made negative comments. In analyzing the relationships between phrases, for example, students who referenced the “real world” aspect were more likely to also say they learned more than from a text, I created 2 x 2 tables and used Fisher’s exact test to determine if there was a statistically significant relationship between those phrases. I discovered that students who referenced the real world aspect of the project were also more likely to say they took the project more seriously (p ⫽ .05) and that the project made statistics easier (p ⫽ .05). Moreover, there was a highly significant (p ⫽ .001) relationship between students who said they took the project more seriously and learning more than they would have from a regular class. Not surprisingly, students who took the project more seriously also said the project made statistics easier (p ⫽ .02). Finally, those who said they learned more from the project than from a text or regular class also said the project had improved their statistical skills (p ⫽.003). This suggests that the professor, by emphasizing the importance of the service aspect of the project, can influence learning outcomes by encouraging the students to take the project more seriously. And because the project is a service project, students are more likely to take it seriously.32 In this simple content analysis, I counted exact phrases students used to see if students used certain phrases more often or in conjunction with others; however, precise words or phrases do not fully capture nuances of meaning. To refine the analysis further, using the letters from the 2004 class, I expanded the content analysis from simple phrases to whole sentences and thoughts which I then categorized under the expected learning outcomes outlined previously: (1) students believe they learn more and work harder because of the service-learning project; (2) students report a better understanding of the course material because of the project; and (3) the project helps them bridge the gap between class and the “real world.” Under each major outcome, I sorted the phrases into categories that deal with different aspects of the overall outcome. For example, under outcome 1, there are four different categories of comments: (1) comments on learning more; (2) comments indicating students understood the purpose of the project; (3) comments indicating the significance of the service-learning aspect of the project; and (4) comments that students worked harder because the project was service-learning. I show these results in tables 7.2, 7.3, and 7.4.

Although it [the project] has been a lot of work, it actually (I thought I would never say this) made statistics fun. This class has provided me with a new type of learning from which I am used to, and has opened my eyes to the many options economics majors have after graduation.

2

4

3

Doing the project I have learned a lot about statistics.

Comments on learning more

With this service-learning project, I knew that our surveys, data and analyses were going to be used to increase attendance at Hobart games.

We’re designing and administering surveys to football fans to see how we can increase attendance.

We had to find out why attendance at football games was so low.

Comments indicating students understood the purpose of the project

Outcome 1—Students Believe They Learn More and Work Harder

1

LETTER #

Table 7.2.

It makes me feel better that we did this for a cause.

Comments indicating the significance of a service-learning project

I felt more inclined to accurately assess my findings, because this survey will be used by the SAA (Statesmen Athletic Association).

What made me take this project more seriously is the fact we had to do it for someone and the school. I really feel pressured to do well and not just for the grade but because I know our results will be passed on and used to help our school.

Comments indicating students worked harder because project was service-learning

7

6

5

Remember that stats project I often referred to as the project from hell? . . . overall I am very glad I did the project and I had fun while doing it. My statistical analysis skills have greatly improved. I took AP statistics in high school and did reasonably well in it, but what made it difficult was that it met three times a week and we never did anything that wasn’t from the text book. It was all problem solving and no real world application. What made this class so much easier and more exciting was that there was a project which continued throughout the semester and followed closely with what we had recently learned in class. We were asked to conduct a survey and analyze the data which was then going to be used to improve attendance and enjoyment at Hobart football games.

Also, knowing my work directly helps the colleges was very gratifying.

(continued )

It was nice knowing that someone else benefited from our research, as well. This project also made me focus more on what I am doing knowing other people would be looking at my work and evaluating it.

10

9

The data analysis, I feel, was a big part because there is meaning behind the analysis I gave and [I] could compare the data to other things. Having this project really nhhelped me realize that stats isn’t as bad as its reputation.

The project made this class more interesting, because reading chapters and solving problems would be a drag, and many wouldn’t even realize how it applies in [the] real world.


LETTER #

8

(Continued )

Table 7.2.

Besides having “hands on the project” I knew that there is a reason to what I do. There is some satisfaction that maybe what I have done in this class will impact school in a few year[s] in a positive way. Doing this project was interesting for a number of reasons. We were surveying students at HWS and we found about their attendance at Hobart athletic events. We were doing the survey for the Hobart Athletic Department.


Actually applying all the formulas and analysis to data that I had personally gathered was quite rewarding. Seeing my data analyzed and thinking that I could be aiding the Hobart athletic department toward increasing attendance and support of all sports teams (male and female) on campus [was rewarding]. Providing this survey as a service to the school makes both my school and myself rise in the ranks against competition.


Because our project is going to be used by other[s] it meant higher expectations and professionalism.


Having this project really helped me realize that stats isn’t as bad as its reputation.

One of the biggest things I learned about thanks to this project was that I can understand this/anything if I try. Honestly I really didn’t understand statistics that well but it made so much sense that it was something that I put together and did from the beginning. Statistics really wasn’t that bad after all.

11

12

This past semester my statistics class did a survey for the Hobart athletic department trying to see why attendance rates were low and what they could do to increase attendance.

I took pride in the survey we made, the data we collected and the final conclusions I was able to draw.

Also when I saw all the data I realized how it could be good evidence to make changes that could benefit everyone. . . . Caring about the project made the results really exciting to analyze because a lot the time the results were the opposite of what I was thinking.

(continued )

People took this project much more seriously because it was a service-learning project. Sure we all wanted to get good grades but I think we all took it one step further than we normally would have. None of us wanted to make a mistake that was going to be costly to the athletic department. At times it was stressful . . . but for me it only made me work harder to minimize these types of mistakes.

This project was a servicelearning project so there was added pressure to do this correctly. Knowing [that] was going to look at and use the data I collected made me want to have valuable information to have.


At times tedious, and always stressful and difficult, this project is what made me excited and actually successful in stats class.

LETTER #

13

14

(Continued )

Table 7.2. Comments indicating the significance of a service-learning project

A course that gave me nervous butterflies before it began actually turned into one I felt was important not just to being an econ major, but a responsible, informed citizen. Some of this was the teacher, some of this was my peers in the class, but a lot of it was doing the incredibly satisfying project. Who knew that your daughter, the one that dreaded any sort of quantitative learning, would be so interested in statistics. Something went right.


[T]he project we have been working on all semester which required us to design, administer, and analyze the results of a survey about Hobart athletics for an alum is interested in sports marketing research and wants to help than athletic department develop strategies to bolster attendance at games.

I was incredulous and slightly skeptical that our stats class would actually be held accountable for creating and administering an actual survey. The fact that there were real people who were actually going to be using our data and conclusions gave me a whole other incentive (besides a good grade) for actually creating something worthwhile and useful out all this.

And doing it [the project] for someone else who will actually analyze and consider our results made me feel the weight of responsibility enough to excel at learning statistics.


[T]he project revolved around data collection and analysis of the collected data that examined attendance at Hobart football games and athletic events in general.

17

18

This project helped our athletics department increase fan attendance at athletic games.

This project, however, was a real project for a real researcher. This was hands on experience in the real world and it was very valuable to me. The project we did was established in order to help the Hobart athletic department increase attendance at its events.

I really believe stats was so enjoyable this year because the knowledge I learned in the classroom was related to our project outside of the classroom.

16

15

(continued )

By having a semester project that is tied to the concept of service learning I have put a great deal of time and effort into it. . . . Since the project was centered around an actual cause, I believe that there was an incentive for me to work harder on it, whereas if it were a plain classroom project, I may have tended to work less effectively.


LETTER #

19

(Continued )

Table 7.2.

This past semester, I was involved with a project in my statistics class. The goal was to collect data to be used by the Hobart athletics department to increase attendance at its events.



Further, because this project was “real” in that it was not something made up for no reason at except to get a grade, I was more serious about the results. More with specifically, I was concerned more than just doing something in a way which would win me a good grade. I was concerned with doing something the way in which it is supposed to be done so it would be useful for the athletic department. There was an added incentive because not only are we learning about statistics, but we are also helping our school.


20

The service learning approach was a good idea and theoretically made the project more interesting. However, the service learning was very time consuming and since I had service learning to do in another class, I felt less inclined to tackle the project with enthusiasm.

During the course of the semester we conducted a survey of students concerning the attendance at Hobart athletic events. . . . We were doing the work for the SAA [Statesmen Athletic Association] and a guy named. . . .

8

7

I find it quite interesting to run such a project. Sometimes when I study I was wondering how the stuff I learn apply in the real world. Is it useful, or some old, invalid information? In this case while I studied from books [a] few weeks later I learned

The project applied to the best way I learn: personal experience. I felt it [the project] was a good experience. It also gave us a chance to make sense of what we are doing in our statistics class. If what I learned—creating, administering and analyzing the survey—was written in a textbook I would have had a harder time understanding the main concepts. I learned a lot of valuable information that has made me think more critically about surveys I encounter in everyday life. I think that anytime you can take something you have learned in class and can apply it to something tangible it makes it much easier to understand and generally increases interest in the subject

4 5

6

I learned something that no textbook could teach a student, which is hands on learning. I got to see how statisticians do their job and all the work that goes into it.

A much better experience than just reading the book and spitting out what I knew.

Comments reflecting the project directly increased statistical knowledge

Comments indicating project deepened their understanding of statistics

It was clear to me already that statistics plays a very important role in our society. But what I did learn from this class was how so many statistics are misread or intentionally biased to try and prove a particular point. I think that this was one of the most important things I learned and I think it is something that more people should be aware of.

I learned there are a lot of things that go behind the scenes and I also learned a lot [of] new equations, and how to analyze data. I never thought I would be able to apply statistics to anything, now I know I was just way narrow-minded and really it was the project that taught me that. Through the project we were able to apply the hypothesis tests That we learned in class to the data we collected. Although this is not just for service learning projects, it was very cool to use our classroom tools in real scenarios in our project.

Outcome 2—Students Report a Better Understanding of Course Material

3

2

1

Letter #

Table 7.3.

14

13

12

11

10

9

Being able to actually walk through and work out every step in this process helped me in understanding our class material because I had a mental reference—a way to actually put a face and a process behind every statistic we talked about.

But as we got into the project having this be something that we administered, collected and interpreted and was related to each of us, it was a lot easier to understand. Not only did we learn how to run the necessary tests but it was much easier to learn and understand than the book.

how to apply to project[s] used all the time. . . . Running a survey as a class project gave me an experience that none of the books can describe. It was interesting to do a survey project in statistics because it allowed us to apply ideas and topics we had studied in an actual application, utilizing the procedures and formulas we had learned in class. I’ve taken a statistics class and was asked to develop, administer and analyze a survey. Instead of learning about this through a textbook, which is what would happen at a big university, I’ve had hands-on learning about stats. I feel there are things I’ve encountered I wouldn’t otherwise [have] experienced.

(continued )

We would read a chapter from our text about survey design and its concerns. Then we would work on our own survey questions to try to avoid the problems our textbook mentioned. We would learn how to conduct a t-test, and then we’d get to do it [with the project data]. This has created what I feel will be a lasting respect for and knowledge of statistical inquiry.

This project helped me in the classroom, because I really understood and was force[d] to learn how to design a survey. I learned how to ask a question on a topic and be very clear.

Developing a survey, from your own mind, and seeing if you can do it without any biases from you or the respondents was important too. Learning out of a book I could learn about biases, but I couldn’t see if I could develop a non-biased survey.

20

19

18

17

15 16

Letter #

Table 7.3.

I actually had to think about biases when constructing and administering our survey. Encountering problems on our own while actually conducting a survey ourselves enabled us to truly understand the intricacies of the process. We then had to form our own hypotheses and figure out how to test them. This is certainly a better learning experience than merely punching the numbers from a problem handed to you by a textbook. I had to form the question myself, and in order to do so, I had [to] have a deep understanding of the workings of statistics.

I felt that I definitely couldn’t have learned the things I did if we kept reading out of the textbook and kept taking tests. Within the subject of statistics, there are many different tests that one can run on a series of data. In the classroom I was taught how to conduct such tests. By gathering outside data through [the] project, I was able to use my knowledge of statistical tests in order to analyze it and make conclusions form the results. . . . By just learning from the text, I would have never acquired this level and form of knowledge with regards to the study of statistics.

Comments reflecting the project directly increased statistical knowledge

(Continued )

One of the most important aspects of the project was what I was able to learn about statistics and I won’t lie, I really haven’t learned all that much—insofar as the math and even more specifically the language—but I did learn the basic concepts and how test[s] are done and for what reasons.

Overall this project gave me an appreciation for the complexity of the statistical process. It was an experience that made technical skills meaningful.

Comments indicating project deepened their understanding of statistics

7

6

5

4

This was different than any of the other classes I have taken here at HWS because it took information that we were learning in the classroom and applied it to something which is commonly done in the real world. This was not the first time I took something out of the classroom and applied it to the “real world.” As a biology major most of my classes have labs that coincide with them. I think that anytime you can take something you have learned in class and can apply it to something tangible it makes it much easier to understand and generally increases interest in the subject.

It has probably been one of the most “real life” projects I have had the chance to do since I’ve been here. I felt like, during this project, that I was an employee for a real company. We had real data that will be used in a purposeful way. With a non-service learning project, the data would be just information about a population and would not be used in any particular way. This class permitted me to feel like I could influence others. I usually do not carry a subject matter’s significance outside of the classroom.

2

3

[T]his project was not just made up, it had a real purpose behind it.

Comments relating the value to students that the project was “real”

(continued )

As an athlete at this school, it is always nice to have plenty of fans at the games. This [project] gave us an opportunity to help increase that number. As an athlete, I enjoyed supporting a department on campus that supports me. [I]t made the overall experience much more interesting and fun for me because of my particular interests in athletics.

It is exciting to know and look back on what we did because it was a lot of work. However, it will be a huge reward when we see the game attendance increasing over the next few years.

I actually [got] to apply what I learned and analyzed in a “real world” atmosphere.

Comments indicating that the project allowed students to see the real world importance of course material

Outcome 3—Project Helped Bridge the Gap between Course Material and Real World

1

Letter #

Table 7.4.

14

12 13

11

9 10

8

Letter #

Table 7.4.

Also this project is good to prepare for the “real” world. I might have to work with people I don’t like, but we have to deal and learn from it. Also people in the “real” world might not always be as helpful and organized as you want.

It gave me a good sense of what might be expected from [me] in the future career.

Comments relating the value to students that the project was “real”

(continued )

At first, I wasn’t too thrilled about it; I myself am not a big sports fan. [W]hy I am always busy with statistics every time you call— a subject I was apprehensive about and wondering how to just “get through.” . . . The answer to that would be the project we have been working on all semester. . . . You know I have always been a good student and would have found a way to know enough statistics to do well in the class, but doing a project that mattered to me (and that others were depending on my help on) took me away from a feeling of being trapped in the Ivory Tower of academia that everyone regards as frivolous and not applicable to the real world. The fact that we were actually creating our own version of survey examples that we read about in the book, from start to finish, gave me a new understanding/applicability to our project.

If I were to major in stats at a large school there would be no way for me to learn what I would be doing in real life and the problems I would face unless I interned at a firm. I feel other classes in my school need to find a way to get the students out of the classroom and into the real world.

Comments indicating that the project allowed students to see the real world importance of course material

I feel that this project did more for me than anything I have ever done in school. The reason for saying this is that everything I have ever done in school I felt was useless in real life. The statistics project that our class did throughout the semester allowed me to take what I had learned within the classroom and implement it to a “real world” activity. Though the statistics text did do a fair job of applying statistics to “real world” concepts, it is my belief that I gained much more by doing a service-learning project. What I found especially intriguing was the fact that the field of marketing is explicitly tied to statistical tests. It is through this “real world” experience that I was able to relate statistics to other areas of life. The project helped me to bridge the too often present gap between classroom skills and practical (important) application. In addition, the legitimacy of this project as something that would impact the outcome of a real world initiative. This project was a great learning experience for several reasons. First of all, it allowed me to apply what I was learning in the classroom to real life situations. The work was useful in making statistical theory apply to a concrete scenario.

16

20

19

18

17

Making the connection between stats in then classroom with stats in the real world has helped me retain the knowledge I have gained this semester.

15

I really feel I did a great service for the colleges because we actually did a project that mattered. . . . Not only did this personally affect me because I am an athlete, but it also is going to help other athletes in the future.

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Jo Beth Mertens

I randomly selected one student and present here her or his comments as an example of the comments made by most students. For outcome 1, the student wrote: The project we did was established in order to help the Hobart athletic department increase attendance at its events. By having a semester project that is tied to the concept of service-learning I have put a great deal of time and effort into it. . . . Since the project was centered around an actual cause, I believe that there was an incentive for me to work harder on it, whereas if it were a plain classroom project, I may have tended to work less effectively.

For outcome 2: Within the subject of statistics, there are many different tests that one can run on a series of data. In the classroom I was taught how to conduct such tests. By gathering outside data through [the] project, I was able to use my knowledge of statistical tests in order to analyze it and make conclusions from the results. . . . By just learning from the text, I would have never acquired this level and form of knowledge with regards to the study of statistics.

For outcome 3: The statistics project that our class did throughout the semester allowed me to take what I had learned within the classroom and implement it to a “real world” activity. Though the statistics text did do a fair job of applying statistics to “real world” concepts, it is my belief that I gained much more by doing a service-learning project. What I found especially intriguing was the fact that the field of marketing is explicitly tied to statistical tests. It is through this “real world” experience that I was able to relate statistics to other areas of life.

These statements indicate that students value the service-learning project and believe they have learned more because of it.

ISSUES AND PROBLEMS Incorporating a service-learning project into quantitative courses requires extra work by faculty, but I believe the benefits outweigh the costs. A major issue at some institutions could be getting approval from the human subjects research committee. Careful design of the project, in consultation with such a committee, as well as planning well in advance should help minimize such problems. It may also be helpful to confine the research subjects to students, faculty, administrators, and alumni/ae, although that may restrict the types of research questions that can be answered. The fact that the


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project will be benefiting the larger community and is not just for the class should facilitate approval. Incorporating reflection of the service-learning aspect of the project is the task I find most onerous, and in fact, due to time constraints in my spring 2005 class, I did not do a good job on that aspect of the project. As a result, my students did not receive the same level of benefits from the project as their predecessors. I find some evidence of this from the course evaluations for the two classes. In the fall 2004 class, there were no negative evaluations of either the instructor or the course. Moreover, several students (four out of twenty-three) referenced the project as the best part of the course in response to an open-ended question. The spring 2005 evaluations, while still overall positive, had four out of twenty students rank the course and instructor with a score of three or less (maximum score five), and three students wrote that the project was “too much work” or not effective. In contrast, nine out of twenty-one students in the fall of 2005 referenced the project as the best part of the course. There are many factors that affect student evaluations of a course and instructor, and few are being controlled for (I did use the same text, same course structure, number and form of problem sets, project, final paper, etc.) in this comparison. I did realize during the spring 2005 course that students were not as engaged in the project as they had been in the previous class. I attribute at least part of that to my failure to provide them with adequate guidance and opportunities for formal reflection of the service aspect of the project.

CONCLUSION In college, students are taught there are different theoretical perspectives that can (must) be used to analyze “facts.” This process tends to be one of “pure mentation”: a process that takes place in the mind and where the mind is the tool.33 Eyler and Giles point out that with such independent learning of abstract theoretical constructs, not only do students often find it difficult to grasp the meaning of theories, but they also miss the connection that theories are actual “tools to understand the world.”34 “Chalk and talk” certainly has its place in the teaching of quantitative economics courses. But in a course like statistics or econometrics, students often get caught-up in the notations and the mathematics and fail to connect those techniques to their world. In fact, many economics students have a predilection for numbers, and they want to stay away from ambiguities. But for our students to have a full liberal arts education, they need to understand how they can use those techniques as tools to better understand their world and to be responsible actors in that society.

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Jo Beth Mertens

Theory and previous research suggest that rigorous, formal, and quantitative economics courses can be enhanced by service-learning. My research supports the benefits of service-learning when it is used in quantitative methods economics courses. In my courses, I included service-learning projects where students gathered and analyzed data and then were required to report that analysis in a form the client could actually use. These projects fully integrated the classroom experience with active learning, and the service aspect of the project was vitally important because these projects created a product for use by and within the students’ community. The results of my analysis found that students took the project more seriously and learned more than they would have if the similar project had been done solely for themselves or in a traditional “chalk and talk” course. The projects affect them personally, and that makes the learning real. Finally, I provide some evidence for the importance of reflection in achieving positive learning outcomes from service-learning. We all interpret and analyze abstract concepts though our lens of personal experience. The service-learning projects that I have assigned in my quantitative methods courses gave students a new lens to use for that analysis: one that is shaped by the guidance of faculty and polished by the students’ reflection. My results show that service-learning is an effective pedagogical tool for use in quantitative methods courses for making our students intentional learners.

NOTES 1. Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), 2002, xi. 2. AAC&U, xi. 3. AAC&U, xii. 4. Hobart and William Smith Colleges Catalogue, 2006–2008, 9–10. 5. Hobart and William Smith Colleges Catalogue, 2006–2008, 9–10. 6. Hobart and William Smith Colleges Catalogue, 2006–2008, 9–10. 7. J. Utts and R. Heckard, Mind on Statistics, 2nd ed. (Belmont, CA: Thomson, 2004). 8. A. K. Sen, Collective Choice and Social Welfare (Amsterdam: North Holland, 1970), 22. 9. Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles Jr., Where’s the Learning in Service Learning? (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999). 10. K. McGoldrick, “Service-Learning in Economics: A Detailed Approach,” Journal of Economic Education 29 (Fall 1998): 365. 11. W. E. Becker and M. Watts, “Teaching Methods in U.S. Undergraduate Economics Courses,” Journal of Economic Education 32 (Summer 2001): 270. 12. AAC&U, xi.


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13. For a complete description of the study and research methods used, see “resource B: Sample and Methods of the Studies” in Eyler and Giles, Where’s the Learning in Service Learning? 14. Eyler and Giles, Where’s the Learning in Service Learning?, 80–81. 15. Eyler and Giles, Where’s the Learning in Service Learning?, 63. 16. Eyler and Giles, Where’s the Learning in Service Learning?, 64. 17. Eyler and Giles, Where’s the Learning in Service Learning?, 64. 18. Alexander Astin et al., How Service Learning Affects Students (Los Angeles: Higher Education Research Institute, 2000), i. 19. Astin et al., How Service Learning Affects Students, ii. 20. Astin et al., How Service Learning Affects Students, 15. 21. Astin et al., How Service Learning Affects Students, 18. 22. Eyler and Giles, Where’s the Learning in Service Learning?, 98. 23. Timothy Stanton, in Jane C. Kendall and et al., Combining Service and Learning: A Resource Book for Community and Public Service, vol. 1 (Raleigh, NC: National Society for Internships and Experiential Education, 1990), 65–67. 24. Econ 202, 2–3. 25. Eyler and Giles, Where’s the Learning in Service Learning? 26. Eyler and Giles, Where’s the Learning in Service Learning?, 189. 27. Gray et al., “Combining Service Learning in Higher Education” (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1999), 9. Available at: www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/2005/ MR998.1.pdf (accessed May 24, 2007). 28. J. Eyler, D. E. Giles, and A. Schmiede, A Practitioner’s Guide to Reflection in Service-Learning: Student Voices and Reflections (Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 1996), 76. 29. See Astin et al., How Service Learning Affects Students; Gray et al., “Combining Service Learning in Higher Education”; and Janet Eyler et al., At a Glance: What We Know About the Effects of Service-Learning On College Students, Faculty, Institutions and Communities, 1993–2000, 3rd ed (Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2001). Available at: servicelearning.org/filemanager/download/4192_AtAGlance.pdf (accessed May 24, 2007). 30. Due to time constraints in the spring 2005 class, students did not write a letter home. 31. Interestingly, the results between the two classes are quite different. Of the letters written by the 2004 class, 75 percent referenced the “real world” aspect of the project, 60 percent said they took the project more seriously, and 50 percent said they learned more than from a regular class. I suspect that the first year I spent more time emphasizing the “service” aspect of the project, which likely biased their responses. 32. None of the other variables had statistically significant relationships. 33. L. B. Resnick, “The 1987 Presidential Address: Learning in School and Out,” Educational Researcher 16, no. 9 (1987): 13. 34. Eyler and Giles, Where’s the Learning in Service Learning?, 94.

8 The Evolution of a Service-Learning Course Debra DeMeis and Cynthia Sutton

In 1995 we co-created an engaging, bidisciplinary, team-taught liberal arts course, Children in Contexts. The course fit smoothly into the Hobart and William Smith Colleges liberal arts curriculum and was well received by students. As experienced and successful teachers, we modified the course every time we taught it, and in 1997 when the Hobart and William Smith faculty were invited to consider including service-learning in their academic courses, we thought, “Oh, that’s a good idea,” and simply added a servicelearning component to our course. We soon realized we had much to learn. In this chapter we chronicle the evolution of our course as a liberal arts, service-learning course. As we became better informed on the multiple ways service-learning can contribute to a liberal arts curriculum, we were better able to structure our course to enhance students’ learning and understanding of contemporary societal problems. First, we will describe our conceptualization of the primary goals of a liberal education and the dynamic relationship among a liberal education, an engaged citizenry, and service-learning. We then follow the development of the course itself, both in content and pedagogy. And finally, we conclude with a summary highlighting our role as college faculty in promoting a comprehensive and crucial liberal education for our students as they become active, responsible, involved citizens.

LIBERAL EDUCATION Liberal education is a longstanding and revered tradition in American higher education. Even though American culture changed dramatically in 137

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the last century, liberal education continues to be a powerful experience that prepares young adults to lead lives of consequence. However, the focus and process of liberal education must reflect changes in the world, such as the rise of technology and globalization, and must incorporate new areas of study and new ways of learning to remain relevant. Liberal education itself must go through a transformation that will result in very different ways of learning and teaching.1 Cronon raises the question of what a liberal education should look like and concludes that a more important question to consider is what characterizes a liberally educated person. He lists ten qualities, the sum of which is a person who is connected in important and meaningful ways to others and understands that everyone has a responsibility to promote the wellbeing of the community. His list contains some qualities that have been traditionally associated with a liberal education, including the skills to communicate, both orally and in writing; to engage in critical thinking; and to be a creative and effective problem solver. Yet his list also includes new qualities that expand the definition of a liberally educated person. Cronon addresses the importance of humility, tolerance, and self-criticism that allow people to set aside their own experiences and opinions and to develop an understanding and appreciation of others’ points of view. In an increasingly diverse and global world, these attributes are essential for engaging with others.2 In addition, Cronon stresses the importance of action and describes the liberally educated as people who know “how to get things done” and use their learning as a means to making the world a “better place.”3 Concern about the continuing relevance of liberal education prompted the Association of American Colleges and Universities to undertake the initiative Greater Expectations, which examined the focus and practice of higher education and produced a set of recommendations that advocates for a radically transformed undergraduate experience. A major outcome of the initiative is the identification of three outcomes of a liberal education that are necessary for students to meet the demands and problems of living in the twenty-first century. The final report states that students should become: 1. Empowered learners who possess intellectual and practical skills such as effective communication and the ability to interpret and evaluate information; 2. Informed learners who have knowledge about human cultures, the physical world, and the natural world; and 3. Responsible learners who have developed a sense of social responsibility and ethical judgment.4 The report of Greater Expectations was followed by a second AAC&U initiative called Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP). Like its

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predecessor, LEAP identifies the aims and goals that should characterize a quality undergraduate education in the twenty-first century. In answer to the question of what matters in colleges, LEAP rejects the customary list of courses and instead, like Cronon, specifies the outcomes of what students learn and acquire. Reiterating the three goals established by Greater Expectations, LEAP also identifies a fourth outcome: the integrated learner who can synthesize information across general and specialized areas of study.5 LEAP extends the work of Greater Expectations by identifying principles of excellence that characterize effective and intentional learning. Most of the principles expand the traditional conceptualization of liberal learning by extending the location, focus, or process of learning. Thus, one principle includes connecting college, work, and life, and several of the principles that address the importance of fostering students’ engagement with and participation in the wider world. LEAP proposes that learning must engage students in big questions, ones that ask about purpose and moral integrity; it also suggests that students should learn to connect knowledge with choices and outcomes by working on “unscripted problems” in which they test alternative answers and act according to their own judgments.6 The notion of action is so critical that LEAP’s final principle states that the best way to assess whether students’ education has resulted in the four outcomes is to measure their ability to apply their learning to complex problems from the real world.7 A common theme in both initiatives is the emphasis on expanding outcomes to move beyond knowledge and understanding to action. In addition, both suggest that the means by which students learn must address real-world problems rather than simplified, contrived ones. The process of engaging students in the problems of the real world and preparing them to be engaged citizens is a critical part of a liberal education.

LIBERAL EDUCATION, CITIZENSHIP, AND SERVICE-LEARNING Citizenship involves relational living in which people consider the ways in which their personal decisions and actions influence others and thereby the community in which they live.8 To be responsible citizens, people must consider their individual freedoms as well as the welfare of others and the public good because only by protecting the community can people safeguard their own individual rights.9 The challenge of citizenship is that problems to be solved are “ill-structured” social problems that are not easily defined nor resolved.10 As communities become increasingly diverse and problems exist on a global as well local level, both the framing and resolution of issues become more complicated, and determining what is the public good becomes even more difficult.

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Liberal education has historically been viewed as providing the skills and knowledge necessary for maintaining a free and democratic society.11 The traditional list of requisites includes critical thinking, problem-solving skills, ethical reasoning, written and oral communication, and social responsibility. Not surprisingly, such skills and knowledge overlap with the previously discussed list of ten characteristics cited by Cronon and of outcomes adopted in Greater Expectations and LEAP, since all were based on the premise that the final goal of liberal education should be to provide students with the education necessary for them to become responsible and active citizens. The lists were purposefully expanded to include valuing of diverse cultures and ideas and the ability and motivation to act so that liberal education will also result in an engaged citizenry that is both able to appreciate the complexity of problems and the need for creative solutions and has the will to take action.12 For students to become engaged learners and citizens, they must be invested in the world outside the classroom and understand their own place in that world. Liberal education must create a learning environment that provides students with experiences that aid in identifying, analyzing, and resolving the ill-structured social problems that are characterized by their lack of clear definition and easy resolution.13 In contrast to the traditional emphasis on disciplinary learning, the “new” liberal education requires a problem-centered process that focuses on unscripted issues.14 Servicelearning has emerged as a pedagogy that meets these ambitions because it possesses three elements essential for developing responsible citizenship: engagement with the community, focus on social problems, and collaboration between faculty and students.15 In service-learning courses, students are typically required to participate in organized service and to connect what is learned in the classroom and what is experienced at service sites.16 As Cress observes, service-learning is the intersection of the acquisition of knowledge, the analysis of issues, and the application of skills; it is only when these three components come together that students fully develop critical thinking skills and the motivation to act and to be invested in their communities. By working on real-world problems in their service sites, students come to understand the complexity of problems, the challenge of creating workable solutions and the need for actions.17

THE COURSE: CHILDREN IN CONTEXTS Hobart and William Smith are small, coordinated colleges boasting a historically rigorous and deep liberal arts curriculum. For students who matriculated before fall 1996, as part of that curriculum all sophomore students were required to take an upper-level bidisciplinary course taught by


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two professors investigating a particular subject matter from two different disciplinary perspectives. Examples of bidisciplinary courses currently offered at the colleges are Diversity and Adaptation, taught by an economist and a chemist; Men and Masculinity, created by a historian and a sociologist; and Writing Movement, Dancing Words: An Analysis of Composition, taught by professors of rhetoric and dance. The course we describe in this chapter is a bidisciplinary course created in 1995 and originally titled Children in Contexts: Families and School. The initial purpose of the course was to examine how society’s many significant, contemporary changes impact children in their families and in their schools. Taking advantage of our many years of teaching experience, we co-designed the course to reflect our respective disciplines, developmental psychology and education. We continued to teach the semester-long course every other year through 2006, even when the bidisciplinary course requirement was abolished. Each semester we taught the course, we reworked our syllabus to ensure that the assigned readings were current, the writing assignments meaningful, and the individual class sessions offered a variety of engaging formats. Throughout the years in their end-of-semester course evaluations, students rated the course quite highly, adding personal comments such as, “This class should be a requirement for all students at HWS!”18 and “I thought this course was wonderful.”19 Fortunately, because there were two of us co-teaching the course, we were able to maintain an ongoing, scheduled weekly dialogue between us regarding the progress of the course: what worked, what did not, and what we planned for the following weeks. At the conclusion of each course, we undertook a major course evaluation, highlighting those aspects of the course we would revise and those we would preserve. We retained key parts of the course content that had proven to stimulate student engagement and learning. The course maintained its focus on societal changes as they affect children. Also, as a foundation for the course, we continued to use David Elkind’s analysis of the relationship between modernity and postmodernity and the consequences of changes in society and families.20 As well, we continued to use Uri Bronfenbrenner’s social ecological model each semester as a framework for understanding the interactional relationship between individuals and their environments.21 Both of these theories were beneficial to students throughout the course each time we taught it. Although we added and deleted readings every semester, Jonathan Kozol’s work on school inequities22 and Edin and Lein’s text on living in poverty23 were mainstays of the course. In addition to aspects of course content, we also retained significant pedagogical components of the course. For example, although we took turns being the lead teacher depending on the subject matter of the day or week, both of us were present for every class session; this resulted in students

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perceiving both of us as equal instructors and both disciplinary perspectives as deserving equal respect. We chose as well to keep certain paper assignments, with slight modification, such as the Using Bronfenbrenner Model paper and the Limited Income project and paper as they challenged our students to apply theory to experience using both practical and analytical approaches. We continued to assign the final bidisciplinary research paper with précis and annotated bibliography each semester because this assignment provided each student the opportunity to explore his or her paper topic deeply and then relate it to other aspects of the course. We always culminated the course with a panel of community experts, and we continued to require a take-home final exam consisting of two new questions, instructing students to synthesize all parts of the course in their responses. We believe these pedagogical approaches were effective in supporting student learning throughout the years we taught the course.

CHANGES TO THE COURSE To facilitate students’ understanding of poverty’s influence on children’s lives, we made important changes to our course, as well; some were subtle and some fundamental. For example, we altered the stated purpose of the course. Rather than cover multiple related issues, such as poverty, divorce, teen pregnancy, and school dropouts, we chose to focus on poverty as a debilitating social problem. The course became problem-based instead of being discipline-based; that is, the course centered on the problem of poverty. As we chose to reduce the disciplinary divide to fit the broader purpose of the course, we changed the course title from Children in Contexts: Families and School to Children in Contexts in a Changing Society; although this is not a major deviation, it does reflect our intent to concentrate on the social problem of poverty. Accordingly, we tightened course content to examine critical aspects of poverty’s impact on children; we emphasized poverty’s history; current status; effects on families, neighborhoods, and schools; and attempts through federal policy to lessen the negative effects of poverty. By reducing the course’s disciplinary focus and creating a more problembased course, we made clear that for us poverty is a major systemic, societal problem that demands a systemic, policy-based solution instead of individual, volunteer help. To this end, in 2002, we introduced the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), designed by the U.S. Department of Education to close the academic achievement gap between children in poverty and middle class children. We focused as well on the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Act (TANF), the federal Welfare to Work policy created by Congress to decrease recipients’ passive reliance on the welfare system by participating in work training or actual work. Through careful and thorough


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policy analysis of these two federal mandates, students began to grasp the enormous potential of public policy to decrease the negative impact of poverty on families and children. Students also recognized that creating public policy in Congress is not sufficient; the policy must be acted into law, adequately funded, and monitored to make a difference in people’s lives. However, our most far-reaching course change, one that also precipitated other correlated changes, was the implementation of a service-learning component as a course requirement. We found it fitting and even essential that a course dealing with the impact of poverty on children in families and schools would include experiential learning for students. We could envision appropriate field placements in our community and believed that students’ real-life interactions in the community would enhance their learning and their academic success in the course. Our initial goal for the servicelearning component was an increased awareness of and sensitivity to the inequities children who live in poverty experience every day. Originally, we required that each student in the course participate in a community placement for three hours a week for six weeks; students selected a general topic area relevant to the course, such as working with children in school or with single mothers in the community, and the Hobart and William Smith Public Service Office aided in securing related field placements. Students wrote daily journal entries describing their community experiences, and an evaluation of their completed journals contributed to their final grade in the course. During the first few years of including community placements in our course, we were not especially effective in using service-learning as a pedagogical tool.24 We were naïve and assumed students would benefit instinctively, without our guidance, simply by being in the community for a few hours a week. Indeed, they did benefit, although at a very basic level. For example, students working in a Head Start program that first year of community placements noted in their journals that the children always wanted to sit near them and wanted to hold their hands while walking in the hall. On the other hand, those students placed at a teen center felt as though the teens were ignoring and excluding them. Our students centered on themselves, not the individuals with whom they were working. They wrote about their own wishes to be liked and respected by the children and teens, but they neglected to discern the deeper meaning of the young children’s hunger for attention and the teens’ ambivalence toward them.25 We expected students to automatically integrate their community involvement with all the course material to create a thorough understanding of the impact of poverty on children’s lives. We did not consider Rhoads’s notion of service-learning “as a vehicle for fostering active and engaged citizens.”26 We were not familiar with the complexity of Saltmarsh’s service-learning

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goal of “civic learning,”27 nor of Rimmerman’s concept of “the New Citizenship” as being closely linked to experiential service-learning.28 Our goal for student awareness was notable, but we discovered that it was limited and was just a first step; gradually we began to think about our students moving beyond the awareness and helping model of service-learning. We began to understand the larger role service-learning can assume in motivating students to become engaged citizens. Kahane, Westheimer, and Rogers suggest that participating in service-learning can enhance students academically and also in terms of their civic responsibility.29 Cress identifies the goal of service-learning as the development of civically minded students who have learned to problem solve and become change agents. She presents a ven diagram schema for understanding this process that includes knowing/understanding, doing/applying, and analysis. She explains that by relating course content to actual community issues, students can use knowledge from the course for problem solving in the community and thus move beyond simple charitable service. She refers to this process as a “civic responsibility paradigm.”30 Because there is no one accepted definition of good citizenship, Musil outlines six developmental expressions of citizenship: (1) exclusionary/ civic disengagement, (2) oblivious/civic detachment, (3) naïve/civic amnesia, (4) charitable/civic altruism, (5) reciprocal/civic engagement, and (6) generative/civic prosperity as a goal. She believes that colleges have an obligation to work through these levels of service-learning and participate in educating students for democratic citizenship.31 Although an active, problem-solving citizenry was not an articulated part of our original service-learning expectation for students, we recognized the need to enlarge our role as faculty to consider aspects of good citizenship and to actively facilitate the incorporation of the community service component into the rest of the course, as suggested by Astin and his colleagues32 and Zlotkowski and Williams.33 The primary way we advanced this broader perspective and focus on poverty was by intervening with pedagogical structure in students’ journals, assignments, and class discussions. Initially, as we introduced the servicelearning component, we assigned a daily journal when students were in the field. We reminded students to be thoughtful in their journals and not merely report what happened in their placements. We talked about the difference between reporting and reflection in their journals.34 In spite of this guidance, students’ entries often were simple reports of activities in their placements and unexamined descriptions. A typical example of this kind of journal entry would be a student writing that a young child, a first grader, brought in three bags of Oreo cookies to share with the class for snack. The entry detailed three bags of a certain cookie but offered no discussion of common barriers to healthful eating when single mothers work three low-


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paying jobs just to pay basic bills. There was no mention of the absence of both time to shop and prepare healthful snacks and affordable fresh fruits and vegetables in the neighborhood bodega.35 We expected students to be reflective in their journals, but we neglected to give them sufficient supportive tools to accomplish this. Once we realized that students were thinking about their placements as separate from the course, what Eyler refers to as “the isolation of learning from experience,”36 we initiated several assigned topics for their journal entries. For example, one journal assignment was to describe the ways that poverty is manifested in the students’ placement settings; another journal assignment invited students to compare the experiences individuals in their placements have to cases from specific course readings. Half of the students’ entries were responses to these structured questions, and half were freewrite entries. These several direct assignments were well received by the students and supported their efforts to link their placement experience with the course on the effects of poverty. Over the years we and the students made progress through Musil’s citizenship topography as reflected in the students’ journals. Early on, as previously described, students did participate in their placements and wrote daily journal entries. However, using Musil’s terms, they were detached from and oblivious to any hint of their civic responsibility. They utilized a charity model or civic altruism, and viewed themselves solely as helpers to those in need. Once we actively intervened to create and support a larger and more integrated perspective, students became more insightful and began to think about the inequities they were observing in their placements; they were becoming truly engaged in their work in the community. For instance, journal entries in 2006 reflected a much stronger grasp of children’s needs as a part of the societal problem of poverty. In trying to understand the irony of isolation within crowded public housing, one student wrote, These poorer areas of the community are where many if not all of the children who attend the Boys and Girls Club live, mostly in housing projects and developments. . . . They still probably have a sense of isolation simply living in housing projects filled with mostly minority families. . . . This sense of isolation and the frustration that arises from this situation brings with it many risk factors that these children become susceptible to.37

This student saw the children she worked with not just as individual children who needed help with their homework, but as a minority group with few housing options because of de facto housing segregation and the poverty that enveloped their families. Another student from the 2006 class became interested in family dynamics and asked the following critical questions in her journal, “How [do] economic pressures, such as living in poverty . . . affect parent-child relationships? Is there a correlation between

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lower-income families and poor parent-child relationships?”38 She was trying to understand how society’s stresses impact children and their families. Although we have not yet reached Musil’s final stages of reciprocal and generative civic engagement, the students have begun to think more broadly about the relationship among poverty, the need for change, and their role as informed citizens. We also adapted and structured assignments so students were required to apply knowledge, rather than just know the information. For example, in 2004 and 2006 we redesigned the required group projects to be application exercises. For example, one group’s assignment was to prepare for a mock U.S. Senate hearing on particular day care issues and then develop a solution to the problems; another group worked on a school finance case study in which neighboring public schools were funded inequitably. The students researched their group assignments and created dynamic presentations for the class describing the historical background of the problem in question, a thorough critique of current approaches to solving the problem, and possible feasible alternative solutions that the group proposed. The cognitive processes necessary for developing a successful project demanded an application of theory to practice, not simply an understanding of the theory. In addition, we made room in the class schedule for full-period servicelearning placement discussions and supplied directed questions to help students make meaning of their experiences in the community. For these discussions we often designed groups so that those students who were in similar placements could work together to discover parallels in their experiences. For example, students working with single mothers might group together, while students who worked in various day care programs would come together in a group. Other times we created groups of students who were in very different kinds of placements so they could each learn about the dynamics of a variety of placements. For example, on one occasion students were asked to select one example from their placements that demonstrated the critical role the absence of resources plays in the lives of the individuals at their site and then discuss the meaning of their example with their group. The group discussions were lively and fruitful. Using the think (about field experience), write (in daily journal), and share (work in groups) kinds of exercises encouraged students to become more reflective and analytical as they related their community placement experiences to other students; hearing their student colleagues’ perceptions was also valuable to them and broadened their understanding. Whether it was students’ inability to link their experience in the field to course content or their resistance to deal with the complexities of connecting practice with theory, either way our structuring journal assignments, group projects, and class discussion questions were helpful to students and resulted in their higher-level thinking. They became more reflective practi-


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tioners and were more able to link their community placements to the course. In applying theory to practice and relating practice to theory, many students began to see themselves as playing a role as advocates for children and families living in poverty.

NEXT TIME We have made important changes to enhance our course, but there is always more to do. The next time we teach the course we plan to continue refining it, knowing that it is the dynamic development process that leads to an enriching experience for students. First, we plan to increase our emphasis on students actively considering systemic solutions to societal problems rather than rely on individual, volunteer efforts. Systemic problems such as poverty deserve systemic solutions. Policy analysis will continue to play an important pedagogical role in the course. Second, we plan to enlarge the options for community placements to include the usual direct service settings, such as Head Start, and also involve indirect or policy-focused settings, such as the local state House of Representatives office or the city Human Rights Commission.39 Such placements would be particularly important for helping students move beyond the charitable expression of citizenship to civic engagement or civic prosperity. For those students majoring or minoring in public policy, or for those simply interested in how policy is developed, this kind of community placement will be especially meaningful. Next, we will work to create stronger partnerships with the community agencies that host our students, as recommended by Trostle and Hersh40 and by Calderon.41 Truly reciprocal partnerships will support our move away from the charity model, as Musil suggests.42 By regularly including community agencies in our classes rather than waiting until the end of the semester for a final panel, we will benefit from an ongoing, reciprocal discussion. We will also ask our community partners for an evaluation of our students’ performance in their agencies and not just rely on our assessment and the students’ journals for evaluation. Finally, we will create an informal group of all Hobart and William Smith faculty who teach service-learning courses. The group will become a community of learners recommending strategies and materials, discussing current service-learning research, and sharing service-learning teaching experiences. As co-teachers in our bidisciplinary course, we could discuss our course every day and found it useful to do so, but other faculty function as isolated, single instructors. In fact, our own development as effective servicelearning instructors would have moved more quickly if we had had additional colleagues with whom to talk and share ideas. All service-learning

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faculty would benefit from this kind of discussion, and our students would be the ultimate recipients of improved teaching.

CONCLUSION Service-learning is an effective pedagogy for supporting liberal education and engaged citizenship. Our experience in teaching the course was that it was possible, and indeed more effective, to base our course around the “illstructured” problem of childhood poverty in America, and to help our students develop the outcomes prized in a liberal education: critical thinking, communication skills, ability to problem solve, and appreciation and respect for diverse worldviews. The challenge of studying a problem that has multiple causes and multiple outcomes and has no easy or clear solutions forced the students to engage with the material at a deeper level and develop their analytical and problem solving skills. As the course evolved, we came to appreciate that the shift from a disciplinary focus to a problembased focus did not diminish the power of the course as a part of the curriculum, but, to the contrary, enhanced it. The incorporation of a service-based component to the course was essential for students to become engaged with the problem of childhood poverty and to develop a sense of social and civic responsibility. As they moved between their placements and the classroom, the problem of poverty became real in a way that could not have happened through class discussions and reading assignments alone. However, left with just the experience of their service placements, they did not engage in analysis that resulted in an understanding of either the systemic nature of the causes and outcomes of poverty or the need for systemic rather than individual solutions. Embedding structured reflection into the course, in multiple ways and at multiple times, was necessary to allow students to move to a level of analysis that engaged, rather than avoided, the messiness of studying childhood poverty. Through structured reflection, students began to understand their own responsibilities and to begin to grapple with their own obligation to take action. As Falbo notes, asking students to engage in the world is the first step, and accompanying them upon their return is the necessary second.43 Even as we have improved the course, we know that we can and should do more. Despite the changes, students still found it difficult to conceive of solutions that were not parochial but rather were systemically based. While students often became committed to taking personal action, many did not necessarily view themselves as social change agents. The use of placements that only involved direct services contributed to this narrower view and we know that we must expand the kind of service placements if we are serious about our goal of developing habits of citizenship. Similarly, we need to in-


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clude our community partners as educators because of their expertise and experiences. We will continue to employ service-learning in our course because we are convinced of its contribution to both liberal education and an educated citizenry. Our goal is to help students find their place in the world, as learners and citizens, and it is hard to imagine a better way than through servicelearning.

NOTES 1. Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College, 2002. 2. William Cronon, “‘Only Connect’: The Goals of a Liberal Education,” Liberal Education 85, no. 1 (1999). 3. Cronon, “‘Only Connect,’” 11. 4. Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College, 2002. 5. National Leadership Council for Liberal Education and America’s Promise, 2007. 6. National Leadership Council for Liberal Education and America’s Promise, 2007, 35. 7. National Leadership Council for Liberal Education and America’s Promise, 2007. 8. See Cronon, “‘Only Connect’”; Robert Rhoads, “How Civic Engagement Is Reframing Liberal Education,” Peer Review 5, no. 3 (2003). 9. Cronon, “‘Only Connect.’” 10. Janet Eyler, “Reflection: Linking Service and Learning—Linking Students and Communities,” The Journal of Social Issues 58, no. 3 (2002): 11 11. National Leadership Council for Liberal Education and America’s Promise, 2007; Rhoads, “How Civic Engagement Is Reframing Liberal Education.” 12. Cronon, “‘Only Connect’”; National Leadership Council for Liberal Education and America’s Promise, 2007. 13. Eyler, “Reflection.” 14. National Leadership Council for Liberal Education and America’s Promise, 2007. 15. Eugene Lang, “Distinctively American: The Liberal Arts College,” Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 128, no. 1 (1999). 16. See Robert Bringle and Julie Hatcher, “Institutionalization of Service Learning in Higher Education,” Journal of Higher Education 71, no. 3 (2000). 17. Christine Cress, “Defining a Service Learning Pedagogy of Access and Success,” in A More Perfect Vision: The Future of Campus Engagement, ed. B. Holland and J. Meeropol (Providence, RI: Campus Compact, 2006). Available at: www.compact .org/20th/papers. 18. Student evaluation no. 15, 1995. 19. Student evaluation no. 6, 1995.

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20. David Elkind, “School and Family in the Postmodern World,” Phi Delta Kappan 77, no. 1 (1995). 21. Uri Bronfenbrenner, “Toward an Experimental Ecology of Human Development,” American Psychologist 32, no. 7 (July 1977). 22. Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools (New York: Crown, 1991) and The Shame of the Nation: Schooling in America (New York: Crown, 2005). 23. Kathryn Edin and Laura Lein, Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low-Wage Work (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997). 24. See Rachel Parker-Gwin and J. Beth Mabry, “Service Learning as Pedagogy and Civic Education: Comparing Outcomes for Three Models,” Teaching Sociology 26, no. 4 (1998). 25. These comments were taken from generic notes we took from student journals when we first introduced service-learning to the course in 1997. 26. Rhoads, “How Civic Engagement Is Reframing Liberal Education.” 27. John Saltmarsh, “The Civic Promise of Service Learning,” Liberal Education 91, no. 2 (2005). 28. Craig A. Rimmerman, The New Citizenship: Unconventional Politics, Activism, and Service, 2nd ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001). 29. Joseph Kahane, Joel Westheimer, and Bethany Rogers, “Service Learning in Higher Education,” special issue, Michigan Journal of Service Learning (2000). 30. Cress, “Defining a Service Learning Pedagogy of Access and Success,” 3 31. Caryn Musil, “Educating for Citizenship,” Peer Review 5, no. 3 (2003): 5 32. Alexander Astin et al., How Service Learning Affects Students (Los Angeles: HERI, 2000). Available at: www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/PDFs/HSLAS/HSLAS.PDF (accessed May 24, 2007). 33. Edward Zlotkowski and Dilafruz Williams, “The Faculty Role in Civic Engagement,” Peer Review 5, no. 3 (2003). 34. See Donald Shoen, The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action (New York: Basic Books, 1983); Eyler, “Reflection.” 35. This entry was taken from generic notes we took on student journals when we first introduced service-learning to the course in 1997. 36. Eyler, “Reflection,” 517. 37. Journal 8, L. M., April 3–7, 2006. 38. Journal 1, E. B., February 16, 2006. 39. See Eyler, “Reflection.” 40. James Trostle and Richard Hersh, “Lessons from a College Promoting Civic Engagement,” Peer Review 5, no. 3 (2003). 41. Joes Calderon, “Partnership in Teaching and Learning: Combining the Practice of Critical Pedagogy with Civic Engagement and Diversity,” Peer Review 5, no. 3 (2003). 42. Musil, “Educating for Citizenship.” 43. Mark Falbo, “Dare American Higher Education Build a New Social Order? In the Service of Whom and the Promotion of What in Education?” in A More Perfect Vision: The Future of Campus Engagement, ed. B. Holland and J. Meerpopol (Providence, RI: Campus Compact, 2006). Available at: www.compact.org/20th/papers.

9 Learning about Student Alcohol Abuse and Helping to Prevent It through Service-Learning Initiatives: The HWS Alcohol Education Project David W. Craig and H. Wesley Perkins

Educators have long argued that making strong connections between academic work and the lives of students achieves ever-greater learning. Engaging students more fully in academic interests through service-learning has become an increasingly popular strategy in this regard. In a large study of undergraduates attending forty-two institutions nationwide with community service programs, Astin and Sax1 demonstrated that participation in community service significantly enhanced students’ academic development, life skill development, and sense of civic responsibility. Service-learning most commonly brings up images of students’ involvement in working on social problems addressing areas of basic human need or helping to bring about societal or environmental change. Usually what comes to mind are courserelated or co-curricular internships where students work in organizations and programs providing assistance to socioeconomically disadvantaged populations such as in soup kitchens, homeless shelters, literacy programs, and child and elder care; in health care provider arenas; in political action groups and legislative assistance positions; or in environmental advocacy organizations. It is less common to think of the topic of alcohol abuse as a service-learning opportunity for college students. If it is considered at all, it is usually in the context of student internships working with homeless individuals, teenage dropouts, or runaways in a social service agency. There are tremendous opportunities for expanding the vision and application of service-learning to study and work experience regarding alcohol abuse, however, for at least three reasons.

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First, greater opportunity is there simply because the topic is so important and of broad interest to students. Alcohol abuse is a major social problem and health concern. Alcohol misuse is one of the largest health hazards contributing substantially to mortality rates, for example, and violence is often associated with heavy alcohol use. Courses on alcohol and other drugs are routinely popular topics typically producing high enrollments when offered. Second, alcohol abuse is not just something “out there” in society. Rather, it affects many students in their own families, many friends, and sometimes themselves personally. One in five students, for example, is the child of an alcoholic, and that number narrows to one in four if grandparents are included.2 Furthermore, alcohol use is at its highest levels among young adults of traditional college age, and the highest levels of alcohol use occur in college populations compared to other same-age counterparts.3 College students also report experiencing a wide range of negative consequences of alcohol misuse at substantial rates.4 So the topic provides for the possibility of extensive service-learning experiences in students’ own backyards. Thus, unlike service-learning experiences on many other topics, service-learning experiences can and should take place directly within the college environment as well as in outside organizations and larger community settings. Third, the last decade has experienced increased calls for faculty involvement in addressing college drinking problems and for expanded learning about alcohol issues through curriculum infusion in higher education.5 In addition to concern about the generally destructive effects of problem drinking, faculty have an added stake in efforts to reduce the problem among students because heavy alcohol use is strongly associated with lower student engagement and poorer academic performance.6 On close examination one can find many connections to traditional academic disciplines. The effects of alcohol use on the brain, tolerance, and alcohol metabolism is a focus of biochemistry; motivations for alcohol use, expectancies for alcohol effects, and personality differences predicting problem use invoke psychological perspectives; the influences of group dynamics, demographic variation in drinking, and cultural norms call up sociological perspectives; policies to reduce harm are a direct purview of public policy studies; alcohol abuse prevention through health services are a direct concern of medical and allied health fields; biographies in literature accounting the influence of alcohol use on an individual’s life can be a focus for courses in the humanities; and film entertainment, commercial advertising, and public service prevention announcements portraying alcohol use are fertile ground for students working in media studies. Indeed, there is potential for the study of alcohol use in almost every academic discipline. These basic elements—the intense personal interest of students, the campus setting as a high-risk environment itself, and the diverse academic

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curriculum that can be linked to alcohol concerns—provide especially fertile ground for engaging faculty and staff in the development of servicelearning initiatives that can enhance students’ education about alcohol and simultaneously engage the students in the prevention of alcoholrelated problems. This latter point about engaging students in prevention work and promoting learning in the process of this work in their own immediate peer community is especially important. As Osborn, Thombs, and Olds7 remark, “although undergraduates often have been the subjects of alcohol research (i.e., passive recipients of investigational services), they seldom have been regarded as collaborators in campus research endeavors seeking to reduce alcohol-related harm. . . . For too long, research on college student drinking has been seen as something to do to students rather than with them. Partnerships with student allies must therefore be developed if progress is to be realized in creating healthier campus communities.” Students so engaged can simultaneously learn academic theories and research methodology while potentially contributing a service of helping prevent alcohol abuse in the local campus community. This model of using service as a strategy for teaching about research has been used in other settings with students investigating health promotion to simultaneously enhance student learning while providing beneficial service as well.8 Moreover, from the service perspective, traditional college-age students are still forming health behavior patterns that will persist into later adulthood. This service, then, is of particular importance given that college interventions in health may be the last developmental opportunity to significantly promote healthy behaviors for many individuals in the process of their education.9 Simply engaging students in the process of research and prevention work on campuses as a service-learning experience does not, however, by itself assure a successful outcome in the effort to reduce alcohol abuse in collegiate populations. One has to consider what research is being conducted and what information is being discussed as a result of the research. Education about the biomedical aspects of alcohol and harm caused by heavy drinking may be important for generating concern about the problem in some quarters of the community. But this type of education alone, whether delivered by faculty or peers, has generally not led to significant reductions in either use rates or resulting harm. In contrast, an alternative educational strategy we have relied heavily upon to effect reductions in student alcohol abuse incorporates the social norms approach to substance abuse prevention10 into our research, teaching, and the service-learning experiences of our students. Social norms prevention theory provides a framework that relates accurate perceptions of what most people think is acceptable regarding drinking and what they do (how much alcohol they actually consume and how

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frequently they actually consume) to prevent harmful alcohol misuse. A large body of research has demonstrated that youth and adults perceive that peers consume alcohol more frequently and in greater quantities than is actually the case and that they think their peers are more permissive in their attitudes about drinking than is actually the case. In addition, research has shown that perceived frequency and quantity of peer alcohol use is the strongest predictor of actual personal use among college students.11 In other words, erroneous and exaggerated perceptions about peer alcohol use potentially give rise to greater levels of use than would be the case if perceptions were more accurate. Thus, social norms prevention theory predicts that as populations are provided with credible accurate information about actual attitudes and alcohol use levels, perceptions about peer use of alcohol will become more accurate and excessive use and risky behavior will decline. Numerous applications of this social norms approach to prevention using mass media campaigns, curriculum infusion, co-curricular programs, and small group interventions to feed back normative information in college as well as other populations have demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing actual alcohol use and resulting harm.12 Programs that are persistent in providing large doses of the truth in creative and convincing ways about the positive norms of the majority of students succeed in creating an environment where students who do not want to engage in high-risk drinking do not feel as pressured to do so. Students who routinely choose to drink in abusive ways, thinking they are just like everyone else, must then reevaluate their own drinking as they see it represents an extreme behavior among peers. Thus, the social norms approach to prevention provides a natural relationship between academic research about alcohol use and a way to reduce problem drinking in a college setting. Our contention here is that students can and should be engaged as allies in this process of promoting the truth about the real norms of peers to maximize the potential of this social norms approach. The Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS) Alcohol Education Project is a broad collection of education and research initiatives developed and implemented during the last decade to better inform students, faculty, and staff in higher education and secondary school settings nationwide and on our local campus about alcohol and other drugs and address problems of abuse, especially by addressing misperceptions of norms in innovative ways.13 Furthermore, several initiatives introduced or directly supported by the HWS Alcohol Education Project over this time period have engaged students in service to the local campus in programs designed to reduce alcohol misuse and harm. Indeed, designing service-learning initiatives that provide various opportunities for student engagement in alcohol abuse prevention efforts on campus has been an important mission of our project.


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The remainder of this chapter describes a variety of service-learning initiatives of the project that have been developed and implemented over the course of the past decade in its efforts to produce an effective alcohol education and prevention plan. Space limitations of this article prevent our providing a detailed description of each program and practice. Thus, this chapter is not intended as a step-by-step checklist of programs to implement. Rather, our intention is to help generate ideas for the reader by providing brief examples of how service-learning about student alcohol use might be introduced with positive result. Although the work described here focuses on programs and service-learning strategies primarily related to alcohol abuse prevention, similar approaches might be applied to prevention of tobacco use and other drug problems as well. Each of the program elements described here combine an academic teaching and research activity investigating some aspect of alcohol use connected with a service-learning prevention initiative in the form of a social norms intervention designed to correct student misperceptions about drinking norms. The service-learning initiatives include (1) course-based service-learning, (2) independent study research service-learning, (3) pre-professional training service-learning, and (4) co-curricular opportunities for service-learning. Detailed information about each of these initiatives can be obtained from the HWS project website.14

COURSE-BASED SERVICE-LEARNING Two courses were developed allowing students to pursue issues of alcohol use while requiring them to expand their expertise beyond any one disciplinary specialty. Service-learning experience was provided through communication of the results of this research to the larger community outside the classroom as a component of campus-wide alcohol abuse prevention efforts. The interrelationships between academic learning and service are described below for these courses. The design of these courses integrated academic learning and service into one seamless enterprise. Service was the vehicle and logical conclusion of the academic work with the objective of helping prevent harm caused by alcohol abuse in the local college setting. Each of these courses is described by addressing four key questions: 1. 2. 3. 4.

What were students learning? How were students learning? How was what students learned communicated to peers and others? How did the service-learning activities of the course contribute to dispelling misperceptions about alcohol and the norms regarding its use in the larger campus community?

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COURSE 1: ALCOHOL USE AND ABUSE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES This course has been team taught by a biochemist and sociologist contributing academic credit toward majors and minors in public policy and sociology. It brought together undergraduates from the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities to look comprehensively at the phenomenon of alcohol use in our society from a variety of academic perspectives. What Were Students Learning? The learning objectives for this course included (1) further development of research skills by pushing students into literature and research methodologies within and beyond their disciplinary majors, (2) further development of skills to integrate a multiplicity of disciplinary perspectives to solve complex problems, (3) development of team as well as individual approaches to working on complex problems (team members typically brought different academic perspectives and expertise to bear on the problem), and (4) development of creative communication strategies to educate a large and disparate audience on the results of their course research. Study of complex interdisciplinary questions about alcohol use and abuse was ideally suited to achieve these learning objectives. Topics presented by faculty in the course included epidemiological scope of use and misuse, biochemical mechanisms of alcohol metabolism and its action on the brain, health consequences of alcohol use, psychological and biological aspects of addiction, aspects of alcohol use and misuse in the college environment, and theories of prevention, to name a few. Students in the course pursued interdisciplinary research projects usually in teams that brought these topics and perspectives to bear on a particular research question. Two sample research topics are presented below to illustrate how questions about alcohol use and abuse invoked a multiplicity of disciplinary perspectives to answer. Sample Research Topic 1: Gender Differences in Alcohol Use among College Students Students investigating this research have examined the comparative patterns of alcohol use among men and women. Research questions have included, What are the biological differences between men and women that influence how alcohol consumption affects their bodies? What differences in health risks exist for women in comparison with men? How are health risks related to the quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption levels? What are the distributions of alcohol consumption among men and women in college? Do the pat-


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terns of consequences that men and women experience as a result of alcohol use differ? What are the biological explanations for these differences? What are the sociocultural explanations for these differences? What are the genderspecific patterns of perceived/misperceived drinking norms among college students? Sample Research Topic 2: Alcohol Use and the Intercollegiate Athlete Research questions that students have pursued while investigating this topic have included, How does the distribution of alcohol use among student athletes compare with the general student body? What are the sociological explanations for these differences? What is the impact of alcohol use on athletic performance? What levels of alcohol consumption lead to impairments in performance and health? What proportion of student athletes experience increased risk of impaired performance due to alcohol consumption? What kinds of education and programming might be developed to reduce the harm caused by alcohol abuse among student athletes? How Were Students Learning? Each of these sample research projects engage students to think more broadly about how their disciplinary specialties contribute to important questions of alcohol abuse and how at the same time they must consider the insight of other disciplinary perspectives. This multidisciplinary approach to teaching and problem solving creates greater integration and complex research skills among students so that they can approach problem-solving situations at a deeper and more “real world” level. In the pursuit of answers to their research questions, students participated in two primary data collection activities: (1) as individuals or small groups they conducted a detailed interdisciplinary literature review on their topics, and (2) they assisted in conducting a campus-wide survey of student alcohol use. Each of these course activities are described below in more detail. How Was What Students Learned Communicated to Peers and Others? The results of literature reviews and of the campus-wide survey contributed important information to student research projects. Another important learning objective for this course included the development of strategies to communicate more broadly with the campus community as a service that extended student dialogue and presentation of results beyond the course. Communication methods developed by faculty and students in this course are described below.

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Research Poster Displays Students created posters presenting the results of their research topic. These posters have been designed to emphasize the scientific nature of the data collection as well as the principle findings. Posters were displayed in the high traffic first floor entrance of the library near the bibliographic search stations and in display cases placed in academic buildings and residence hall recreation lounges around campus. The Alcohol Inquirer A website was designed with a newspaper format reporting the results of research projects conducted by students and faculty in this course. Student contributions included articles on children of alcoholics, fetal alcohol syndrome, gender differences in perceived norms among students and how to estimate blood alcohol concentration, to name a few. In addition, the electronic web format gave the added capability to deliver video presentations. Students in this course produced short video clips on topics such as health and alcohol use, the influence of alcohol on sleep, health issues for women, student misperceptions of peer alcohol use, and the results of correcting peer misperceptions on actual use. The content of faculty lectures was also posted to this website describing the action of alcohol on the brain and the results of the campus-wide survey. Finally, copies of posters reporting the results of student research have been percolated throughout the simulated newspaper site in an advertisement format providing additional material that students and faculty in this course had put together.15 Multimedia Campus Factoids™ and Screen Saver A screen saver and interactive program, Campus Factoids™ (for the entire student body), and a similar program, MVP Factoids (for student athletes), have been developed by faculty directors of the Alcohol Education Project as an electronic communication mechanism to give the entire campus access to information from data collected about students, including data collected by students in this class and elsewhere. The screen saver software was installed in open computer laboratories and on computer kiosks in hightraffic areas displaying information rotated every twenty seconds. The database of images and facts are updated periodically on a campus server that automatically distributes the data to each computer running the software on campus. The Campus Factoids™ multimedia interactive program allows students to search the database by topic and to see relevant informational factoids, poster results of research, and even multimedia video presentations. Electronic versions of student posters and other student material


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from the course have been displayed in this medium along with messages prepared by campus professionals. A diversity of information has been posted to the Campus Factoids™ and MVP Factoids databases. Data topics range from campus life and academics to career goals, graduates, and current student health. This diversity of information has helped to draw large numbers to the database for a variety of reasons. Students may be interested in career paths of graduates; they might be interested in awards received by a particular athletic team. Whatever the reason an individual has for browsing the database, they eventually encounter the health information and research data from students in this course. Student research data have included information on alcohol consumption norms for the campus, the majorities that don’t experience negative consequences due to drinking, protective behaviors used by students, the fact that the majority do not drive while alcohol impaired, intervention strategies when a friend drinks to excess, and many more. Newspaper and Radio These media channels were used by students and faculty to communicate timely information broadly to readers and listeners. One important use of these channels has been communication of information on a topic related to a heavily publicized campus incident. When an alcohol-related incident reaches the press, the students and faculty in this course respond with information about how the majority of students do not engage in or experience the reported consequence, be it drinking to dangerous excess, drinking and driving, or some other consequence of excessive drinking. Data Sharing with Health Professionals The large mass of data collected by students in this course has served as a tremendous resource to campus alcohol and other drug-program professionals for integration into educational programming. Distillations of facts about the frequency and quantity of alcohol use as well as the frequency of consequences experienced have been shared regularly with staff who provide educational and counseling services for the student body. This information has been incorporated into programming described below. How Did the Service-Learning Activities Contribute to Dispelling Misperceptions about Alcohol and the Norms Regarding Its Use in the Larger Campus Community? All of the data-sharing activities described above were, at least in part, conducted to provide the campus with accurate local information about

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what students think and do about alcohol. By providing scientifically collected, credible information about the majority of students exhibiting healthy norms regarding drinking, and by broadly disseminating that information, misperceptions and myths surrounding campus alcohol use were challenged. Thus, the activities of this course provided the campus community with scientifically collected data about alcohol use demonstrating that the majority of students use alcohol moderately or not at all and do not experience negative consequences due to its use. Many students found these results very surprising given their misperceptions. The dissonance students feel with the apparent contradiction between what they perceived was the situation with alcohol use on campus and the results of scientific studies conducted or communicated by their peers has sparked many debates and discussion in the classroom and among students and faculty all over campus. These discussions have contributed to dispelling myths about alcohol and provided them with more accurate perceptions of peer alcohol use. It is also important to consider the role of peers in collecting and delivering information about student alcohol use. Peer health education has grown in recent years as it has been found that peers can credibly communicate information to students and engage in discussion with students in ways that professional staff cannot. The added credibility of students communicating data on alcohol use without perceived hidden agendas has contributed powerfully to the credibility of the messages delivered through the activities described above. Finally, the information that students have provided to campus health professionals has been used in residence hall education programs and in brief counseling interventions for alcohol policy offenders. In each program, information about local student alcohol use was presented demonstrating that, again, majorities of students have moderate responsible attitudes with regard to alcohol and consume only moderately or do not drink at all. Campus professionals that have delivered these programs with this credible studentcollected data have been provided with more effective information than what health professionals could provide by themselves alone.

COURSE 2: ALCOHOL IN COLLEGE: WHAT IS TRUTH? WHAT IS MYTH? This first-year seminar course guided a group of first-term students through a scientific exploration of alcohol use and misuse in college from a variety of academic perspectives. Students reviewed the social science, public health, and biomedical literature on this topic and conducted research on the local campus community serving as a laboratory for the course.


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What Were Students Learning? The learning objectives for this course served as an introduction to the approach scholars take to understanding a complex problem. In this case, the problem of college alcohol abuse was used to illustrate the components of a focused scholarly research project, taking students through a literature search, theories of prevention, experimental design, protections of human subjects in research, Institutional Review Board (IRB) requirements for research involving human subjects, and presentation of research to the broader campus community. Research topics pursued by students in this course were similar to those in Alcohol Use and Abuse: Causes and Consequences, but more focused attention was given to how data collection can support interventions in the college setting. This course gave special emphasis to the responsibility of researchers to share the results of their research with the larger community for its benefit.

How Were Students Learning? Two different types of data collection activities were conducted by students in this course as they pursued their research questions. First, students collected data on late-night blood alcohol concentrations. Second, they collected alcohol-use survey data in the residence halls and presented research results while collecting additional information in interactive evening floor meetings in residence halls. Each of these two activities is described in more detail below. Students participated in the design of a research protocol for collecting late-night, double-blind blood alcohol measurements with a paired anonymous survey on a randomized sample of students returning to their residence halls between 11pm and 3am every night of the week. This protocol was submitted for IRB approval early in the term and then students conducted the research following IRB approval for the remainder of the term. By combining a blind blood alcohol measurement with a short survey about alcohol use that night, protective behaviors practiced, consequences experienced when drinking, and demographic background characteristics, students in the course were able to answer a host of questions related to their research projects. They were also able to see first hand through systematic observation that in contrast with the common stereotypes, although some students exhibit seriously problematic drinking patterns, the majority of peers consumed alcohol moderately or not at all. Their data demonstrated to them that the majority of peers did not experience negative consequences as a result of their drinking and that peers frequently engaged in protective behaviors reducing risks. Students in this course also collected data during interactive, thirty-minute presentations in residence hall floor meetings using remote response devices

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commonly called “clickers.” These devices allow students to answer multiplechoice questions anonymously in a group and the results are displayed in a bar chart on a Microsoft PowerPoint slide. Students can answer the question with the click of a button on their response device. The response devices transmit a radio signal to a receiver mounted in a USB port of the presentation computer. Software facilitates display of the results as soon as students have answered the question. This technology allows students in this course to collect anonymous survey data at the same time as being able to share results of the survey to everyone in the room. In these interactive sessions, students confirmed the results of their latenight breathalyzer testing that the majorities consume alcohol moderately or not at all. In addition, through conversations with students in the sessions they were able to see how strongly students held their misperceptions about peer alcohol use and the surprise peers experienced when they saw how the responses turned out. How Was What Students Learned Communicated to Peers and Others? Results from the late-night blood alcohol measurements were incorporated into the interactive campus residence hall presentations communicating to students the results of the research in which they participated as subjects. In addition, during the residence hall presentations, the “clicker” technology (described above) enabled the results of the questions to be immediately displayed to the audience. Poster presentations of the research were prepared and presented by students in the class in the context of a larger research symposium put on by and for students enrolled in a variety of first-year student seminars. These research posters about student alcohol use were subsequently displayed on bulletin boards in the science center reporting the results of this student-conducted research. Finally, results from the late-night breathalyzer testing were posted on the Campus Factoids™ database. Results were also posted on the MVP Factoids database by selectively analyzing the student athletes in the sample. Finally, results of the data collection activities were also shared with campus health professionals for inclusion in their educational programming, counseling, and brief interventions for alcohol policy offenders, as described above. How Did the Service-Learning Activities Contribute to Dispelling Misperceptions about Alcohol and the Norms Regarding Its Use in the Larger Campus Community? The results of research conducted by students in this course were communicated broadly across campus through methods described above. In each of the communication activities, students reported results of local re-


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search, providing peers with accurate information about the reality of positive student norms for alcohol use. Results of the late-night blood alcohol measurements had confirmed that the overwhelming majority of students were using alcohol either moderately or not drinking at all on a given night, even on weekends. Confidence in the data was bolstered by the 85 percent participation rate among selected participants.16 These results greatly surprised many students as they corroborated findings of self-report surveys. In addition, questions were developed in the “clicker” presentations that ask students about the believability of a particular finding at the beginning of the presentation and then again at the end after students were shown the results of campus-wide survey data as well as specific data for the group present in the room. Significant improvements in the believability of social norms messages were achieved within the thirty-minute sessions delivered by students in the course. The breathalyzer data shared with health professionals has been of particular interest to these professionals. These data represent another set of scientifically valid research evidence collected in a completely different way than the survey data they have used in the past. The data can be used in complementary ways to help break down denial among heavy-using skeptics in counseling and brief intervention sessions.

INDEPENDENT STUDY IN BIOCHEMISTRY What Were Students Learning? Students interested in pursuing focused research on college alcohol use elected to pursue independent study research projects advised by an HWS Project faculty member. Students assisted in the design of a human subjects research protocol that protected the rights of voluntary subjects participating in blood alcohol measurements by breath test in campus residence halls. When the first-year student seminar course described above was being offered during the same term, advanced independent study students collaborated with first-year seminar students in protocol design and survey design. Many of the same research questions described above were pursued by independent study students at a more in-depth level. How Were Students Learning? Students conducting independent research conducted data-collection activities on college populations on the local campus. This included participation in the late-night breathalyzer data collection activities as well as conducting anonymous surveys on attitudes, amounts and lengths of time

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drinking, perceptions of norms, and consequences experienced as a result of alcohol use on campus. Data on physical characteristics (e.g., weight and gender) were also collected so that peak BAC levels could be estimated from the survey data and compared to the biological measurements. How Was What Students Learned Communicated to Peers and Others? Independent study students wrote papers on their results and designed scientific poster presentations that were delivered at scientific meetings both on and off campus. The distinction in this case, compared with the mechanisms for sharing information above, was that these data were shared largely through scientific poster presentations in the science complex and at public science poster presentations of student research that took place periodically throughout the academic year. Data from their studies were also made available to campus prevention specialists to incorporate into their programming in residence halls and in policyoffender workshops. How Did the Service-Learning Activities Contribute to Dispelling Misperceptions about Alcohol and the Norms Regarding Its Use in the Larger Campus Community? The independent study participants made a crucial contribution to the collection of anonymous BAC data. Their work added to the broader prevention efforts of faculty and student life staff and students in other courses that were communicating information to the larger community about the actual moderate and responsible levels of alcohol consumed by the majority of students. It likely boosted the credibility of the evidence as it came from upper-level student peers who were responsible for collecting the anonymous data with a rigorous sampling method. Discussions at scientific poster presentations and oral presentations on campus of datacollection methodology and research results helped to build a larger group of individuals on campus that could challenge the common stereotype of the typical student as frequently drunk.

TEACHER EDUCATION TRAINING Teacher certification requires substance abuse training for all candidates in preparation of their certification to teach in public schools. Infusion of alcohol education workshops into teacher certification programs can provide student teachers with new information that has been used to assist local


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school districts in refining and enhancing their substance abuse prevention programs. Faculty from the Alcohol Education Project have occasionally conducted seminars on alcohol use among secondary school students and social norms prevention theory for student teachers in the undergraduate program. Students participating in these seminars have, during student teaching, participated in the delivery of school programs in alcohol abuse prevention. Training in this area has given teaching candidates an additional service that they are capable of delivering to schools in which they work. In addition to this service, they are also equipped with the knowledge from these workshops that has enabled them to participate as peer educators on our campus in its prevention efforts as described below.

PEER EDUCATORS AND SERVICE-LEARNING What Were Peer Educators Learning? Directed by the Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Programs and supported with data and trainings provided by the HWS Project, peer health educators have taken on the communication of accurate information about peer alcohol use on campus in both formal and informal settings as a crucial task. Peer educators have been trained in principles of social norms prevention theory and provided the results of research on actual alcohol use gathered on this campus. The HWS project has most recently focused on a peer program targeting intercollegiate athletes, and this program is described below. How Were Students Learning? The goal of the MVP PEP (Peers Educating Peers) program working in conjunction with the Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Programs was to educate student-athlete peers through programming and mentoring. Each year, newly selected MVP PEP members received six to ten hours of training about alcohol use, healthy lifestyles, and social norms theory and research. Student-athlete peer leaders assisted in conducting an online survey of peers. Surveys were conducted using a web-based instrument in computer labs monitored by peers. They were trained by HWS Project staff in the research protocol and clearly communicated the data collection activities in the computer labs with student-athletes. Following data collection activities, MVP PEP peer members met with HWS Project directors to help identify the most useful messages coming from the data.

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How Was What Peer Educators Learned Then Communicated to Other Students? During the fall semesters, MVP PEP members would facilitate forty-fiveminute interactive presentations to athletic teams. Student-athlete peers promoted healthy living by providing accurate information through interactive presentations geared toward fostering dialogue among participants. They worked collaboratively with the Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Programs to produce and disseminate accurate social norms messages focusing specifically on HWS student-athlete characteristics identified through survey data collection. Each MVP PEP member is paired with an experienced facilitator so that no individual has to present alone. How Did This Service-Learning Activity Contribute to Dispelling Misperceptions about Alcohol and the Norms Regarding Its Use among Student Athletes? During the interactive team presentations, MVP PEP members provided accurate information to student athletes about actual peer norms regarding alcohol use and clarified and challenged any misperceptions peers might have had. Peers could discuss with authority and knowledge to student athletes the validity of the data since they had participated in the data collection activities and assisted in the formulation of the messages.

IMPACT OF HWS PROJECT ON CAMPUS ALCOHOL PREVENTION The HWS Project has documented significant progress in alcohol prevention in assessment analyses over that last decade.17 The initiatives described in this chapter have contributed substantially to the outcomes of this project by providing avenues for reducing misperceptions of peer alcohol use and promoting healthy behaviors among Hobart and William Smith Colleges’ students. As a result of this work, the HWS project has been twice selected by the U.S. Department of Education in 1999 and in 2005 as a model program. The 1999 recognition was for outcomes achieved in it campuswide efforts and in 2005 for efforts focusing on student athletes. Highlights of the HWS Project accomplishments are described below. Early results from the HWS Project in 1999 demonstrated significant campus-wide impact. In just the first 18 months of the program’s implementation, the Alcohol Use and Abuse class survey revealed a 15 percent reduction in the frequency of perceived heavy drinking, and problematic rea-


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sons for drinking were also reduced, including a 16 percent reduction in drinking to get drunk, a 34 percent reduction in drinking to break the ice, and a 31 percent reduction in drinking to relieve anxieties. At the same time, actual heaving drinking at parties and bars declined by 15 percent and frequent heavy drinking declined by 21 percent. Student-reported consequences of drinking also declined with a 36 percent reduction in property damage, 31 percent reduction in missing classes, 25 percent reduction in inefficient in work, 40 percent reduction in unprotected sex, and 25 percent reduction in memory loss. The results of this project have been published by the U.S. Department of Education18 and have led to its recognition as a model program by the United States Department of Education Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. In 2005 the HWS Project was recognized again as a model program for its progress in preventing dangerous levels of alcohol use among intercollegiate athletes. Outcomes between 2001 and 2003 included a (1) 45 percent reduction in the proportion of student athletes misperceiving drinking more than once per week as the teammate norm, (2) 46 percent reduction in the proportion of student athletes drinking more than once per week, (3) 30 percent reduction in the proportion of student athletes reaching an estimated BAC of .08 percent or greater when drinking at parties and bars, (4) 34 percent reduction in the proportion of student athletes experiencing frequent negative consequences due to drinking during the academic term, and (5) an average 2.5-hours-per-week increase in time spent in academic activities. In conclusion, students have many opportunities to collaborate with prevention specialists on campus to assist with program delivery. Those that have enrolled in one or more of the courses described here or have participated in independent study research are particularly well suited to serve the local campus community. The work students do has included media design and creation, serving as peer educators in residence halls and for various groups on campus, and assisting faculty in research activities. The campus coursework opportunities combined with these opportunities have created a rich learning environment that expands learning beyond the classroom by applying academic theoretical work toward resolving an important campus problem. Having a critical mass of students well versed on the issues, attitudes, and experiences of peers’ alcohol use and abuse can contribute significantly to countering detrimental misperceptions. Their service in these research and educational endeavors can give them special insight and motivation to engage in campus conversations in classes as well as in social contexts of student life. These peer conversations are essential in helping to grow a more healthy campus culture.

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NOTES 1. Alexander W. Astin and Linda J. Sax, “How Undergraduates Are Affected by Service Participation,” Journal of College Student Development 39, no. 3 (1998): 251–63. 2. H. W. Perkins and A. D. Berkowitz, “Collegiate COAs and Alcohol Abuse: Problem Drinking in Relation to Assessments of Parent and Grandparent Alcoholism,” Journal of Counseling and Development 69, no. 3 (1991): 237–40. 3. L. D. Johnston, P. M. O’Malley, and J. G. Bachman, Monitoring the Future: National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975–2001, vol. 2 (Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002). 4. H. W. Perkins, “Surveying the Damage: A Review of Research on Consequences of Alcohol Misuse in College Populations,” Journal of Studies on Alcohol, supplement 14 (2002): 91–100. 5. B. E. Ryan and W. DeJong, Making the Link: Faculty and Prevention (Newton, MA: Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention, U.S. Department of Education, 1998). 6. S. Porter and J. Pryor, “The Effects of Heavy Episodic Alcohol Use on Student Engagement, Academic Performance, and Time Use,” Journal of College Student Development 48, no. 4 (2007): 455–67. 7. C. J. Osborn, D. L. Thombs, and R. S. Olds, “Reconceptualizing Research on Undergraduate Alcohol Use: The Need for Student Engagement,” Evaluation & the Health Professions 30, no. 2 (2007): 119, 134. 8. M. A. Schaffer and S. Peterson, “Service Learning as a Strategy for Teaching Undergraduate Research,” Journal of Experimental Education 21, no. 3 (1998): 154–61. 9. N. W. Ottenritter, “Service Learning, Social Justice, and Campus Health,” Journal of American College Health 52, no. 4 (2004): 189–91. 10. H. W. Perkins, “Social Norms and the Prevention of Alcohol Misuse in Collegiate Contexts,” Journal of Studies on Alcohol, supplement 14 (2002): 164–72; H. W. Perkins, The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003); H. W. Perkins, M. Haines, and R. Rice, “Misperceiving the College Drinking Norm and Related Problems: A Nationwide Study of Exposure to Prevention Information, Perceived Norms and Student Alcohol Misuse,” Journal of Studies on Alcohol 66 (2005): 470–78. 11. Brian Borsari and Kate B. Carey, “Peer Influences on College Drinking: A Review of the Research,” Journal of Substance Abuse 13 (2001): 391–424; Kate B. Carey, Brian Borsari, Michael P. Carey, and Stephen A. Maisto, “Patterns and Importance of Self-Other Differences in College Drinking Norms,” Psychology of Addictive Behaviors 20, no. 4 (2006): 385–93; Perkins, Haines, and Rice, “Misperceiving the College Drinking Norm and Related Problems”; H. W. Perkins, “Misperceptions of Peer Drinking Norms in Canada: Another Look at the ‘Reign of Error’ and Its Consequences among College Students,” Addictive Behaviors 32 (2007): 2645–56. 12. See William DeJong et al., “A Multisite Randomized Trial of Social Norms Marketing Campaigns to Reduce College Student Drinking,” Journal of Studies on Alcohol 67 (2006): 868–79; Patricia M. Fabiano, “Applying the Social Norms Model to


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Universal and Indicated Alcohol Interventions at Western Washington University,” in The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse, ed. H. W. Perkins (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003), 83–99; R. Foss, L. Marchetti, and K. Holladay, Development and Evaluation of a Comprehensive Program to Reduce Drinking and Impaired Driving among College Students, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Report No. DOT HS 809 396 (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Transportation, 2001); M. Haines and S. Spear, “Changing the Perception of the Norm: A Strategy to Decrease Binge Drinking among College Students,” Journal of American College Health 45 (1996): 134–40; L. R. Jeffrey, P. Negro, D. Miller, and J. D. Frisone, “The Rowan University Social Norms Project,” in The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse, ed. H. W. Perkins (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003), 100–110; K. Johannessen, C. Collins, B. Mills-Novoa, and P. Gilder, A Practical Guide to Alcohol Abuse Prevention: A Campus Case Study in Implementing Social Norms and Environmental Management Approaches (AZ: University of Arizona Campus Health Service, 1999); J. Mattern and C. Neighbors, “Social Norms Campaigns: Examining the Relationship between Changes in Perceived Norms and Changes in Drinking Levels,” Journal of Studies on Alcohol 65 (2004): 489–93; C. Neighbors, M. Larimer, and M. Lewis, “Targeting Misperceptions of Descriptive Drinking Norms: Efficacy of a Computer-Delivered Personalized Normative Feedback Intervention,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 72, no. 3 (2004): 434–47; H. W. Perkins and D. W. Craig, A Multifaceted Social Norms Approach to Reduce High-Risk Drinking: Lessons from Hobart and William Smith Colleges (Newton, MA: The Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Drug Prevention, 2002); H. W. Perkins and D. W. Craig, “A Successful Social Norms Campaign to Reduce Alcohol Misuse among College Student-Athletes,” Journal of Studies on Alcohol 67, no. 6 (2006): 880–89. 13. See www.alcoholeducationproject.org 14. See www.alcoholeducationproject.org 15. Editions of The Alcohol Inquirer can be viewed at www.alcoholeducation project.org/dvpphe/infusion.htm. 16. Results from late night blood alcohol measurements can be seen at people .hws.edu/craig/bac. 17. Perkins and Craig, A Multifaceted Social Norms Approach to Reduce High-Risk Drinking; Perkins and Craig, “A Successful Social Norms Campaign to Reduce Alcohol Misuse among College Student-Athletes”; H. W. Perkins and D. W. Craig, “The Hobart and William Smith Colleges Experiment: A Synergistic Social Norms Approach Using Print, Electronic Media and Curriculum Infusion to Reduce Collegiate Problem Drinking,” in The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse, H. W. Perkins (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003), 35–64. 18. Perkins and Craig, A Multifaceted Social Norms Approach to Reduce High-Risk Drinking.

10 HWS Responds: A Case Study of How the Civic Engagement Office and Co-curricular Service-Learning Can Enhance the Liberal Arts W. Averell H. Bauder

The heart of a liberal arts education is the ability to learn, think, and communicate in an interdisciplinary environment. Also central to the mission of most such institutions is to produce graduates who will be active and engaged citizen leaders in their communities. A liberal arts education is the perfect one for this civic mission. The issues facing our communities, from local to global, are complex. They require an approach that emphasizes asking questions, searching for answers from a variety of perspectives, and then being able to communicate possible solutions. Service-learning can be an important component in developing these skills and giving students the hands-on experiences to become individuals who can make a difference in their communities. While academic service-learning, a service experience tied to a credit-bearing class, is a nexus for this, co-curricular servicelearning experiences, those that are not tied to a class but still make connections between the service and increased knowledge and citizenship skills, are important as well. Having a strong co-curricular, civic engagement office that has service-learning as a central component can further the aims of a liberal arts education as well as support and influence the development of academic service-learning. An examination of how Hobart and William Smith Colleges responded to Hurricane Katrina illustrates these points. When Provost Teresa Amott noted during her address to assembled students, faculty, and staff at the opening convocation on August 31, 2005, what was happening in New Orleans and the U.S. Gulf Coast, it took most of the campus community by surprise. In the midst of the start of a new academic year, Hobart and William Smith were even further insulated from the news slowly leaking out about the dire situation that had developed and 171

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was escalating in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The provost issued a call to arms for the campus community stating “I am confident that at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, a campus committed to civic engagement and public service, we will find ways to give of our time and our resources to support the rescue and recovery efforts now underway.”1 The Public Service Office, under the Division of Student Affairs, but with strong ties to the faculty and Academic Affairs, was made point office for the colleges’ response. With a motto of “Putting the Liberal Arts into Action!” the PSO was a logical location for this task. It is a comprehensive service office that utilizes a developmental and interdisciplinary approach to address multiple levels of civic engagement. From their first weekend on campus, HWS students get a taste of what civic engagement means at the colleges through the orientation service-learning project. Students are assigned a summer reading, currently the first chapter of The Cathedral Within by Bill Shore.2 On Saturday of orientation they go in groups to various sites in the area to learn about the organization and perform three hours of service, returning to campus to debrief the experience with faculty and student mentors in relation to the reading and their futures at the colleges and in Geneva. Following orientation, the students are offered a variety of ways to become involved in the community depending on their personal level of development, all with the goal of producing graduates who will be engaged citizens. Students seeking simple community service opportunities can participate in things such as the annual “Celebrate Service . . . Celebrate Geneva . . . Day of Service” and help prepare a meal at the community lunch program or donate blood during an on-campus blood drive. Those looking for deeper levels of engagement and learning might tutor area third graders in the America Reads program, register and educate peers through HWS Votes!, or work at a rural elementary school in North Carolina during spring break. The PSO further focuses on building student leadership to supervise many of its projects. Students coordinate teams of tutors at area schools, completely run the annual Day of Service, organize volunteers for a number of office-sponsored service projects, help lead service trips, or attend and present at local, regional, and national conferences. The office also assists faculty in the development and implementation of service-learning courses. This includes recruiting new courses, fostering community partnerships, and orienting students to the Geneva community’s assets and needs. The PSO looks outside the immediate area for service-learning experiences as well. In addition to several alternative spring break service trips, in the fall of 2006, the office partnered with the Center for Global Education to build a service-learning component into the HWS Galway, Ireland, program so that students can better experience Irish life

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and culture. This interdisciplinary, multileveled approach was used from the start as the campus mobilized to respond to Hurricane Katrina. In a meeting called the day after convocation with President Mark Gearan, the provost, the deans, and several other faculty, staff, and student leaders, it was determined that the PSO would be the coordinator of campus relief efforts. Immediate decisions were to open the campus to any displaced Gulf Coast students who wished to attend HWS as visiting students, begin fund-raising efforts that would go to the American Red Cross, and look for ways students could directly help and feel connected rather than simply giving money. All of theses efforts would be put under the umbrella of “HWS Responds,” which would have a logo and web page where students, faculty, staff, and alums could get the latest information about the unfolding disaster and the colleges’ response. In this initial phase, a variety of service efforts occurred. Forty-five HWS students volunteered at the annual campus club fair to help the local Red Cross with a disaster fundraiser in downtown Geneva when many of their regular volunteers were deployed south. Members of Chi Phi fraternity worked with the chaplain to organize a candlelight gathering on the steps of the main administration building a week after the hurricane struck to remember the victims and commit to responding to the disaster. The Kappa Alpha Society organized a campus volleyball tournament where the entrance fees went to the Red Cross. RAs went door to door in the residence halls, and members of the William Smith field hockey and soccer teams as well as the Hobart Student-Athlete Advisory Council walked through the stands during games to collect funds. The college store made their registers available to charge hurricane relief donations and the business office allowed payroll deduction for employees. Later in the semester, the president’s “Garage Band,” made up of faculty and staff, played a benefit concert to raise funds. By January, students, faculty, staff, and alums who reported it to the PSO had contributed over $36,000 to the Red Cross or other charities assisting in the region. HWS hosted the November disaster volunteer training of the local Red Cross chapter and twelve students completed the basic courses to be deployed as Red Cross disaster volunteers. In addition to these fund-raising and local, direct service efforts, HWS Responds focused on understanding what was happening and why. The website was a critical focus. The desire was for it to be “one-stop shopping” for the HWS community where they could get the latest information about campus efforts, links to the latest news from the area, connect with organizations helping with relief activities, and provide resources to teach about what was happening. Faculty were asked to contribute suggestions for these resource links. Not long after these efforts were under way, the president of the Hobart Student Government offered to help organize an interdisciplinary forum to look at the causes and consequences of Hurricane Katrina.

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Coordinated with the provost’s office, the event was held just three weeks after Katrina had made landfall. Faculty members from geosciences, sociology, history, media and society, political science, economics, and education participated. Reflections ranged from the personal, with one faculty member who had been born and raised in Southeastern Louisiana and another who graduated from Tulane, to the geological, meteorological, and engineering reasons that New Orleans had flooded, to whether it made economic sense to rebuild New Orleans at all. The evening was informative and thought provoking for the audience, helping them to see the complexity of the disaster from a variety of viewpoints. It was also broadcast regionally on the campus radio station, WEOS, an NPR affiliate. While all of these initiatives helped students to be engaged, feel they were contributing something to the relief efforts, and learn about what was happening, there was still an intense desire from students and me to get to the Gulf Coast. Given the experience from previous HWS alternative spring break trips, it was clear that a trip providing direct service with a recovery organization would provide students with a profound learning environment. They would be able to view first hand the conditions, work with residents, and reflect on the experience, giving opportunities to grow in selfawareness and to see larger societal and policy issues at work. Given the academic calendar, the inaugural trip was set for early January, during the break between semesters, with students returning from the trip just before classes resumed. Much effort went into the organization of this first trip. The “Universities Rebuilding America Partnership” toolkit3 from the Corporation for National and Community Service was used to help formulate the application and develop the pre-service training program. Existing affiliations were used to create partnerships to facilitate the trip. As a founding member of the New York Campus Compact, that connection was used to contact the executive director of the Louisiana Campus Compact for suggestions concerning agencies doing good work in the area that had experience with collegeage students. This led us to Operation Helping Hands, a program of Catholic charities with the archdiocese of New Orleans. This group provides lodging as well as meals for volunteers to help “gut” houses, (striping them back to the studs and outer walls so they can be rebuilt). No set amount is asked per volunteer, simply a donation of whatever amount that can be given. Given the expense to fly and the desire to keep costs reasonable for students, the colleges’ vans were reserved to make the 1,350 mile trek to New Orleans, determining that Louisville, Kentucky, was a good halfway point. Utilizing Hobart’s membership in the Association of Episcopal Colleges, overnight accommodations for no charge were arranged with Christ Episcopal Cathedral in Louisville. Literally three minutes off of the interstate

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route to New Orleans, this has become a wonderful partnership as our trips continue, providing our groups a place to stay and allowing the cathedral congregation to feel they are a part of the rebuilding efforts. Once the initial group of fourteen students from a mix of class years was recruited, preparation for departure began in December. Students read articles from Time and newspapers about the conditions and the state of relief efforts. The head of the counseling center, whose brother had been evacuated from New Orleans, spoke about emotions that might arise, both from the students and the residents. Suggestions for journals were reviewed. Just before the trip left in January from campus, the group participated in teambuilding activities, watched a Frontline feature on the initial response, The Storm,4 and heard from Karen Fouracre, a national Red Cross disaster worker from Geneva who had been one of the operation managers in Slidell, Louisiana. Each student was asked to keep a journal and told there would be nightly reflections during the trip. With sleeping bags and respirators loaded, the group and I thought we were ready for what awaited us in the Big Easy. Nothing could have prepared us for what we saw two days later as we drove into the inky blackness of St. Bernard Parish (county), a predominantly white, working-to-middle-class suburb of New Orleans that in some places had sat under more than ten feet of water. A blinking highway construction sign at an empty checkpoint told of the parish-wide curfew and after a few wrong turns the group arrived at the first major surprise. We would be housed on the SS Scotia Prince, a car ferry from Canada that was serving as a floating hotel and feeding center for the parish government, the police and fire departments, FEMA and government contractors, relief workers, and a few of the area’s residents. Over the course of the week this would be a source of surrealism for the students as they began their day with breakfast in a dining room with china plates, linen napkins, and waiters pouring their water only to don Tyvek suits and respirators to remove belongings and shovel sludge from a devastated home in a deserted neighborhood down the street from a sewage treatment plant. While the students felt guilty, this was simply a place the parish government had found to house a group of Operation Helping Hands volunteers. Over the next five days the students learned lessons about themselves and the disaster they never would have learned otherwise. They experienced first hand how the government was responding to the crisis. Four months after landfall, the landscape looked like the hurricane had just struck, aside from the fact that the water was gone (except in the ductwork, refrigerators, and washing machines). The only army of help to be seen wore not BDUs but the t-shirts of college and church groups. FEMA trailers sat empty in lots along the highway leading into St. Bernard while 62,000 of its 67,000 preKatrina residents were spread over 24 states.5

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They met marvelous role models of engaged citizenship, like Ike and Mary Jo Pankhurst who had traveled from Michigan to help rebuild churches and found themselves in charge of orienting and leading crews of Operation Helping Hands volunteers from across the United States. Councilman Craig Taffaro made time to brief the group on what had happened in St. Bernard and visited with them both on site and in the evening. Father Frank, the local Roman Catholic priest spent an evening to say thank you and relate the stories of his parishioners. One of these, a man who worked at a local marina, truly behaved in a heroic manner worthy of a Hollywood feature film; rescuing neighbors and strangers over the course of the first ten days of the storm (the March group would meet him in person). The other Helping Hands group staying with us was a church group from Iowa ranging in age from eighteen to seventy. Each of these individuals was an example of giving back and caring for a community. They also got to meet the homeowners and hear their stories. This made for great discussions during the nightly reflections. After our first full day of work, when the apparently able-bodied, college-aged son of our first homeowner arrived only to walk through the house and do nothing other than grab an old baseball trophy that had been salvaged, it caused one of the Hobart students from an affluent city in Connecticut to wonder why he had come all this way to help someone who didn’t seem to want to help himself. The group pointed out that individuals react to horrible things in a variety of ways and that perhaps the son couldn’t cope with helping drag his ruined belongings to the curb. They also pointed out that if such a thing had happened to them, the reaction may not have been any different. There was a discussion as to whether some victims are more deserving than others and the indiscriminate nature of a disaster. John remained unconvinced at that point that his efforts were going to someone in need. However, a week of working on houses and driving by street after street of abandoned homes had an effect on John. By Friday, as we held our final discussion, his word to describe the week was “privileged.” He told the group that he felt privileged to be working with them all and having the opportunity to go on the trip. He also stated that he realized his remarks on Monday had been pretty arrogant as well as ignorant. He said he realized he was privileged with his personal circumstances and that everyone in the area needed and deserved the help, not just those deemed worthy. He was so affected by his experience that he convinced his mother to go on a service trip to New Orleans with a group from her town. The students also learned life lessons from our second homeowner who thanked us with chicken from Popeye’s and told about her life with her children in the house. She had been the mom who was volunteered for everything by her kids. She said that her kids had turned out well and that the HWS students’ mothers must have done a good job as well for them to

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be in New Orleans doing what they were doing. When we asked what we might try to save from the house she also told us that what was important was than her family was safe and that the “stuff” could be replaced. Other students found personal strengths and their roles in a group. Some immediately emerged as leaders, others were the attention-to-detail nail pullers, still others quietly made sure debris were continually removed from the rooms, the floors swept, and the boots cleaned before everyone climbed into the van. The most introverted of the group, who you would have been convinced was having a terrible time, announced during reflection on the last day “I know you can’t really tell because I don’t show it, but I am enjoying working with you all and what we are doing. I really feel like I am making a difference here and am a valuable member of the team.”6 She was one of the first to apply to return over spring break. Another student, Dale Watkins stated in his journal, Since we’ve worked today, I can’t stop thinking about what else I can do to help. I could try to spend a summer down here or take a semester off. It’s getting to the point that I almost want to be down here more than I want to be at school; there is a lot to learn down here, and probably more than in the classroom. This would be great, but I know that I at least want to make another trip down here.7

It was obvious what an intense learning experience the trip had been and that the students had been galvanized into citizen action. Even before leaving, the students were able to get the word about the conditions in New Orleans back home via a radio interview on the Geneva news station. When a press release alerted them about the HWS trip, a Rochester, New York, TV station covering another relief story in the area taped the HWS group extensively. Much of this footage was aired a few weeks later in a three-day series. Upon returning to campus, the group wrote letters to their elected representatives and editorials for local papers, describing what they had seen and demanding action. Another, Alyssa Austin, wrote an essay “The Mountains of Louisiana” for one of her classes that was published in The Aleph: a Journal of Global Perspectives.8 Presentations that told the situation and asked for action were given both on campus to students and faculty and to offcampus groups such as Rotary Clubs and area schools. Like “true believers,” they told everyone they met of the conditions they had found and the need for more help in the area. This successful first trip led to planning other co-curricular servicelearning trips for spring break and the week after commencement in May. However, it was also clear to me that the experience gained from these trips and the partnership with Operation Helping Hands could be utilized to enhance classroom instruction by creating an academic service-learning course about Katrina. The first thing was to find a faculty member with the

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expertise and interest to develop the course. The faculty members who took part in the Katrina: Causes and Consequences forum were logical choices, and Dr. Cedric Johnson from the Political Science Department, who had grown up in Louisiana, was asked to consider designing a class that would look at the governmental response to Hurricane Katrina. It would feature a service trip to New Orleans where the class members could experience the area first hand, help with the recovery efforts, meet with homeowners and hear from others who had been through the hurricane or were working with those who had been affected. Scheduled to teach a first-year seminar class in the fall of 2006, Professor Johnson agreed and the Politics of Disaster was born. First-year seminars are required of all incoming students and the instructor serves as the advisor to the class of approximately fourteen. Designed to be interdisciplinary in nature, the class emphasizes the critical skills of writing, reading, and speaking and is to be a place for intellectual exploration. Students are also housed together according to their seminar.9 This proved to be a perfect vehicle for a course that would be designed to address the political and social dimensions of Hurricane Katrina. Although the city of New Orleans will be our primary focus, we will also contemplate the larger implications of the 2005 hurricane disaster for the future of American political development. Part I of the course is designed to familiarize students with the time sequence, key actors, forensic details and scope of this disaster. We will also look at the historical struggle between nature and human interests in the building of New Orleans. Part II will examine issues of social inequality that were highly publicized in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We will examine neoconservative and liberal/progressive responses to the massive displacement of storm refugees and the responsibility of government in addressing inequality. Between the two parts will be a service-learning trip to New Orleans over fall break to work with Operation Helping Hands and meet with several experts. The final leg of this course will take up some of the proposals for rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf South.10

After fleshing out the concept, Professor Johnson and I presented the course proposal to the provost, who became an enthusiastic supporter and agreed to find funding for the class. As she later commented, this turned out to be “the Mother of all service-learning classes.” The logistics of this trip were different from previous ones in that fall break at the colleges is only four days long, necessitating flying the class to New Orleans. Since it was a required class, students could not be asked to pay for the trip, necessitating a significant investment per student. Students were contacted about the trip over the summer and the Center for Global Education assisted in the travel arrangements. Rising sophomore Dale Watkins, who had been a member and leader of the three Katrina trips in the spring of 2006, was selected to

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be the service-learning colleague, essentially a TA with responsibilities for assisting with reflection and discussion as well as the trip itself. Additionally, the class was linked as a learning community with Making Connections from the Peer Education and Human Relations Program. The course deals with various “isms” and the topics of oppression and education, attempting to break down the walls that separate various groups in our communities. This class related well with the inequity issues to be addressed in part II of The Politics of Disaster. Donna Albro, the professor for the class, would also go on the trip. The class prepared for the trip during the first six weeks of the semester by reading selected essays from John Brown Childs’s Hurricane Katrina: Response and Responsibilities,11 Jed Horne’s Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City,12 and Craig E. Colten’s An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature.13 The group also watched Spike Lee’s film, When the Levees Broke.14 I attended a class session to go over the trip details and, along with Dale, spoke about what to expect when the group arrived. Arrangements were made for a city tour and several speakers in addition to the usual routine from previous trips. The area that Operation Helping Hands assigned the group to was in St. Bernard Parish, quite near where the March 2006 trip group had worked. The group flew down on the Friday prior to the break, and after arrival went on the city tour that highlighted some of the key areas affected during the flooding, including the 17th Street Canal Breach and the Upper Ninth Ward. The group stayed on the second floor of an elementary school that had had its first floor flooded. It had been turned over to Hilltop Relief Services until ready to have reconstruction finished and be reopened. The next morning Dale led a reflection with the group on the tour, speaking about their expectations and first impressions. Over the next day and a half, the group gutted the house of Diane, a single, middle-aged woman who lived in a FEMA trailer in front of her property. It was in discussions with her that some of the true lessons of Katrina came home to the students. As she stood in her gutted kitchen looking out at the seven foot high pile of debris that had been her interior walls and earthly possessions, she talked about meeting with a FEMA representative who told her she would receive $5,200 to build a home with one bedroom, a kitchen, bath, and living room. When she began to laugh the woman asked what was so funny, that she would be receiving $5,200. Diane asked her how she was supposed to build a house for $5,200, to which the woman had no reply. She talked about being a good Roman Catholic but that Katrina had shaken her faith, at least until we had arrived. Diane went on to tell us that all her life she had always believed in her government but that her government had let her down, and now she needed to depend on a group of strangers to help her when she needed it. At that point she

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began to cry and went to her trailer. The students stood in silence for a few moments and then went back to sweeping up the last few nails and pieces of drywall.15 Some of the group also made time to speak with Larry, a black man somewhere in his fifties who had been hired to hand dig the foundation for a fence to go in across the street in the eighty-plus degree temperature. Both conversations had a powerful impact and made for a lively discussion during that night’s reflection as students discussed governmental bureaucracy meeting human need, social inequality, and the dignity that one deserves just by virtue of being a human. In relating the meeting with Larry, Dale wrote in his journal: Today we also got to meet a man named Larry. Unfortunately I didn’t get to talk to him too much, but from what I gathered, he was obviously living in poverty to some extent. When we met him he was digging a ditch for some reason that I never found out. The work he was doing seemed so pointless though. It could have been done in about five minutes with a bobcat, one of those miniature bulldozers that are everywhere down here. Yet, here is Larry working in the middle of the day with the sun beating on his back, probably making minimal wages. The guy doesn’t even have a car to get back and forth to his home, which wasn’t that close by. When we offered him our leftover food from the day, he said something like “Wow, now I’m having more than a pork chop for dinner.” This is horrible! We’ll go back up to school and we won’t do work nearly as tough as Larry is, and then we’ll go to SAGA and complain about the food there when there are other people, like Larry, that would be so happy to be given the chance to eat as much as you want and to have the options there. We take so much for granted.16

In addition to the regular people of St. Bernard, the class met with several speakers. Professor Johnson arranged for two of them, Avis Jones-DeWeever from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and Bill Quigley from the Loyola University School of Law, the director of the Law Clinic and the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center. Jones-DeWeever spoke to the group on the issues of poverty and the effect of the disaster on women in New Orleans. Quigley visited the group over lunch at one of its worksites. He touched briefly on his experience being trapped during the hurricane and flood at Memorial Hospital with his wife who is a cancer nurse. He then spoke in more depth about the work he was doing with the Poverty Law Center with lawsuits on behalf of homeowners and others against insurance companies and the government for proper compensation and nondiscrimination. As the service-learning colleague, Dale was given the task of arranging for a group interview with Jed Horne, the author of Breach of Faith and city editor of the Times-Picayune. It was arranged for the last day in New Orleans and proved to be a highlight of the trip. Meeting in one of the conference

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rooms at the newspaper, Horne spoke about covering the Hurricane, gathering information about the book, and his take on FEMA, homeland security, and the various political leaders involved in the disaster response. The service trip proved the power of service-learning to make the situation being studied real to students and providing a greater impact than without the service component. It gave the class the first-hand experience they needed to breathe life into their final projects concerning their own plans for how to rebuild New Orleans. After we returned to campus, the group was asked to reflect on the experience and talk specifically about whether it made any difference that it was a service-learning trip rather than a field trip, staying in a hotel, touring the city, and interviewing people. Without exception the class spoke about the service experience making them part of the solution rather than simple observers. They felt connected to the city and the people, internalizing the need and enormity of the situation because they were trying to help as well. Some comments: It made it our problem. You perhaps wanted to walk away but there is no one else to help. It makes you angry to see what is happening. You have to try to change it, not just learn about it. I couldn’t talk about changing policy without seeing what it takes to gut a house. I felt the physical weight of what it takes to rebuild. It makes it personal. I couldn’t possibly see myself just talking with her [Diane] but not helping her clear out her stuff. There would have been no connection. It [the service component] was a huge connection that puts things together.17

The affect that this service-learning experience had on the students’ ability to make connections and deepen their liberal arts education is further exhibited in the comments of first-year Ryan Conley: I truly think the trip had a positive impact on both myself and the course. Since returning I have used examples from the trip in a number of my classes as essay or discussion topics. The trip helped me to connect with the information that I learned not only in my first year seminar but also in my learning community with Making Connections. The information and experiences that I had over the course of my trip are something that could never be learned in a classroom.18

Following the trip, different members of the class made several presentations on campus including the regular faculty lunch series and the Dessert

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and Discussion series at Community Service House. Dale Watkins, Shena Vagliano-Fielding (2010), and I also returned to New Orleans that January to present at the Association of American Colleges and Universities annual meeting. This was another learning opportunity for them that never would have occurred without the development of the course, which never would have happened without the co-curricular trip experience. The Politics of Disaster was followed by two more scheduled HWS Responds trips for January and March. These co-curricular service-learning trips were enhanced by linking them to a readers college class about Katrina. At HWS a readers college is essentially a book discussion group where students meet weekly with the instructor and discuss the readings with a short written assignment at the end. The student receives a half credit upon completion. For the Reflections on Katrina Readers College, members of the group were required to go on either the January or March trips. Primary readings were Horne and Childs, as in The Politics of Disaster, but included other books and essays as well. During discussions in class, those students who had just returned from the January trip connected the readings to the experiences on their trip. For the March group, nightly reflections during the trip were enhanced by the readings. Also on the March trip, several students as well as Kevin Fitzpatrick from Operation Helping Hands, Professor Johnson, and I gave a presentation on Hobart and William Smith’s response to Katrina at the Gulf South Summit. This regional service-learning conference was hosted by Tulane and, as with AAC&U, allowed the HWS students to exercise their communication skills by preparing and relating their experiences to a wider audience. It was also a unique opportunity for the conference to have a presentation from a northern school currently doing work in New Orleans. In April of 2007, HWS joined with over forty colleges and universities nationwide that sponsored a post-Katrina summit, initiated by Dr. Scott Meyers-Lipton from San Jose State University. The major aim was to have events during the same time period on a number of campuses that would raise awareness about the conditions in New Orleans, Mississippi, and Alabama and gain support for the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project. This proposal would create 100,000 Works Progress administration-type jobs for displaced residents, allowing them to return home, gain skills and rebuild the infrastructure of the area. A nationwide goal of 100,000 signatures supporting such legislation was set.19 This was a perfect opportunity for our students who had been to New Orleans to become even more civically engaged and have an effect on policy. A student steering committee was convened and a campus goal of 1,000 signatures was set. Two weeks of events were held that included the petition drive; a screening of When the Levees Broke followed by discussion; a New Orleans Night with food, decorations, and music in the campus dining

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room; and “The Barn Goes Bourbon Street,” an awareness and fund raiser in the campus activities center. A centerpiece of the planned events was a “Reflections on Katrina” forum where students, faculty, and staff gave their own take on their trip experiences. The readers college participants also used this forum for their final projects. The topics and form of the presentations spanned a wide range that included poems, photo journals, essays, presentations on the disappearing wetlands of Louisiana, the architecture of New Orleans and the rebuilding process, an overview of the service trip experience, and video clips. All made connections between the trip and the students’ broader interests, field of study, or how they had grown personally. All of the students involved were passionate about letting others know about what they had seen and experienced and to affect a change beyond just helping a family at a time by gutting their house. The group met its goal of 1,000 signatures. It also learned lessons in engaged citizenship by raising awareness and educating others and learned how to work toward policy change. What are some of the lessons to be gained from this case study of HWS Responds in the context of a liberal arts education for an institution, particularly a civic engagement/service-learning office? The community service/civic engagement office should • View itself as central to the liberal arts mission and design experiences for its students that move beyond “volunteerism” and community service, but rather intentionally enhance the skills and aims of the liberal arts. Students should be offered a range of opportunities to become involved, meeting them at their current place in their civic engagement journey but continuing to guide them along the path to a life of engaged citizenship. Not everyone may be able to serve in New Orleans, but they can help their local Red Cross with office duties, ask a friend for a donation, or attend an on-campus remembrance service. These activities lay the groundwork for further involvement and an understanding of their role as citizens. • Encourage critical reflection of how the service students are performing relates to classes they are taking, personal interests, and wider public policy implications. Even though the service may be a part of the cocurriculum, have a “for credit” attitude when designing reflection activities and high expectations for the student response. • Facilitate continued relationships with community partners or work on civic issues after the service experience. This is especially true for students in academic service-learning classes who may have a higher level of understanding of the issues but no immediate outlet for continued involvement. The office can facilitate this continued interaction, again on a variety of levels, with community partners or causes

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outside the context of the academic course. Community needs most likely are not going to be met in the course of single semester. This holds true for a major crisis such as Katrina as well as local needs such as an after school program at the Boys and Girls Club. The office can be crucial in maintaining the partnerships through its own high-level programming when the academic classes are not being offered. • Create opportunities for students to utilize their post-service experience in ways that will help them develop the skills to become engaged citizen leaders. Conferences, petition drives, speaking engagements and the like all contribute to this. Student leadership should be used at every opportunity to allow them to develop the skills they will need. Their help with program development is invaluable and essential, especially if the office is under-resourced. • Nurture community partnerships. Becoming comfortable working with a partner can enhance the entire experience. Because of our repeated trips, we progressed to the point in New Orleans where the staff with Operation Helping Hands start us on a project and then really let us complete the house with minimal supervision. The continuing relationships we have with Operation Helping Hands and the Louisville Episcopal Cathedral support both our and their missions and make it easier to provide meaningful experiences for our students. The crisis of Hurricane Katrina created an opportunity for Hobart and William Smith Colleges to mount a campus-wide, interdisciplinary response in the true tradition of the liberal arts. Utilizing the Public Service Office, co-curricular service-learning was the driving force for the response and drove the development of the academic service-learning component. Students were afforded the opportunity to actively respond in a variety of ways and look at the issue from multiple perspectives, developing skills that will help them become more concerned and engaged citizens both now and when they leave Hobart and William Smith to take their place as members, and hopefully leaders, in their communities.

NOTES 1. Complete convocation 2005 remarks by Provost Teresa Amott can be found on the Hobart and William Smith Colleges website www.hws.edu/news/speakers/ transcripts/amott_conv2005.asp. 2. While some have a problem with his use of cathedral imagery, I have found this chapter of Shore’s book to be a wonderfully concise and accessible statement about making a difference with one’s life even though you may be putting your efforts into a cause you may never see completed. See Bill Shore, The Cathedral Within:

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Transforming Your Life by Giving Something Back (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2001), 3–30. 3. This document was quite helpful in planning the New Orleans trip and is available online from the Corporation for National and Community Service website www.learnandserve.gov/about/programs/higher_ed_urap.asp. 4. This is a well-done one-hour video that gives a good sense of the hurricane and flood’s devastation and the governmental response. A website for the documentary is located at www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/storm/. 5. Information provided to the group by Councilman Craig Taffaro Jr. during a governmental orientation for the group on January 8, 2006. 6. From notes taken during reflection discussion kept in my personal journal. 7. From Dale Watkins’s unpublished journal on January 8, 2006. 8. Alyssa’s essay was the first of several inspired writings by students who returned from our trips. See Alyssa Austin, “Louisiana Mountains,” The Aleph: A Journal of Global Perspectives 5 (2006): 62–65. 9. From the HWS First Year Seminar Handbook, pp. 2–3. Available online at www .hws.edu/pdf/FYSeminarAdviserHandbook.pdf. 10. From syllabus for FSEM 062, The Politics of Disaster, F07, p. 1. 11. This is a book with short essays by a variety of authors written soon after the hurricane hit. Many are excellent for discussion starters. See John Browne Childs, ed., Hurricane Katrina: Response and Responsibilities (Santa Cruz: New Pacific, 2005). 12. Horne’s narrative is informative and gives the reader a real sense of what the residents of New Orleans went through. See Jed Horne, Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Dearth of a Great American City (New York: Random House, 2006). 13. Craig E. Colten, An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005). 14. Lee’s award-winning film is an excellent chronicle of the disaster, its aftermath, and how people were affected. Spike Lee, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, a Spike Lee Film and Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks Production (New York: HBO Films, 2006). 15. Bauder journal, October 9, 2006. 16. Watkins journal, October 8, 2006. 17. I met with the group in class the week we returned and specifically asked them about their service-learning experience versus just a filed trip to the area. The responses are from my notes. 18. This is a quote Ryan gave for use in the PowerPoint from the trip to be used when presenting to outside groups. 19. If you are at all interested in seeing something done in regard to helping the people of the Gulf Coast rebuild their lives, I encourage you to visit www.solving poverty.com/, the website for the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project. Dr. Scott MeyersLipton of San Jose State has led the effort to garner support of a WPA-type program for the Gulf Coast. It is easy to organize your campus around these activities.

11 Service-Learning Lessons Craig A. Rimmerman

What are the implications of the cases presented in this book for servicelearning practitioners? This chapter offers broader lessons to administrators, service-learning coordinators, and faculty members who wish to build service-learning into their institutions and courses. It is premised on the assumption that service-learning can potentially serve as a foundation for civic, intellectual, and moral growth among college students within the framework of a liberal arts education. What are the conditions and pedagogical strategies that will allow this laudable goal to be reached? One important lesson is that service-learning enables instructors to interrogate the gap between the theories of service-learning and service-learning practice while offering concrete avenues for closing that gap within the context of individual courses. Philosopher Steven Lee does exactly that in his course by asking students to examine the connections and/or tensions between morality and self-interest. Another pedagogical strategy for addressing the gap is to ask students to confront the full critique of servicelearning and to respond to that critique within the context of the course material and the service-learning placements in the community. Students are well situated to respond to the service-learning critique, as are community partners. A second lesson growing out of the cases explored in this volume is that there must be careful planning among the service-learning campus administrators, the teaching faculty, and community partners. As sociologist Jack Harris makes clear, this detailed planning is integral to the entire servicelearning experience from the vantage point of all of those involved in the campus/community relationship. And political scientist Craig Rimmerman 187

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reminds us that the importance of preparing students properly for their service-learning experience before they participate in the community cannot be underestimated. In addition to class discussion of these issues, students will also benefit from evening sessions where members of the community, administrators/faculty responsible for service-learning, and student peers who are already participating in service-learning projects come together to answer student questions and to provide appropriate student orientation to service-learning and the community. Patrick Collins provides a third major service-learning lesson by encouraging practitioners to remain somewhat skeptical about the effect of servicelearning on pedagogical and epistemic goals in certain situations. The innovative pedagogy associated with his Education course requires students to engage drama in the community while raising this question: “Are there instances in which the civic requirement of service may undermine other epistemic aims of experiential learning?” It is important for faculty and administrators to recognize this potential challenge and to consider ways that service-learning can enhance rather than undermine various and creative forms of experiential learning. Michael Dobkowski’s course on the Holocaust provides an interesting lesson on how to construct a positive classroom atmosphere that enables students to be hopeful and positive about the future even when the course topic provides reason for despair. Dobkowski’s use of service-learning and introspective writing on community participation encourages students “to find their own voices and to recognize how they might use their voices as a force for change and progress.” This connection between service-learning and student introspection is a common theme across the classrooms and courses represented in this book. There are several ways identified for achieving these goals: (1) class presentations; (2) small group discussions; (3) journal writing or other writing exercises that require students to engage in the kind of reflection that enables them to consider their places in the world while thinking about the important connection between reflection and action, which is at the core of service-learning. How might students connect their work in the community to broader issues of power and inequality in the policy process? Craig Rimmerman’s essay provides an array of vehicles for doing so, including (1) connecting the course readings in substantive ways to the issues that students will encounter in the community on a daily basis; (2) inviting community members into the classroom to speak to the underlying course themes; (3) requiring students to address the course themes in their analytical essays and course research paper as well as their journal reflections. In doing so, he provides lessons for faculty interested in building structural characteristics of political economy and the policy process into a service-learning pedagogy.

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If service-learning courses are to be successful, they will need various forms of institutional support. At the most basic level, faculty who develop service-learning courses will need the recognition and credit toward tenure and promotion that is especially crucial for younger faculty. For older, more established faculty, service-learning needs to be recognized and rewarded as an important component of continued professional growth and development. In addition, institutional resources emanate from the administration as well as support staff in a well-funded service-learning office. This is an important lesson that cuts across an array of the essays in this volume, but is especially reflected in Kathleen Flowers’s and Charlie Temple’s analysis of the pedagogy associated with America Reads and Ave Bauder’s overview of Hobart and William Smith’s response to Hurricane Katrina. Bauder’s work reminds us that co-curricular service-learning work is an important component of any college campus as it provides students with an opportunity to connect their extracurricular interests with their liberal arts education outside of the classroom. The work of all of the contributors to this volume reminds us, too, that any participation in the community (whether it be Geneva, Rochester, or New Orleans) affords students important opportunities to develop their leadership skills, skills that they can then bring back to their campuses, their classrooms, to their home communities, and to their workplace during college and after graduation. What is the relationship between service-learning and experiential education? Jo Beth Mertens provides an interesting perspective on this important question when she claims that the projects in her quantitative methods courses “fit in between traditional service-learning and experiential or client-based programs.” Mertens reminds us that her course provides a further lesson as we conceive of service-learning on a college campus. David Craig and Wes Perkins’s innovative work on alcohol use and abuse on college campuses and in their bidisciplinary course provides further evidence of the importance of linking the classroom experience with the interests of the larger campus community. Their use of student peer conversations as an integral component in connecting their classroom to the larger campus community is particularly noteworthy. The lesson is that we must conceive of service-learning broadly, especially to the extent that student classroombased projects benefit the larger campus community, though they are not connected to a community-based organization per se. A further lesson that cuts across a number of the essays in this volume is that faculty and the campus-based service-learning office need to build stronger partnerships with the community agencies that host our students over time. How might this be accomplished? The work of Debra DeMeis and Cynthia Sutton in their bidisciplinary course Children in Contexts is especially helpful in this regard. Like Craig Rimmerman, DeMeis and Sutton regularly include community agencies in their classes so that there can be a

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reciprocal, ongoing discussion as the course unfolds. DeMeis and Sutton also wisely recommend that community partners provide an evaluation of student performance across the semester so that the faculty are not merely relying on their own assessment and the students’ journals for evaluation. Indeed, their work reminds us that regular dialogue among students, community members, faculty, and administrators is an important component of any successful service-learning program. All of the essays in this volume also point to further work that must be done in the evaluation of service-learning. At the most basic level, we might ask these questions: What are the criteria for “successful” student servicelearning placements? How might such placements be identified? What role, if any, can faculty play here in finding appropriate placements for students? How might community members be integrated here in meaningful and effective ways? What are our empirical criteria for “meaningful and effective?” We might ask students the following questions: Has participation in your service-learning project given you the opportunity to think differently than you did before? If so, in what specific ways? If not, why not? What have you learned from working in the community? Has the service-learning component of this course been useful? If so, why? If not, why not? How might service-learning be better integrated into this course in the future? This work on the evaluation of service-learning points to future directions for service-learning research. Our goal in this edited collection has been to provide various perspectives on how we might develop, teach, and ultimately evaluate service-learning courses. We believe that this is challenging but invaluable work, work that is integral to providing our students with a challenging and life-enhancing liberal arts education.

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Universities Rebuilding America Partnership: A Toolkit for Organizing Group Service Trips to the Gulf Coast to Help Communities Recover from the Hurricanes of 2005. Washington, DC: Corporation for National and Community Service, 2005. U.S. Department of Education. “Choice and Supplemental Educational Services. Frequently Asked Questions.” 2002. Available at: www.ed.gov/parents/schools/ choice/choice.html#6. U.S. Library of Congress. 97-972 EPW Reading Instruction: New Federal Initiatives. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 1997. Utts, J., and R. Heckard. Mind on Statistics. 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson, 2004. Vogelsgesang, Lori, and Alexander Astin. “Comparing the Effects of Community Service and Service-Learning.” Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning 7 (2000): 25–34. Wagner, Betty Jane. Educational Drama and the Language Arts: What Research Shows. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998. Wasik, Barbara A. “Volunteer Tutoring Programs in Reading: A Review.” Reading Research Quarterly 33, no. 3 (1998): 266–91. Wiesel, Elie. A Jew Today. New York: Random House, 1987. ———. Night. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006. Zlotkowski, Edward. Successful Service Learning Programs: New Models of Excellence in Higher Education. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing Co., Inc., 1998. Zlotkowski, Edward, and Dilafruz Williams. “The Faculty Role in Civic Engagement.” Peer Review 5, no. 3 (2003): 9–11.

Index

AACU. See Association of American Colleges and Universities adopt a survivor, surrogate survivor program, 67 African Americans, 97 Albro, Donna, 179 alcohol, abuse of: athletics and, 157, 167; community and, 164; education project, 5, 154–67; faculty and, 152; gender and, 156–57; health professionals and, 159; independent study on, 163–64; misinformation on, 154, 160, 161–62, 166; in peers, 154, 160, 161; prevalence of, 152, 166–67; service-learning and, 151, 155–62; social norms approach for, 153–54, 159–60; teacher certification and, 164–65; websites for, 158 Alcohol in College: What is Truth? What is Myth?, 160; communication in, 162–63; learning objectives of, 161 Alcohol Use and Abuse Causes and Consequences, 156; communication in, 157–60; interdisciplinary research in, 156–57

America: citizenship role in, 72, 73; critical thinking on, 81; deindustrialization of, 74; identity in, 73; literacy rates in, 97; service in, 77; volunteerism in, 82 American Commitments, 87 America Reads, 3–4, 36; coordinators in, 89, 99; government involvement in, 4, 85, 87, 102, 103n2, 103n4, 104n11, 105n26; leadership in, 89, 99–100; legislation debates for, 102; literacy course and, 98–99, 102; literacy office assistant for, 99–100; New Citizenship and, 85; placement in, 94–95; structure of, 87–88, 92–93; student reflections from, 95, 97, 100, 101; supervision in, 87–88; support staff for, 86; training for, 91–94, 96; tutors in, 91–97, 98–99, 100–101, 102–3, 105n26; volunteerism in, 89–90; website of, 93, 103n1 AmeriCorps, 103n4 Améry, Jean, 62, 64 Amott, Teresa, 5, 75–76, 171 animals, 18n6

201

202 Appalachian State University, 87, 104n6 Aristotle, 13–14 art, 52, 55 Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU), 87, 107, 182 Association of Episcopal Colleges, 174 Astin, Alexander W., 111, 144, 168 athletics: alcohol abuse and, 157, 167; at HWS, 112–13 Austin, Alyssa, 177 authoritarianism, 77–78 autobiography, moral, 18n3 Bandow, Doug, 78 Barbara Bush Foundation, 104n11 “The Barn Goes Bourbon Street,” 183 Bartow, Omer, 63 Battistoni, Rick, 41 Bauder, W. Averell H., 189 Beaumont, Elizabeth, 79 Becker, W. E., 109 benefit, 17 Benjamin, Walter, 66 Boyte, Harry, 77, 81 Breach of Faith (Horne), 180–81, 185n12 breathalyzer, 162, 163 Brisbin, Richard, 95 Bronfenbrenner, Uri, 141 Buber, Martin, 64 Bush, Barbara, 104n11 Bush, George H. W., 19n15, 75 Bush, George W., 104n11 Butler, 12 Calderon, Joes, 147 Campus Climate Report, 112, 113–14 Campus Compact, 22 Campus Factoids, 158–59, 162 Cassirer, Ernst, 57n8 The Cathedral Within (Shore), 172, 184n2 The Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning, 88–89

Index Center for Global Education, 172–73, 178 chalk and talk, 105, 133 change, 17 charity: in ethics, 16, 22; service model of, 71, 147 children: difficult, 96; drama program for, 46–53, 58n15; literacy program for, 85; parent relationship with, 145–46; poverty for, 142, 145–46; tutoring of, 91–97, 98–99, 100–101, 102–3, 105n26. See also America Reads; Drama Worlds Children in Contexts: Families and Schools, 137, 141, 142 Children in Contexts in a Changing Society: community partners in, 141, 143, 147, 148–49, 189–90; group projects in, 146; journals for, 144–45, 146–47; placement in, 146, 147, 148; systemic solutions from, 147 Childs, John Browne, 185n11 Chi Phi, fraternity of, 173 Christ Episcopal Cathedral, 174 Christianity, 65 citizenship, 3; in America, 72, 73; courses on, 82; critical education for, 72–73; in democracy, 71; liberal education and, 140; Musil’s expressions of, 144, 145; relational living in, 139; responsibilities of, 72, 73; service and, 77; servicelearning and, 140, 143; in Social Policy and Community Activism, 72–73, 74, 81–82 civic agencies, 23 civic education, 41–42 civic engagement: continuation of, 38–39; ranking of, 26, 27; tutoring as, 89; valuation of, 30 civic responsibility: Cress’s paradigm of, 144; epistemic aims and, 56–57; from service, 95 clickers, 161–62, 163 Clinton, William (Bill), 85, 103n2 cognition, symbol system of, 43–44

Index Colander, David, 108 Colby, Anne, 79 Collins, Patrick M., 188 communication, 36; in Alcohol in College: What is Truth? What is Myth?, 162–63; in Alcohol Use and Abuse Causes and Consequences, 157–60; in HWS Responds, 177–78, 181–82; in independent study, 164; in MVP PEP, 166; in Politics of Disaster, 181–82 community, 26–27; alcohol abuse communication in, 164; in Children in Contexts in a Changing Society, 142, 143, 147, 148–49, 189–90; choice of, 14–15; concentric circles of, 28, 28, 29; happiness from, 14; HWS and, 74–75, 79, 183–84; in Morality and Self-Interest, 14–15; at orientation, 32–33; service perception by, 79; in Social Policy and Community Activism, 73–77, 79 community service: agency strategy in, 34; financial barriers to, 78; in Morality and Self-Interest, 15–17; obligatory, 17; political activism and, 15, 77, 81; research on, 151 Comparing Models of Service-Learning, 109 Compassionate Conservatism (Olasky), 75 compassion fatigue, 67–68 concentric circles, of community, 28, 28, 29 Congress, 103n4, 105n26 Conley, Ryan, 181 Corporation for National and Community Service, 110, 174, 185n3 Craig, David W., 189 Cress, Christine, 140, 144 crime, 12 critical education, 72–73 critical thinking, 9, 81 Cronon, William, 4, 138, 139, 140 deindustrialization, 74 DeMeis, Debra, 4, 189–90

203

democracy: citizenship in, 71; critical thinking on, 81 Dewey, John, 52 Diane (Hurricane Katrina victim), 179 disengagement, 24–25 Disraeli, Benjamin, 26–27 Diversity and Adaptation, 141 Dobkowski, Michael, 188 drama: for children, 46–53, 58n15; experience and, 54; human development and, 44, 45, 48–49, 51; inside-out view of, 50, 51–52, 53, 54, 56; symbols in, 55–56; workshops in, 45, 47, 50, 58n14 Drama in a Developmental Context, 42, 44, 188; Drama Worlds, 46–54; journals for, 45–46; workshops in, 45, 47, 50, 58n14 Drama Worlds, 46–47; analysis of, 54; location of, 58n15; planning in, 52–53; student reflections from, 48–49, 50–51, 58n16, 58n18 economics: experiential learning in, 111–12; politics and, 108; servicelearning and, 108–9, 111–34; teaching of, 109 Economics of Caring, 109 Edin, Kathryn, 141 education: civic, 41–42; critical, 72–73; liberal, 42–43, 137–38, 140 education, experiential: Dewey on, 42; in economics, 111–12; epistemic aims of, 41–42, 44, 47–48, 50–51, 52, 53; service-learning as, 41; theorists of, 110–11 Ehrlich, Thomas, 79 elitism, 81 Elkind, David, 141 empathy, 138 empowerment, 66, 107, 108, 138 enjoyment, 17 environment, 141 epistemic aims, 57n4; civic responsibility and, 56–57; of experiential education, 41–42, 44,

204

Index

47–48, 50–51, 52, 53; servicelearning and, 54–55, 56–57 ethics, 2, 7, 18n1; charity in, 16, 22; justice in, 16; relativism in, 11 exceptionalism, 25–26 Eyler, Janet: on beneficial outcomes, 38, 49, 50, 109–11; on design, 114; on isolation, 145; on theories, 134 Fackenheim, Emil, 63 faculty: alcohol abuse and, 152; servicelearning participation of, 115 Falbo, Mark, 148 Farkas, George, 90–91, 104n11 federal work-study, 85, 89, 96, 103n2, 103n4 FEMA. See New Orleans FIPSE. See Fund for the Improvement for Postsecondary Education Fisher, 117 Fitzgerald, Jill, 98 Fitzpatrick, Kevin, 182 Flowers, Kathleen, 189 food groups, 79–80 Fouracre, Karen, 175 Frank, Father, 176 Freire, Paolo, 86 Fund for the Improvement for Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), 109–10 funding: cutbacks in, 81; of Head Start, 75; of HWS Responds, 74–75, 79, 183–84 Gardner, Howard, 43 Gearan, Mark D., 75, 173 GED. See General Educational Development gender, 80, 109; alcohol abuse and, 156–57 General Educational Development (GED), 87 Geneva, New York, 9, 74–75; America Reads in, 100; library of, 94, 101 genocide: abstraction of, 61–62; compassion fatigue from, 68; modern, 63–64; philosophical

questions from, 62, 63; research results from, 64–65 Giles, Dwight E., Jr.: on beneficial outcomes, 38, 49, 50, 109–11; on design, 114; on theories, 133 God, existence of, 62 good life, 11 Goodman, Nelson, 43, 52, 57n8 Gorham, Eric, 77, 78 government, 16; America Reads in, 4, 85, 87, 102, 103n2, 103n4, 104n11, 105n26; Head Start funding by, 75; role of, 73; volunteer coercion by, 78 Gray, M. J., 115 Greater Expectations, 108, 138, 139 Gulf Coast Civic Works Project, 182–83, 185n19 Gulf South Summit, 182 happiness, 13–14 Harris, Jack D., 187 Hart, Betty, 98 Head Start, 75, 81, 143 Hersh, Richard, 147 Hilltop Relief Services, 179 Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS), 1; Alcohol Education Project at, 5, 154–67; athletics at, 112–13; bidisciplinary courses at, 140–41; climate study at, 112, 113–14; community relationship of, 74–75, 79, 183–84; Education Department of, 42–43; Hurricane Katrina response of, 171–72, 173–84; independent study at, 163–64; minorities at, 114; mission statement of, 107; Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Programs at, 165–66; Office of Intercultural Affairs at, 112; Public Service Office at, 9, 143, 172, 173, 184; readers college at, 182; teacher certification in, 42, 57n6, 86, 164–65 Hobart Statesmen Athletic Association (SAA), 112 Hobbes, Thomas, 12, 13

Index Holocaust, 3, 67; literature of, 64; modern genocide and, 63–64; morality of, 63; research results from, 64–65; student writings on, 66, 188; teaching of, 61, 62, 64 Holocaust Resource Center, 67 Horne, Jed, 180–81, 185n12 Howard Street, model of, 87–88, 104n6 Hume, David, 12 Hunter, Susan, 95 Hurricane Katrina: Response and Responsibilities (Childs), 185n11 HWS. See Hobart and William Smith Colleges HWS Responds: communication from, 177–78, 181–82; fundraising by, 182–83; mobilization of, 173; New Orleans trips of, 174–77, 179–80, 182; student reflections from, 183 HWS Responds, 5 identity, 17; in America, 73 Ikeda, Elaine K., 111, 144 Illiterate America (Kozol), 86 independent study, 163–64 informed learner, 4, 107, 108, 109, 138 Institutional Review Board (IRB), 161 “Integrating Sex and Drugs into the Principles Course: Market-Failures Versus Failures-of-Market Outcomes” (Colander), 108 intellectual, 62 intentional learner, 107, 108, 135 Intervening for Literacy: The Joy of Reading to Young Children, 92 IRB. See Institutional Review Board Ireland, 172–73 Johnson, Cedric, 178, 180, 182 Jones-DeWeever, Avis, 180 journals: for Children in Contexts in a Changing Society, 144–45, 146–47; for Drama in a Developmental Context, 45–46; for Hurricane Katrina aid project, 177; for Morality and Self-Interest, 10; for Social

205

Policy and Community Activism, 76, 79–80 Judaism, 65 Juel, Connie, 98, 104n6 Kahane, Joseph, 144 Kant, Immanuel, 12–13, 14; on animals, 18n6 Kappa Alpha Society, 173 Katrina, Hurricane, 171–84, 185n4 Katrina: Causes and Consequences, forum of, 178 Katz, Michael, 76 Kozol, Jonathan, 86, 141 Langer, Susanne, 57n8 language: content analysis of, 116–17; exposure to, 98; learning outcomes in, 116; as symbol system, 43; therapeutic, 77; visual, 50–51, 52 Larry (Hurricane Katrina victim), 180 Latinos, 97 leadership, 30, 31; in America Reads, 89, 99–100; pyramid of, 31, 39n1; as service-learning colleague, 32; tutors as, 89 LEAP. See Liberal Education and America’s Promise Lee, Spike, 179, 185n14 Lee, Steven P., 187 Legal Assistance of the Finger Lakes, 75 Lein, Laura, 141 “letter home,” 115–17 Lévinas, Emmanuel, 66 liberal education, 42–43, 137–38; citizenship and, 140 Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP), 138–39 libertarianism, 78 Limited Income project, 142 literacy, 86–87; adult, 97–98; importance of, 96; international, 99; rates of, 97; support for, 102; training in, 101. See also America Reads Louisiana Campus Compact, 174

206

Index

Making Connections from the Peer Education and Human Relations Program, 179 March of Remembrance and Hope, 67 Matthew Effects, 98, 99 McGoldrick, K., 109 media, 159 Men and Masculinity, 141 mentors, 22 Mertens, Jo Beth, 189 Meyers-Lipton, Scott, 182, 185n19 Mill, 13; on animals, 18n6; on pleasure, 18n8 morality, 18n1; critical thinking for, 9; of Holocaust, 63; obligatory, 18n4; public, 16; slave, 17; as social contract, 12, 13; theories of, 12–13, 18n7 Morality and Self-Interest, 8–9; community in, 14–15; community service in, 15–17; journals for, 10, 13–14; student reflections from, 10–11; theorists in, 12–13 Morris, Darrell, 87, 104n6 motivation, 17 “The Mountains of Louisiana” (Austin), 177 Musil, Caryn, 144, 145, 146, 147 MVP Factoids, 158–59, 162 MVP Peers Educating Peers (PEP): communication of, 166; training in, 165 National Adult Literacy Survey, 97 National Assessment of Educational Progress, 97 NCLB. See No Child Left Behind Act Neighbors Night Program, 75 New Citizenship, 72–73, 144 New Orleans: Gulf Coast Civic Works Project for, 182–83, 185n19; HWS Responds in, 174–77, 179–80, 182; Politics of Disaster in, 178–81. See also Katrina, Hurricane New York Campus Compact, 174 New York State, 42 Nietzsche, 12, 13, 17

Night (Wiesel), 61, 67 noblesse oblige, 2, 4, 16, 22 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), 93, 102 non-profit organizations, 113 obligations, perfect, 19n14 Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Programs, 165–66 Office of Intercultural Affairs, 112 Olasky, Marvin, 75 Olds, R. S., 153 Ondaatje, E. H., 115 Operation Helping Hands, 174–76, 179 orientation: community partners at, 32–33; to service-learning, 24, 172, 187–88 Osborn, C. J., 153 Pankhurst, Ike, 176 Pankhurst, Mary Jo, 176 partners, community, 32–33 peers: alcohol abuse among, 154, 160, 161; educators, 164–66 PEP. See MVP Peers Educating Peers “Perceptions of the Campus Climate at Hobart and William Smith Colleges,” 112 Perkins, H. Wesley, 189 placement: in America Reads, 94–95; in Children in Contexts in a Changing Society, 146, 147, 148; service-learning, 22–23, 79, 142, 146 Plato, 12 pleasure, 18n8 Point X, moment of, 29, 30 political activism: community service and, 15, 77, 81; student involvement in, 72 politics: economics and, 108; servicelearning and, 77 Politics of Disaster: communication from, 181–82; in New Orleans, 178–81 posters, 158

Index poverty: of children, 142, 145–46; isolation of, 145; War on, 85, 90 Poverty Law Center, 180 preferences, 11 prejudice, 22, 25–26 The Price of Citizenship: Redefining the American Welfare State (Katz), 76 prisoners’ dilemma, 16–17 proximal development, zone of, 93 public problem statement, 34 Public Service Office, 9, 141, 172, 173, 184 Putnam, Robert, 82 quasi-convergence, 12 Quigley, Bill, 180 race, 80–81 Rand Corporation, 112 readers college, 182 Reading Recovery, 98 Red Cross, 173 reflections, of students: from America Reads, 95, 97, 100, 101; on comprehension, 118–31, 132; content analysis of, 116; from Drama Worlds, 48–49, 50–51, 58n16, 58n18; on effort, 118–25, 132; from HWS Responds, 181; on learning, 118–25; negative, 133; on project significance, 118–25; on real world, 117, 129–31, 132; in service-learning, 48–49, 50–51, 79–80, 115–32, 134, 141, 143, 144, 148 “Reflections on Katrina,” 183 Reflections on Katrina Readers College, 182 relativism, 11 Republic (Plato), 12 research, 76; in Alcohol Use and Abuse Causes and Consequences, 156–57; Holocaust, 64–65; on servicelearning, 49, 50, 109–11 responsibility, of learner, 107, 109, 111, 138 Rhoads, Robert, 143

207

Rimmerman, Craig A., 18n12, 85, 86, 144, 187–88 Risley, Todd, 98 Rogers, Bethany, 144 Roth, John, 62 SAA. See Hobart Statesmen Athletic Association Saltmarsh, John, 143–44 Sax, Linda J., 151 scaffolding, 93, 104n6 SCALE. See Student Coalition for Advocate in Literacy Education segmented society, 29, 29 self-interest, 8, 11 Sen, Amartya, 108 service: in America, 77; charity and, 71, 147; civic responsibility from, 95; clients of, 16; community perception of, 79 service-learning, 7; agency assessment in, 34–35; alcohol abuse and, 151, 154–62; citizenship and, 140, 143; civic responsibility paradigm in, 144; colleague for, 32; continuation of, 38–39; criticisms on, 2, 15, 19n15, 78; design of, 33–34, 114–15; in economics course, 108–9, 111–34; epistemic aims and, 54–55, 56–57; evaluation criteria for, 79; as experiential education, 41; faculty participation in, 115; Farkas on, 90–91; good practices in, 111, 115; hazards of, 21, 47; institutional integration of, 37–38, 38, 189; involuntary, 10–11, 25, 78; leadership in, 32; learning outcomes of, 110, 111; in New Citizenship, 73; at non-profits, 113; orientation to, 24, 172, 187–88; perspective from, 51–52, 56; placement in, 22–23, 79, 143, 146; planning of, 22; politics and, 77; problem-based focus in, 148; research on, 49, 50, 109–11; skills from, 39; student reflections from, 48–49, 50–51, 79–80, 115–32, 134, 141, 143, 144,

208

Index

148; Zlotkowski on, 66–67. See also community service Shoah. See Holocaust Shore, Bill, 172, 184n2 sleep, 18n2 social contract, 12, 13 social distance, 25, 30; guilt in, 80 social movements, 72 social norms, theory of, 153–54, 159–60 Social Policy and Community Activism, 71; citizenship in, 72–73, 74, 81–82; community and, 74–75, 79; journals for, 76, 79–80; racial issues in, 80–81 social service agencies, 22 society, 29, 29 sociology, 104n11 SS Scotia Prince, 175 Stanovich, Keith, 98 Stasz, Bird, 87 State Education Department (SEA), 105n26 St. Bernard Parish, 175, 179 Stephens, Jason, 79 St. Matthew, Gospel of, 98, 105n21 Student Coalition for Advocate in Literacy Education (SCALE), 99 Student Literacy Corps Assistance Act, 87 suffering, of animals, 18n6 Sumner, Rachel, 99 Sutton, Cynthia, 4, 189–90 syllabus, 25 symbols, 44, 57n8; in drama, 55–56; language as, 43 Taffaro, Craig, Jr., 176, 185n5 TANF. See Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Act teacher, certification as, 42, 57n6, 86; alcohol abuse and, 164–65 teamwork, 23–24 Temple, Charles, 92, 93, 189 Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Act (TANF), 142 Thombs, D. L., 153

“Thousand Points of Light,” 104n11 training: for America Reads, 91–94, 96; in literacy, 101; in MVP PEP, 165 Trostle, James, 147 tutors: in America Reads, 91–97, 98–99, 100–101, 102–3, 105n26; civic engagement of, 89; leadership of, 89 “Universities Rebuilding America Partnership,” 174 University of North Carolina, 98 U.S. Department of Education, 166, 167 Using Bronfenbrenner Model, 142 Vagliano-Fielding, Sheila, 181–82 Vogelgesang, Lori J., 111, 144 volunteerism: in America, 82; in America Reads, 89–90; as coercion, 10–11, 25, 78; by college students, 112 Vygotsky, Leo, 93 War on Poverty, 85, 90 Watkins, Dale, 177, 178–79 Watts, M., 109 welfare, 142 Welfare to Work, 142 Westheimer, Joel, 144 When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, 179, 182 Where Is the Learning in Service Learning? (Eyler and Giles), 109 Wiesel, Elie, 61, 64, 67 Williams, Dilafruz, 144 Women and Gender Economics, 109 worldmaking, 43–44, 57 Writing Movement, Dancing Words: An Analysis of Composition, 141 Yee, Jennifer A., 111, 144 Yom Hashoah Holocaust Commemoration, 67 Zakaras, L., 115 Zlotkowski, Edward, 66–67, 144

About the Contributors

W. Averell H. Bauder has been the director of Public Service (now The Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning) at HWS since 1999. He graduated from Hobart College, magna cum laude, with a degree in political science in 1981. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and received a master of science in higher education administration from Syracuse University in 1984. He has held positions at Hobart, Syracuse, Bradford College, and Keuka College. He has also served as the executive director of the Seneca County chapter of the American Red Cross and the American Red Cross in the Finger Lakes. While with the Red Cross he was a founder of Seneca Teens Accepting Responsibility, a national and state award-winning HIV/AIDS teen peer education group. During his tenure as director at HWS, the colleges have been named one of eighty-one “Colleges with a Conscience” by the Princeton Review and Campus Compact as well as to the inaugural President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with distinction for contributions related to the Gulf hurricanes of 2005. He is active on various not-for-profit boards and organizations, is married, and has two sons. Patrick M. Collins is professor of education at Hobart and William Smith Colleges where he teaches courses on theatre, drama, and education; education and the arts; philosophy of education; the nature of creativity; and curriculum development. He is also chair of the Education Department and co-coordinator of the colleges’ Arts and Education Program. In addition, he has directed over seventy-five plays with and for children and young

209

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Contributors

people, has founded three youth theatre programs in New York and Indiana, and is a former editor of the Youth Theatre Journal. David W. Craig is professor of biochemistry, director of the Hobart and William Smith Colleges Alcohol Education Project, and is principal investigator of a program of research monitoring late-night blood alcohol concentrations by breathalyzer. He is a leader in interdisciplinary program development particularly in the integration of the sciences into programs focusing on health and wellness at both the college and secondary school levels and has published numerous publications and a recent film on this subject. He is a developer with colleague Wesley Perkins of Campus Factoids™ electronic media resources for social norms prevention campaigns as well as the Social Norms Surveys Online from HWS and has promoted these strategies nationally at workshops for secondary schools and higher education nationwide. Their Alcohol Education Project has received two model program awards from the U.S. Department of Education for their work on alcohol prevention campus-wide and for a program focusing on intercollegiate athletes. He has contributed to many recent television, popular press, and news articles on biomedical aspects of alcohol consumption including ABC News 20/20, CNN Your Health, New York Times, Men’s Health, Shape, and Marie Claire, most recently. Debra DeMeis is dean of students at Wellesley College. She earned her bachelors degree from Bowling Green State University and received her masters and doctoral degrees in life-span developmental psychology from West Virginia University. Her research interests have focused on children’s early social development and the development of the parenting role with an emphasis on the impact of recent changes in family structure. Her recent publications have included work on the impact of maternal employment on the division of parental responsibilities and the definition of the motherhood role. Michael Dobkowski is a professor of religious studies with a particular interest in Holocaust and genocide studies. He has authored, coauthored, and edited a number of books in this field, including Genocide and the Modern Age (2003), The Coming Age of Scarcity (1998), On the Edge of Scarcity (2002), and Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear States and Terrorism (2007). Kathleen Flowers received her B.A. from Stonehill College in 2000 and then served as a Campus Compact AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) from 2000–2001 at The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. During that year, she worked with college students to connect them via service-learning partnerships to issues related to poverty

Contributors

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relief in the Worcester community. She also worked at a boating safety nonprofit organization in South Florida and as a substitute teacher for grades K–12 in New Hampshire before obtaining her Ed.M. from the University at Buffalo’s Educational Leadership and Policy Deptartment in 2004. Service has been a theme throughout her life as the youngest of three children raised in an Irish Catholic family where the quotation “to whom much has been given, much is expected,” was the family motto. She has participated in and led five alternative spring break trips to Virginia, Washington, DC, and North Carolina and is passionate about getting students involved in service and moving along a developmental continuum that also includes civic engagement, civic leadership, and engaged citizenship. She has been the assistant director of The Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning at Hobart and William Smith Colleges since 2004, where she coordinates the America Reads and America Counts program and oversees the Jumpstart Geneva AmeriCorps; through these programs 120 HWS students tutor preschool through middle school students. Additionally, her responsibilities include the Bonner Leader program, the “What Do You Stand For: Class of 2011 Initiative,” “Hobart and William Smith Athletes for Geneva’s Youth,” The First Book Campus Advisory Board, and supervising the center’s first Campus Compact AmeriCorps VISTA. Jack D. Harris is a professor of sociology at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. He holds masters and doctoral degrees in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Harris is the director of the public service minor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. His extensive community involvement includes the roles of local evaluator of the Finger Lakes Even Start Program and the evaluator for the HUD Public Housing Drug Elimination Program (PHDEP) grant and service coordinator grant for the Geneva Housing Authority, Geneva, New York. In these roles he has worked closely with community partners in housing, social services, and education to make each program more effective and accountable. Professor Harris has been a presenter at many conferences on community service, service-learning, and diversity. Jack has engaged students in his courses through service-learning for over a decade. In these courses, Professor Harris has supervised each student’s community service/service-learning experience. In addition, students in Professor Harris’s senior seminar research practicum apply the tools of social science in researching and evaluating community and public service efforts in Geneva. Dr. Harris was twice president of the New York State Sociological Association. He is an expert on organizational assessment and change management, and a Vietnamese studies scholar with extensive international experience.

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Contributors

Steven P. Lee teaches in the philosophy department at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. He has been teaching a course in service learning for a number of years, but this is his first attempt to write about it. His main areas of interest are ethics and social and political philosophy. He has written extensively on issues in the ethics of war, including several essays on just war theory. His magnum opus (so far, at least) is Morality, Prudence, and Nuclear Weapons (1993). Recently, he has edited a collection of essays, Intervention, Terrorism, and Torture: Contemporary Challenges to Just War Theory (2007). Jo Beth Mertens is an associate professor of economics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where she has been on faculty for ten years. In a career spanning almost twenty years, Professor Mertens has worked as an advisor on tax policy and tax administration issues to governments on four continents. She has consulted for the U.S. government, the World Bank, and the IMF. Professor Mertens has numerous academic and professional publications and uses her economic work in the “real world” to inform and enliven her teaching. A committed scholar-teacher, she was a Fulbright Teaching Scholar at the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program in Ho Minh City, Vietnam, in the fall of 2003. In November 2005, she was named New York Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. H. Wesley Perkins received a B.A. in sociology from Purdue University, an M.Div. degree from Yale Divinity School, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Yale University. He is professor of sociology at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. In 1993 he was honored with Hobart and William Smith’s faculty prize for outstanding scholarship, and in 1997 he received the faculty prize for outstanding service to the college community honoring his work to reduce alcohol abuse among students. He is project director of the Alcohol Education Project at Hobart and William Smith, an initiative providing research, educational resources, and strategies to reduce alcohol and other drug abuse throughout the United States and internationally. In 1999 and again in 2005 the project received a national award from the U.S. Department of Education as a Model Prevention Program in Higher Education. Dr. Perkins has published numerous research articles on alcohol and other drug problems among adolescents, college students, and young-tomiddle-aged adults and has edited a book on the Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse. He was a pioneer in work uncovering peer misperceptions of alcohol and other drug norms and developed the theory underlying the social norms approach to prevention. He has delivered over three hundred guest lectures, keynote addresses, and workshops for colleges, universities, secondary schools, and profes-

Contributors

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sional conferences in the United States and internationally. Dr. Perkins has also served as a consultant to schools throughout the United States and to state and national drug abuse agencies and has testified at a Senate hearing on problems of alcohol abuse in higher education. In 1999 he received the Outstanding Service Award by the Network of Colleges and Universities Committed to the Elimination of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse for his significant career contribution to prevention work in higher education at both the local and national level. Dr. Perkins’s work has been frequently cited in the press and television news coverage, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, and Time Magazine. Craig A. Rimmerman is professor of public policy studies and political science and currently holds the Joseph P. DiGangi Endowed Chair in the Social Sciences at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where he has taught since 1986. A former American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow, Rimmerman teaches courses in public policy, social movements, and democratic theory. He is the author, editor, or coeditor of a number of books, including Presidency by Plebiscite: The Reagan-Bush Era in Institutional Perspective (1993), The Politics of Gay Rights (coeditor with Kenneth Wald and Clyde Wilcox, 2000), From Identity to Politics: The Lesbian and Gay Movements in the United States (2002), The New Citizenship: Unconventional Politics, Activism, and Service (3rd ed., 2005), The Politics of Same-Sex Marriage (coeditor with Clyde Wilcox 2007), and The Lesbian and Gay Movements: Assimilation or Liberation? (2008). He is currently working on a book that examines HIV/AIDS activism and policy in a global perspective. Cynthia Sutton received her M.A. in school psychology and her Ph.D. in special education policy, both from Syracuse University. She has been a strong advocate for school equity for minority children, including children with disabilities. She developed and coordinated a child advocacy minor to add to the HWS liberal arts curriculum, and the courses she taught reflected an advocacy perspective. Her primary research is an ongoing series of ethnographic case studies examining school inclusion and the culture of schools. She taught in the Education Department at HWS for almost twenty years, retiring in 2006 as professor emerita. Charles Temple has taught courses in literacy, children’s literature, human development, and—most recently—peace studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where he has been a professor of education since 1982. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and B.A. from the University of North Carolina. Temple is the author or coauthor of a dozen books on topics in education, including The Beginnings of Writing, Understanding

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Reading Problems, All Children Read, Children’s Books in Children’s Hands, Intervening for Literacy, Stories and Readers, and The Developmental Literacy Inventory. He is an author of books for children as well as textbooks used in elementary and high schools for literacy and literature study. In 1996 he cofounded the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking Project (RWCT) for the International Reading Association and the Open Society Institute, and has since helped dozens of mid-career professionals from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia travel to forty countries to share teaching methods for active learning and critical thinking in primary school through university. RWCT was recognized by UNESCO’s International Bureau of Education as a promising practice in peace-building worldwide, and the project’s activities have had continuing support from the Open Society Institute and also from UNESCO, USAID, the World Bank, the European Community, and CODE-Canada. Temple now codirects an offshoot of that project, Critical Thinking International, Inc. (www.criticalthinking international.org). Between semesters he travels to El Salvador, Ecuador, Argentina, Liberia, Tanzania, Romania, Georgia, and elsewhere to work on projects that promote literacy, the production and dissemination of books for children, and education for post-conflict areas.

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