Start Date
5-6-2013 2:00 PM
End Date
5-6-2013 3:10 PM
Description
As service-learning programs are becoming more popular with universities around the world, it is important to ensure that the programs’ participants maintain an ethical relationship with their community partners. Primary amongst the student groups’ ethical duties is to not impose unexpressed needs upon community partners. This paper presents an experience of a service-learning project in a larger service-learning program under the Water and Health in Limpopo (WHIL) research collaborative between the University of Venda (UNIVEN) and University of Virginia (UVA). The project takes place in the village of Tshapasha, South Africa, where an interdisciplinary team of service-learners composed of students from both UNIVEN and UVA had previously worked on a centralized water filtration project. In 2012, another interdisciplinary team of engineering, nursing, and sciences students engaged the same residents of Tshapasha in a process called appreciative inquiry (AI), which is a qualitative methodology that systematically investigates the priorities, strengths, and challenges of participant groups. As a part of the AI process, the service-learners conducted community-wide meetings and moderated nine focus groups that were formed by members’ vocations, age, and gender. The team and community discovered water supply as the community’s priority because of water’s dual value as a domestic and economic good. The interdisciplinary, service-learning team concluded that the AI process helped unify the community’s diverse set of interests into a collective set of priorities. Furthermore, the process fostered a better relationship between the service-learners and community members, one in which further collaboration would be fruitful. These findings demonstrate the use of appreciative inquiry as beneficial for the process of community engagement in service-learning.
Recommended Citation
Pailla, S., & Pruitt, C. (2013, June). Start with the discovery: Improving the process of community engagement through appreciative inquiry. Paper presented at the 4th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Service-Learning: Service-Learning as a Bridge from Local to Global: Connected world, Connected future, Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China.
Included in
Start with the discovery : improving the process of community engagement through appreciative inquiry
As service-learning programs are becoming more popular with universities around the world, it is important to ensure that the programs’ participants maintain an ethical relationship with their community partners. Primary amongst the student groups’ ethical duties is to not impose unexpressed needs upon community partners. This paper presents an experience of a service-learning project in a larger service-learning program under the Water and Health in Limpopo (WHIL) research collaborative between the University of Venda (UNIVEN) and University of Virginia (UVA). The project takes place in the village of Tshapasha, South Africa, where an interdisciplinary team of service-learners composed of students from both UNIVEN and UVA had previously worked on a centralized water filtration project. In 2012, another interdisciplinary team of engineering, nursing, and sciences students engaged the same residents of Tshapasha in a process called appreciative inquiry (AI), which is a qualitative methodology that systematically investigates the priorities, strengths, and challenges of participant groups. As a part of the AI process, the service-learners conducted community-wide meetings and moderated nine focus groups that were formed by members’ vocations, age, and gender. The team and community discovered water supply as the community’s priority because of water’s dual value as a domestic and economic good. The interdisciplinary, service-learning team concluded that the AI process helped unify the community’s diverse set of interests into a collective set of priorities. Furthermore, the process fostered a better relationship between the service-learners and community members, one in which further collaboration would be fruitful. These findings demonstrate the use of appreciative inquiry as beneficial for the process of community engagement in service-learning.