Community Based Learning/Service Learning

Community Based Learning/Service Learning

Group 5

Dan Royer

Dana Sharp

Dan Royer commented on: Group 3 and 4

Dana Sharp commented on: Group 1, 3, and 4

Dan Royer's role was to research and write about the Facing Poverty Service Learning Project, Including introduction and summary
Dana Sharp's role was to research and write about the Farm Bureaus Community based education project including an introduction and conclusion

Introduction

My official introduction to the concept of service learning came through Holland and Robinson (2008) who offer a clear definition of the term ‘service learning’, as an activity that “combines service activities with academic learning objectives with the intent that the activity will benefit both the recipient and the provider” (p. 18).  This approach to learning provides maximum impact through the use of structured, collective critical reflection, which brings together the participants in the learning experience to debrief and bring together multiple perspectives on a given issue or problem (Mündel & Schugurensky, 2008).  This element was described by Hoebeke, McCullough, Cagle, and St. Clair as “Students process service learning experiences and relate their didactic coursework in context of the larger socioeconomic, cultural, and political constructs” (p. 633).  This can produce a change in the method of personal interaction with those who are different in some respect from the participant or in the way society in general is understood (Mündel & Schugurensky, 2008).  Service learning provides the opportunity for participants to experience the elements of transformational learning which includes the disorienting event, critical self-assessment, resulting in a new paradigm of roles and relationships (Mündel & Schugurensky, 2008).  I chose this learning activity because it addressed the problem of addressing the plight of the unseen members of society and bringing it into the consciousness of the mainstream.

Service Learning Activity

For my case of community based learning, I examined the Facing Poverty project which culminated in a book published in 2012.  Interestingly enough, I became aware of the project through a meeting with Nancy McWilliams, Assistant Chair, Social Sciences and Humanities at Ivy Tech Community College.  During the course of my meeting, I asked Professor McWilliams about community based learning with which Ivy Tech was involved.  She responded by describing the Facing Poverty Project which depended on the involvement of TEAMwork for Quality Living, along with Ivy Tech and Ball State Students.

Through the Facing Poverty project, students, faculty, and community members connected with those living in poverty to produce a narrative of those who are most often forgotten (Timmerman & Fludder, 2012).   Writers were recruited to take on the stories of those who lived in poverty “bringing to life a voice that has been silenced, while keeping the anonymity of the subjects” (The Facing Project).  They wrote from a perspective of ‘forced empathy’ to faithfully speak for the storyteller who remains anonymous.  The participation in the project was intended to bridge the gap which separated the experience of those living in poverty and those who lived within the mainstream of culture.  At the conclusion of the experience, the writers had been able to immerse themselves in the stories of the poor and those who worked with them arriving at a new appreciation of their plight.  Not only were the students learning interviewing skills and techniques, writing narratives, but through the writing approach they were assuming a role within the story.

As a project, this effort was truly a joint community effort including a variety of not-for –profit organizations, students, faculty, and staff at Ivy Tech and Ball State University as the learner participants.  This study was an attempt to break down stereotypes and paint a picture of the humanity behind the poverty statistics, which has been identified as a significant problem within the community (TEAMwork for Quality Living, 2011).  By doing this, the learner participant writers were immersed into the experience of poverty and as a result were no longer as likely to stereotype or make blanket assumptions about the poor.  The features of this learning experience included an up close and personal engagement between the participant and a person living in poverty or those who worked with them.

Discussion

The experience provided in this learning provides a place for critical reflection based on the roles which the writers must take on.  The reflective activity is not a naturally occurring experience, but it is something which can be enhanced through the practice of structured journals, discussions, debriefings and group reflection activities (Fiddler & Marienau, 2008).  Reflection, then, is a process through which the experiences of service learning are critically examined, decoded and understood.  Through the participant’s role of writing as if they were within the narrative, they must reflect on the story, the experience and giving voice to that experience.

Additionally, these students are participating in a type of reflection described by Fiddler and Marienau (2008) who suggest “The quality of reflection, in this schema, rests on forming habits and skills to seek out multiple data points, multiple perspectives, and particularly evidence contrary to one’s assumptions and beliefs” (p. 78).  As this occurs, the learner is experiencing new perspectives while withholding immediate judgment, until at such a time that the learner can examine (reflect on) his or her own experience and arrive at a new understanding based upon this experience (Fiddler & Marienau, 2008).  This is truly a shift in the paradigm for the participant writers.

Dana Sharp

Introduction

Community-based learning is not the same as volunteering, but instead a disciplined learning situation with clear goals and expected outcomes.   This type of learning requires classroom-type work along with service to a community.  There needs to be a balance between meeting a specific community need and the desired learning outcome or goal.  The learning must be reciprocal.  Community-based learning should flow smoothly from the service activities to the recipients so that learning happens on both ends.  All service learning should contain reflection with a focus on journaling, discussions, presentations, etc. (Hoebeke, McCullough, Cagle, & St. Clair, 2009) This type of learning should also give teachers and students an enrichment to and expansion on traditional classroom learning.    By exposing students to their community’s issues in familiar settings, community-based learning then becomes more meaningful. (Cole, 2010)  This education should be designed to heighten and to become part of a regular academic curriculum (Reed & Marienau, 2008) Not only will it enhance classroom learning, it will also promote civic responsibility to the future leaders of communities.  Community-based learning is not meant to be solely a volunteer-type situation, as previously stated.  It is meant to teach the learner with clear academic outcomes that benefit both the learner and the community in some way.

What I want to learn from this program

From looking at and studying this program, I was interested in learning how reaching out to the schools benefited the community and this organization. 

Background Information

The organization I wanted to investigate is Indiana Farm Bureau Inc.  This organization works with Indiana farmers to protect their lives, land, equipment, animals, and crops.  It offers multiple college scholarships for members and their families. Farm Bureau offers opportunities for members to become influences in their respective communities.  It also promotes agriculture through public education, which was my main focus.  The Indiana main offices are located in Indianapolis.

The activities are offered free to public schools through Indiana Farm Bureau who is partnered with a national program called Agriculture in the Classroom, which is coordinated by the United States Department of Agriculture.   The local contact person I worked with is Anne Smith, who is an official member of Indiana Farm Bureau Incorporated and a Woman’s Leader of her district.

The purpose of this program is to help students gain a greater awareness of the role of agriculture in the economy and society so that they may become citizens who support wise agriculture policies.

The targeted learners are school-aged children, specifically students in grades 3-12.

The learning objectives are to teach awareness of the importance of agriculture in all communities and to teach the importance of smart agricultural policies.

The activities were designed through the National Agriculture in the Classroom Association. They are designed to meet the state standards in science and social studies.  The activities for elementary-age students were learning activities related to agricultural children books. (Darbyshire, 2012 and Worth, 2001)  The program had the children playing Jeopardy, using questions and answers from the books, and growing seeds individually.

The main features I identified were that the activities and lesson plans were based on state standards.  The activities were also appealing to students, making the material more memorable.

Summary

From this program, we can learn how a state program, funded and supported by a national program, reaches out to the smaller communities through education about their cause, which in this case is agriculture.  The suggestions I would give to community educators like these, who use the public school to educate about their cause is to do your homework.  I thought, as a teacher, it was brilliant that the program volunteered to teach lessons that met state standards and that they donated the children’s books that they used to base their lessons. This program required classroom-type work along with service to a community. (Hoebeke, McCullough, Cagle, & St. Clair, 2009) The service being teaching students to understand and value agriculture, which is the basis of how we eat. There was a balance between meeting a specific community need (learning the importance of supporting our farms and farmers who grow our food) and the desired learning outcome or goal.  (Hoebeke, McCullough, Cagle, & St. Clair, 2009)

	Providers	Learners, purposes, learning objectives	How the activities were designed	Main ideas/features you have learned	Suggestions for practitioners
Learning activity 1	Facing Poverty Project	College students, faculty and staff, community members, To document the stories of the ignored and unheard living in poverty, To thoughtfully reflect on these experiences through participation in the narrative.	Designed cooperatively between the Facing Project, TEAMwork for quality living and other community organizations serving the poor.	The learners step into the role of the poor people whom they interview and must through their writing the story write it in the first person, experience a ‘forced empathy’ with the recorded experience.	Conduct critically reflective activities by considering a multitude of different perspectives, data points and evidence which is contrary to your personal beliefs.
Learning activity 2	Indiana Farm Bureau Incorporated	School-age students, specifically students in grades 3-12	Designed through the National Agriculture in the Classroom Association. They are designed to meet the state standards in science and social studies.	The activities and lesson plans were based on state standards.  The activities were also appealing to students, making the material more memorable.	Do your homework on your target audience.  If you’re taking information from and about the community into the school, then meet state and local standards.
Learning activity 3

References

Agriculture in the Classroom.  www.agclassroom.org

Cagle, L., Hoebeke, R., McCullough, J., & St. Clair, J.  (2009). Service Learning Education and Practice Partnerships in Maternal-Infant Health.  AWHONN, the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses. http://jognn.awhonn.org

Cole, A. G.  (2010). School-Community Partnerships and Community-Based Education: A Case Study of a Novice Program.  Perspectives on Urban Education.

Darbyshire, T. (2012).  Who Grew My Soup? Publications International, Ltd.  Gloucester Place, London.

Fiddler, F. & Marienau, C. (2008). Educator as designer:  Balancing multiple teaching perspectives in the design of community based learning for adults. In S.C. Reed & C. Marienau (Eds.)  New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No. 118.  San Franscisco:  Jossey-Bass.

Holland, B., & Robinson, G.  (2008). Community based learning in adults:  Bridging efforts in multiple sectors. In S.C. Reed & C. Marienau (Eds.)  New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No. 118.  San Franscisco:  Jossey-Bass.

Indiana Farm Bureau Incorporated.  www.infarmbureau.org

Largent, L., & Horinek, J. B.  (2008). Community colleges and adult service learners:  Evaluating a first year program to improve implementation.  In S.C. Reed & C. Marienau (Eds.)  New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No. 118.  San Franscisco:  Jossey-Bass.

Mündel, K., & Schugurensky, D. (2008). Community based learning and civic engagement: Informal learning among adult volunteers in community organizations.  In S.C. Reed & C. Marienau (Eds.)  New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No. 118.  San Franscisco:  Jossey-Bass.

Marienau, C., & Reed, S. (Eds.), (2008) Linking Adults with Community: Promoting Civic Engagement through Community Based Learning. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No. 118.  San Franscisco:  Jossey-Bass.

TEAMwork for Quality Living.  (2011, Summer).  A community at the crossroads:  Decreasing poverty and building sustainability by harnessing social capital (A White Paper).  Muncie, IN.

The Facing Project.  http://facingproject.com/about/.  Accessed February 14, 2014.

Timmerman, K. & Fludder, M. (Eds.), (2012).  Facing poverty:  Bridging the poverty divide one story at a time.  Muncie, IN: TEAMwork for Quality Living

Smith, C. (2008).  Does service learning promote adult development?  Theoretical perspectives and direction for research.  In S.C. Reed & C. Marienau (Eds.)  New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No. 118.  San Franscisco:  Jossey-Bass.

Warren, R. L.  (1978).  The community in America (3^rd ed.).  New York:  University Press of America.

Worth, B.  (2001). Oh Say Can You Seed?  Random House.  New York, NY.