Start Date
6-6-2013 3:10 PM
End Date
6-6-2013 4:40 PM
Description
The construct of ‘self’ and ‘other’ is central to transformative service learning experiences, especially those that are conducted in an international or a culturally ‘different’ context. Internationalization of the curriculum and calls for global citizenship education and experiential learning within higher education have led to increases in service learning placements locally and internationally. However, to date, International Service Learning (ISL) is deeply under-theorized (Bamber & Pike, 2012). This paper draws on a review of service learning literature to discuss the frameworks and taxonomies that construct students as global citizens. A specific focus of analysis and discussion is the ways in which social inequities in the local and international community position students to take up, reinforce or reject particular values, norms and capacities desired by global citizens. After presenting an interrogation of the existing literature, the paper presents case study research of teaching and participating in a service-learning subject, which includes an international placement. Student focus group data provides a range of reflections on the cultural constructs, power relationships, and perceptions of community which Australian education students’ experiences during an ISL placement in Cambodia. This data is analyzed against existing pedagogical frames, transformative learning theories and using Foucault’s notions of the self and subjectivity. The aim of community-based learning should be to foster a new perspective on self by mentally orienting one’s identity away from group affinities and instead reflecting on one’s “interactionally-accomplished identities” (Farnsworth, 2010). The presentation aims to provoke discussion about theories informing service learning practice and research which attempt to further our understanding of the ‘service’ and the ‘learning’ outcomes on communities and on the identity of students. What capacities do we have as educators to cultivate dispositions of a global citizen through a service learning experience? What are the taken for granted reference points in current service learning frameworks?
Recommended Citation
Halbert, K. (2013, June). A theorization of the global citizen in the pedagogy of service learning. 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
A theorization of the global citizen in the pedagogy of service learning
The construct of ‘self’ and ‘other’ is central to transformative service learning experiences, especially those that are conducted in an international or a culturally ‘different’ context. Internationalization of the curriculum and calls for global citizenship education and experiential learning within higher education have led to increases in service learning placements locally and internationally. However, to date, International Service Learning (ISL) is deeply under-theorized (Bamber & Pike, 2012). This paper draws on a review of service learning literature to discuss the frameworks and taxonomies that construct students as global citizens. A specific focus of analysis and discussion is the ways in which social inequities in the local and international community position students to take up, reinforce or reject particular values, norms and capacities desired by global citizens. After presenting an interrogation of the existing literature, the paper presents case study research of teaching and participating in a service-learning subject, which includes an international placement. Student focus group data provides a range of reflections on the cultural constructs, power relationships, and perceptions of community which Australian education students’ experiences during an ISL placement in Cambodia. This data is analyzed against existing pedagogical frames, transformative learning theories and using Foucault’s notions of the self and subjectivity. The aim of community-based learning should be to foster a new perspective on self by mentally orienting one’s identity away from group affinities and instead reflecting on one’s “interactionally-accomplished identities” (Farnsworth, 2010). The presentation aims to provoke discussion about theories informing service learning practice and research which attempt to further our understanding of the ‘service’ and the ‘learning’ outcomes on communities and on the identity of students. What capacities do we have as educators to cultivate dispositions of a global citizen through a service learning experience? What are the taken for granted reference points in current service learning frameworks?