Academic Exchange Quarterly Spring
2010 ISSN 1096-1453 Volume 14, Issue
1
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Leveraging Service-Learning: A
Case Study
Rita R. Culross,
Louisiana State University
Culross, Ph.D. is Jo Ellen Levy
Yates Professor in the Department of Educational Theory, Policy & Practice
and Professor of Women’s & Gender Studies.
Abstract
This manuscript describes how an undergraduate course in Women, Gender,
and Leadership partnered with another Service-Learning course to support the
latter’s playground design project.
Students in the leadership course raised funds to support the playground
project. In doing so, they gained
valuable skills in fund-raising in service of others. The course blended models of feminist
pedagogy with Service-Learning in emphasizing social action, collaborative
learning, and reflective teaching.
Background
During the fall 2008 semester the university offered an undergraduate
elective entitled Women, Gender, and Leadership. The course is cross-listed in the Women’s and
Gender Studies (WGS) program and in the College of Education (ED) and focuses
on the interdisciplinary study of gender and leadership with an emphasis on
women as leaders in a variety of settings in education and society.
It was both the professor’s first time to offer the course and to offer
a Service-Learning course. During the
previous semester (spring 2008) a Faculty Scholars grant from the Center for
Community Engagement, Learning and Leadership (CCELL) at the university
supported the development of a Service-Learning component to the course. As a faculty member in both programs (WGS and
ED), the professor was interested in exploring how Service-Learning could be
used to teach concrete leadership skills.
Most courses at the institution teach leadership in the abstract without
any real-world experience to validate the substantial literature to which
students are exposed. Moreover, exit
interviews with WGS graduates (majors and minors) had previously identified
fund-raising as a neglected part of the curriculum. Previous experience with ED graduates
indicated that although fund-raising was not part of their training, they later
found that fund-raising was an important aspect of their jobs.
Concurrent with the thinking about the natural fit between
Service-Learning pedagogy and feminist-based leadership skills was awareness
that WGS already had a very successful Service-Learning course that lacked the
financial support to carry out its mission.
Could two courses collaborate to leverage the power of Service-Learning?
The purpose of this article is to assist faculty who are considering
offering Service-Learning courses in Women’s and Gender Studies by describing
the course, discussing the collaborative work with another Women’s and Gender
Studies course, and identifying the student and instructor learning that
occurred. Hopefully, sharing this
experience will encourage other faculty to utilize Service-Learning in their
courses to enhance the engagement of students with their community as well as their
collaboration with other students at the university.
Feminist
Pedagogy and Service-Learning
Feminist pedagogy “fosters a learning environment that is
woman-centered, interdisciplinary, and largely participatory in nature.” (Gilbert,2000, p.104) Teacher and student are engaged in a process
of learning not from positions of expert and novice but from a joint journey to
develop an understanding of the nature of human experience. Connecting knowledge with social change is a
vital aspect of women’s studies courses.
Consider, then, Bringle & Hatcher’s (1996) definition of Service-Learning:
Service-Learning is a
credit-bearing, educational experience in which students participate in an
organized service activity that meets identified community needs and reflect on
the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course
content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of
civic responsibility
(p. 2).
Key to both feminist pedagogy and Service-Learning are the elements of
learning in which students engage with others in order to gain a deeper
understanding of human life.
Service-Learning courses also exemplify “connected teaching” (Clinchy, 1989) or “connected knowing” (Belenky
et al., 1986), helping students to connect to others’ thoughts both within the
classroom and within the community partnerships in which they participate. The ivory tower is replaced with engaged
learning that bridges the gap between knowledge-based learning and experiential
learning. Indeed, Battistoni
(2002) has argued that Service-Learning is a subset of feminist pedagogy. The “ethic of care” articulated by Gilligan
(1982) emphasizes the distinct lens through which women engage in their civic
and professional lives.
Women,
Gender, and Leadership: The Course
Working from a combined model of feminist pedagogy and
Service-Learning, the following goals were articulated for the course:
To implement these goals the
course developed a partnership with a local elementary school (and the larger
school district in which it resides), the school’s network of community
partners, and another Service-Learning course on campus. The university course was an undergraduate
course in Biological Engineering (BE) whose Service-Learning component was an
award-winning project to design and build safe, kid-friendly playgrounds at
local elementary schools.
The course requirements included two exams, a case statement, a
fund-raising project, and weekly reflections on the readings. In order to provide the students with
information about women’s leadership and fund-raising, two texts were used--Eagly & Carli’s (2007) Through the Labyrinth: the Truth about How Women Become Leaders
and Shaw & Taylor’s (1995) Reinventing
Fundraising: Realizing the Potential of
Women’s Philanthropy. The
case statement was a one-page statement of the vision for the project. It was designed to excite potential donors
about giving to the project, describe how people could contribute, and provide
“talking points” for approaching donors.
For the fund-raising project the class was divided randomly into two
teams, each of which conducted a fund-raising project. Each team wrote a fund-raising plan which was
vetted through university channels and approved before execution. Each team developed their plan with
assistance from the professor, the outside partners, and the university
development staff. Teams competed
against each other (a la The Apprentice)
to see who could raise the most money.
Team One chose a silent art auction as their fund-raising project. They solicited donations of art from local
artists, conducted an art class at the school to collect student art and to
solicit ideas about the playground from the students, arranged for donations of
food and drink for the event, publicized the auction through emails and flyers,
conducted sales, and thanked donors.
Team Two held t-shirt sales.
They created a t-shirt design, incorporating a drawing of a children’s
playground; solicited funds to underwrite the printing of the t-shirts; sold
t-shirts on campus and through email solicitations; and thanked the donors.
Following the conclusion of the fund-raising projects each team made a
presentation to the class and to a panel of judges composed of the campus Service-Learning Director, a
community partner, the instructor of the course, and the instructor of the BE
course. Grades were based on the
combination of the evaluation of the panel, self-evaluations, and peer
evaluations. The students were not judged on the amount of money they raised, but the
winning team did receive gift certificates at the campus bookstore.
Student
Outcomes
Together the two teams raised over $3,000 in the course of the
semester. The difference between the
totals for the two teams was less than $15.
Beyond the monetary gains the students learned valuable lessons in
fund-raising and leadership. In
reflecting on the comments made by the students in their evaluation of the
course, several themes emerged. These
themes are best expressed in the students’ own words.
Fund-raising is hard work.
At the beginning of the course students were asked to introduce
themselves to others in the class and describe any previous fund-raising
experience that they had. Except for two
students who had jobs at the foundation on campus, most of the students
recalled raising money in high school through candy or magazine sales or
through door-to-door solicitations for charities in the medical field. They had little or no experience with events
fund-raising and little knowledge of the behind the scenes work required in
fund-raising. Team Two thought selling
t-shirts would be relatively simple; just get them printed and collect money. They had to figure out how to pay for the
printing upfront and went through multiple designs before they found one they
could afford that did not infringe on existing licensed trademarks.
In all my other classes I was doing projects for
the grade. In this class I was doing a
project to benefit others. True to the nature of Service-Learning
the students saw how what they did impacted others. In the case of this particular course there
was an obvious benefit to the children at the school who would now through the
efforts of the class have a new, safe playground. But, the students also realized that they had
helped another Service-Learning course achieve its mission by providing them
with the funds to complete the playground they had designed.
…I had been feeling discouraged on what could be
accomplished for the greater good and this proved that anything can be
done. I realized that when smart,
talented resourceful individuals get together with one goal in mind it can
happen, and it can happen in a big way. Because the
course met during the Presidential election of 2008, class discussion often
revolved around models of leadership exhibited by various candidates. Many of the students expressed discouragement
that partisan politics seemed to block the accomplishment of major policy
initiatives. They also experienced
episodes of conflict with their friends outside class who supported candidates
they did not. The course experience
restored some idealism in students that progress could be achieved without
rancor.
My team taught me how to be and stay positive. I was not like that before.
As the semester progressed, students began to recognize their own
strengths and weaknesses with respect to leadership. The class discussed at length how
transformative leaders exude optimism and positive-thinking. The teams attributed their successes to their
ability to recognize individual strengths and to harness the talents of every
individual to achieve their goal. One of
the male students remarked on the collaborative style of his female team
members. He indicated that his male
friends were less likely to approach tasks that way and that he could see the
benefits of such a style. He saw not a
“woman-centered” approach but an approach that emphasized collaboration over
competition. The many steps required for
approval tested all the students’ ability to remain positive. Some members
within each group played the key role of inspiring others to remain focused on
the task at hand and to not get discouraged by delays beyond their
control. Similarly, although there was a
competitive element to the course, in reality each team pulled for the other to
have a successful fund-raising event. Team One bought Team Two’s t-shirts, and Team
One was present for the art auction.
Perhaps that’s why there was so little difference in the total raised by
each team.
I had such a good experience with this that I have
volunteered to be my unit’s leader in the United Way campaign this year. It made me rededicate myself to being a community volunteer. The course experience reinvigorated students’
desires to be engaged in community affairs.
This particular quote comes from a student who worked on campus and, as
a result of the class, asked her supervisor if she could be in charge of her
unit’s United Way campaign. A second
student returned to volunteering at an agency with which he had been previously
associated, and a third enrolled for other Service-Learning courses the
following semester.
I grew as a leader and got to experience a unique
project with a diverse group of people that otherwise would never have been
available to me. Since the primary focus of the course was on
leadership and on developing concrete leadership skills, it is gratifying to
see that students recognized their own growth as leaders. The course readings stressed the need for
leaders to be able to work with diverse groups of people, and the course
provided many opportunities to do so.
Beyond the involvement within the teams, students worked with the
community partners, with the school staff and students, and with the other
Service-Learning course in engineering.
They learned to adjust their modes of operation to the pace of other
partners. They learned that a printer
may require a longer period of time to produce a t-shirt than was projected or
that the approval process for a seemingly innocuous project requires multiple
levels of approval. Moreover, their
experience with others extended beyond the professional world of the university
and into a community where the backgrounds of many of the elementary school
students were vastly different from their own.
The students achieved the course goals of describing leadership in all
its forms and settings, exploring fund-raising as a process and a tool, and
developing skills in service of others.
Reflections
of the Professor
The professor was very impressed with the level of achievement of the
students in the course. Initially
doubting the ability of undergraduates to do fund-raising in the context of a
course, what the professor had to relearn was that when one sets the bar high,
students will reach for it. One of the
community partners remarked at one point during the semester that she had
considered doing an art auction to raise money for the school but figured she
would need about six months to prepare for it.
The students had but two months to do so. Yet, they pulled together as a team to
sponsor a successful event.
All this is not to say that there were not “bumps in the road.” There are many obstacles to doing
fund-raising within a large university bureaucracy. Five separate levels of approval were needed
just to begin the project, and specialized accounts had to be established to
handle all the funds collected and disbursed.
Foundation and accounting staff were key in facilitating the
project. Student learning occurred
simultaneously with the adult learning by the professional staff assisting with
the project. Likewise, having a Plan B
(or C or D) is a necessity. Although a
t-shirt vendor quickly volunteered to assist with the project, they were not on
the list of licensed vendors for the university, requiring a last-minute search
for a new vendor. The class metaphor of
a “labyrinth” for women’s leadership proved very apt. Two steps forward might lead to one step
back, two steps to the side, four steps forward… Throughout all the planning and execution the
professor also maintained a delicate balance between guiding the students and rescuing them. At a point the professor thought they might
throw in the towel, the students dug in their heels and persevered. Howard’s (1998) idea of “counternormative
pedagogy” fits with what the professor experienced in teaching the course, from
doubting her own abilities (read: insanity) to fending off the skepticism of
administrators who reviewed the projects.
Conclusion
As stated earlier, the purpose of this article was to describe the
implementation of a Service-Learning course in Women’s and Gender Studies whose
primary focus was leadership and fund-raising, to discuss the collaborative
nature of the work within the class and with another Service-Learning course,
and to summarize the learning outcomes for both faculty and students.
From a feminist perspective the course was truly a joint journey,
highly participative and woman-centered.
The students readily connected their knowledge gleaned from the
literature about leadership and fund-raising with an applied project
emphasizing social change. The results
of their fund-raising provided key support to changing the social milieu at the
local elementary school.
Similarly, with respect to Service-Learning the students participated
in a credit-bearing educational experience that met community needs and allowed
them to reflect on their learning within the context of civic responsibility. The course incorporated Heffernan &
Cone’s (2001) four basic elements of a Service-Learning course: 1) engagement, 2) reflection, 3) reciprocity,
and 4) public dissemination. The
students also participated in leveraging the work of another WGS
Service-Learning course in the accomplishment of its mission, learning in the
end how much more can be accomplished when all work together.
A quotation by Jeffrey Glanz (2000) is
particularly appropriate:
The ultimate purpose of education
is not the accumulation of knowledge, but rather the development of
character. Its purpose is to encourage
people to become caring, ethical, and sensitive. That is indeed the highest ideal of schooling
and education (p.
527).
References
Battistoni, R.M.
(2002). What is good citizenship?
Conceptual contributions from other disciplines. In R.M. Battistoni (Ed.), Engagement across the
curriculum: A resource book for
Service-Learning faculty in all disciplines.
Providence, RI: Campus
Compact.
Belenky, M.F., Clinchy,
B.M., Goldberger, N.R., & Tarule, J.M.
(1986). Women’s ways
of knowing: The development of self,
voice, and mind. New York, NY:
Basic Books.
Clinchy, B.M. (1989). On critical thinking and connected
knowing. Liberal
Education, 75, 14-19,
Bringle, R.G
& Hatcher, J.A. (1996).
Implementing Service-Learning in higher education. Journal of Higher Education, 67,2.
Eagly, A.H. & Carli,
L.L. (2007). Through the
labyrinth. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Gilbert, M.K.
(2000). Educated in agency: Student reflections on the feminist
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(Eds.), The practice of change: Concepts and models for Service-Learning in
women’s studies(pp. 117-138).
Washington, DC: American
Association for Higher Education.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Glanz, J. (2000). My holocaust journey. Phi Delta Kappan, 81, 527.
Heffernan , K. &
Cone, R. (2001). Course
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Howard , J.P.F.
(1998). Academic Service-Learning: A counternormative
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Service-Learning: A pedagogy of action
and reflection (pp. 21-30).
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Shaw, S.S. & Taylor,
M.A. (1995). Reinventing
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