 |
 |
 |
Journal
of Higher Education Outreach and Engagment
Michigan
Journal of Community Service-Learning I. Engaged Teaching / Critical Pedagogy/ Curriculum Design. (not specific to service learning.) Adams, Frank.
Unearthing Seeds of Fire: The Idea of Highlander. Influenced by the Danish folkschools, Myles Horton wrote on a trip to Copenhagen: "You can go to school all your life and you'll never figure it out because you're trying to get an answer that can only come from the people in the life situation." An historical account of the founding and progress of the Highlander Folk School (now the Highlander Research and Education Center) in east Tennessee, this book explains Horton's claim, and tells the story of this alternative, popular, experiential education. Adams served a stint as director of Highlander, and writes with an insider's valuable perspective. His account weaves between the energy and ideals of Horton, and the journeys and struggles of those who have come together under Highlander's auspices. The book is particularly concerned to narrrate in full localized stories of the labor and civil rights movements (as well as the folk traditions supporting them), and to elaborate Highlander's theory and practice of democratic education. Apple, Michael, and James Beane, eds. Democratic Schools. Alexandria, Virginia. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1995. In an informative
introductory discussion of the definitions, structures,
Continuing the analysis in their previous book, Education Under Siege, the authors begin with a critique of E. D. Hirsch's Cultural Literacy, pointing out the "politics of literacy" that must inform any organization of knowledge. Argues for teachers to become more public intellectuals, defines a "border pedagogy" that would enable a trans-disciplinary reorganization of the pedagogical object, and examines the role of Cultural Studies in transforming academic and political knowledge.
With contributors ranging from Henry Giroux and Jonathan Kozol to Maxine Green and Herb Kohl, this reader highlights the connections between academic literacy practices and community action for social justice. Perhaps the most directly useful pedagogically is the chapter on "School Projects Investing in Community Development," which enumerates a variety of "assignments" that teachers might design in collaboration with different community needs and interests. Cf. Brydon-Miller et al, Voices of Change; Bringle et al, Colleges and Universities as Citizens; and Ira Shor's Empowering Education, esp. "Critical Teaching and Classroom Research: An Interdisciplinary Field for Activist Learning," and Chapter 5: "Participatory Research" of Highlander Research and Education Center: An Approach to Education Presented Through a Collection of Writings. Beane, James L. Curriculum Integration: Designing the Core of Democratic Education New York: Teachers College, 1997. Beane charts the history, theory, and dilemmas of the curriculum theory known as "curriculum integration," which he loosely defines as "a curriculum design that is concerned with enhancing the possibilities for personal and social integration through the organization of curriculum around significant problems and issues, collaboratively identified by educators and young people, without regard for subject-area boundaries" (x-xi). Criticizing attempts at curriculum integration that appear limited to the rearrangement of existing lesson plans, Beane offers in chapters 4 and 5 models and examples of effective experiments, and in chapter 6 maintains that a curriculum organized around pressing social issues is the sort of education that should strive for in a democratic society. Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum. 1970. In this formative statement of his work, Freire presents his polemical literacy program for "conscientization" of the Brazilian peasantry. Perhaps the most influential part of this book has been chapter 2, in which Freire attacks the "banking method" of education, in which the teacher makes "deposits" of knowledge into the empty heads of students, and proposes the "culture circle," a problem-posing dialogue, as an alternative method. Often regarded as the foundational--and certainly the most influential--text of critical pedagogy. --------, and Myles Horton. We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change. Eds. Brenda Bell, John Gaventa, and John Peters. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990. In this conversation, or "spoken book," the educator-activists compare political conditions and educational imperatives in North and South America with attention to the intersections of literacy, democracy, and citizenship. Furman, Gail,
and Carol Merz. Community and Schools: Promise and Paradox. An eclectic blend of the sociology and history of education, this discussion sets new agendas for educational adminstration and reform. After reviewing some dilemmas and definitions of community, the authors attempt to situate schools in relation to communities. Arguing that schools are recovering from an "identity crisis" of sorts, they examine reforms that have attempted to rebuild connections between schools and communities, and to more deliberately foster community in schools. Furman and Merz criticize counterproductive efforts at community-building that would seem to result in greaters isolation and impersonal bureaucracy. Giroux, Henry. Pedagogy and the Politics of Hope: Theory, Culture, and Schooling. Boulder: Westview Press, 1997. After laying out a history of education that links the alleged historical oblivion of the American citizenry with the deeply ingrained culture of positivism, Giroux examines the Frankfurt school and the theoretical foundations of critical pedagogy, and reconstitutes education (with such focal points as writing, student voice, cultural studies, public intellectuals, feminism, multiculturalism, and postmodernism) as the practice of radical democracy.
Highlander Research and Education Center: An Approach to Education Presented Through a Collection of Writings. New Market, TN: Highlander, December 1989. This spiral-bound collection of writings discusses Highlander's educational approach, the process though which adult learners confront the issues affecting their communities, and become empowered to take action. Writings range from the philosophy of Highlander founder Myles Horton and the educational procecss through which Highlander has historically addressed union issues, literacy and citizenship training, land and environmantal concerns, and economic development in its residental workshops, to participatory research (see below) and the role of folk culture and music in the collective education process.
In this collection of essays, hooks brings her black feminist sensitivities to bear on the more sexist aspects of Freire's thought, offering a theory of "engaged pedagogy" that is informed by multiculturalism, class, feminism, and theory. Hooks's personal voice and lively reflections on her experiences as both a teacher and student bring high theory down to earth and encourage similar introspection. Horton, Myles. The Long Haul: An Autobiography. With Herb and Judy Kohl. New York: Teachers College, 1998. The story of Myles Horton (1905-1990), who founded the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee in 1932. A place for people to get together, talk, and learn to solve their problems together, Highlander served as a popular education center that assisted the labor movement in the 30s, the civil rights struggle in the 50s and 60s, and environmental activism in the 70s and 80s. Its unique educational philosophy offers a powerful reconceptualization of the role of teachers, learners, and citizens, and a reorganization of the learning process in a more deliberately collaborative forum.
Rose shares
his own story alongside those of his students, describing how Shor, Ira, ed. Freire for the Classroom: A Sourcebook for Liberatory Teaching. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1987. In this practical manual for critical pedagogues, teachers from different backgrounds and schooling situations reflect on their attempts to adapt Freire's South American literacy methods to the different institutional contexts of North America, in disciplines ranging from mathematics and social studies to grassroots organizing. --------. Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. An inspiring reflection for critical educators, Shor draws from his teaching experiences to put the principles of Frereian pedagogy into action in the North American context. Shor illustrates the pedagogical priorities of "problem-posing" and critical dialogue, and attends to the paradox of teacher authority in the democratic classroom. In particular, the chapter on "Critical Teaching and Classroom Research: An Interdisciplinary Field for Activist Learning" presents a case for changing current educational paradigms with new concepts of research and broader notions of civic literacy for social action.
Surveys the first year of a service-learning literacy program facilitated by an English course at the University of Minnesota entitled "American Literacy and Cultural Diversity," and compares the assumptions behind the different methods of teaching literacy with the complex varities of literacy practiced by community center children as well as college students.
Continuing the discussion of Ernest Boyer's vision of the "engaged campus," the contributors to this volume present a multifaceted program for university-community partnerships that fulfills the democratic ideals of public education in fostering engaged citizens. In case studies, historical analyses, and proposals for structural reform, the various essays seek to identify the components that sustain existing service programs and that might be incorporated in the development of new and expanded programs.
Greco describes how a Freirean "critical literacy" informs her highschool students' community service and raises questions about institutional injustice in the school system.
--borrow from CCLC and review? III. Service Learning, part 2: Thinking Critically about Community Work Cruz, Nadinne, and Ron Glass. "Revisioning Service: Toward Allyship and Solidarity." Paper presented at the National Society for Experiential Education National Conference, 25 October 1996. Offers a model of "Community Service Learning for Social Justice," a "process of learning and action shaped by the following intention: to realize a society based on just relationships by seeking to change unequal power relationships, which have been historically developed and institutionalized to benefit the few at the expense of others on the basis of race, class, gender, sexual identity, etc.)." Advocates in service-learning pedagogy a move from charity to solidarity and allyship.
Unpacking the contradictions and dilemmas in service-learning, in general Cruz urges its practitioners to reflect on the ways in which even well-intentioned "service" can have racist, sexist, and colonialist outcomes. Her discussion is grounded in the particular context of the NSIEE's (National Society for Internships and Experiential Education) mission statement.
The authors argue that educators and community leaders should channel the vast resources of volunteerism toward social change for a more just society and discuss ways that service-learning endeavors contribute to this process. They contrast the current state of higher education with a vision of a transformed institution they think preferable to the status quo and then focus on the difference between charity and social justice. Through service learning, acts of charity--which typically end up reproducing the status quo--can facilitate the politicization of students and help them to become active promoters of a more just society. Six questions are posed to access the extent to which community-based education or research endeavors engage in charity or facilitate social justice. Illich, Ivan. "To Hell with Good Intentions." In this piece, the best known proponent of "deschooling" society in the 60s and 70s addresses the Conference on International Student Projects in Mexico, harshly criticizing the unconscious consumerist, "missionary" ideology of American volunteers, who reproduce the American colonial hegemony, and asks the organization to "stop ... pretentiously imposing yourselves on Mexicans." For service-learning training, this essay provides a fine springboard for discussing the politics of the server/served dichotomy. Kahne, Joseph, and Joel Westheimer, "In the Service of What? The Politics of Service Learning." Phi Delta Kappan (May 1996), 593-599. As educators and legislators lend support to service learning at the local, state, and national levels, the authors maintain that the ideological underpinnings of these service learning programs must be exhumed and discussed. Comparing two classes which employ service learning in different ways, the authors point out the varying moral, political, and intellectual assumptions accompanying each service learning experience, and pit their findings in the terms of a conservative tendency toward "charity" ("a kind of noblesse oblige--a private act of kindness performed by the privileged") versus a progressive advocacy of "change" (a commitment to address long-term systemic transformation).
An introduction to racism as a systemic, social, institutional problem, this short and accessible article challenges popular understandings of racism as "individual acts of meanness by members of [white groups], never as invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on [white groups] from birth." As a consciousness-raising tactic, McIntosh identifies 26 daily effects of white privilege in her life (e.g., "I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented"; "I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having co-workers suspect that I got it because of race").
"Many colleges and universities seek to enlighten their service missions though service learning. This article critically analyzes the service-learning literature, illustrating the idea that higher education institutions traditionally operate under an orientation of "doing for" comunities rather than "doing with" them. "Doing for" is typically aligned with a charity perspective and emphasizes the position of privilege of campuses in relation to their local communities, whereas a "doing with" perspective of service emphasizes collaboration and mutuality. Using special focus colleges and universities as a model, the authors provide suggestions on how to shift the paradigm to one that is more community centered." IV. Participatory
Research / Community-driven Scholarship. Continuing the discussion of Ernest Boyer's vision of the "engaged campus," the contributors to this volume present a multifaceted program for university-community partnerships that fulfills the democratic ideals of public education in fostering engaged citizens. In case studies, historical analyses, and proposals for structural reform, the various essays seek to identify the components that sustain existing service programs and that might be incorporated in the development of new and expanded programs. Cf. "A Grassroots Think Tank--Linking Writing and Community Building" and "School Projects Investing in Community Development" in Ayers et al, Teaching for Social Change; and Ira Shor's Empowering Education, esp. "Critical Teaching and Classroom Research: An Interdisciplinary Field for Activist Learning," and Chapter 5: "Participatory Research" of Highlander Research and Education Center: An Approach to Education Presented Through a Collection of Writings. Brydon-Miller, Mary, Budd Hall, and Ted Jackson, eds. Voices of Change: Participatory Research in the United States and Canada. Toronto: The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1993. This collection of essays reconceives contemporary models of research in terms of community-based education. Combining the activities of research, education, and action, "participatory research" rewrites the boundaries between the researcher and the researched, the subjects and objects of knowledge, and problematizes experts' and academicians' domination of the knowledge industry. The people whose lives are affected by research, public policy, and corporate decisions must participate in the production and utilization of knowledge. John Peter's opening essay provides a theory of participatory research. The remaining essays, written in various styles and perspectives reflecting the different locations and situations of the authors, provide a number of examples of participatory research among aboriginal communities of Canada, Appalachian citizens, a battered women's group, and disabled residents of western Massachusetts. Comstock and Fox's piece illustrates the affinities between participatory research and the theoretical work of Horkheimer and Adorno. Cf. "A Grassroots Think Tank--Linking Writing and Community Building" and "School Projects Investing in Community Development" in Ayers et al, Teaching for Social Change; essays in Bringle et al, Colleges and Universities as Citizens; and Ira Shor's Empowering Education, esp. "Critical Teaching and Classroom Research: An Interdisciplinary Field for Activist Learning"; and Chapter 5: "Participatory Research" of Highlander Research and Education Center: An Approach to Education Presented Through a Collection of Writings.
Four selections focus on the theoretical and practical aspects of popular forms of knowledge production in Appalachia, as community members reflect on their own experiences and learn to research the problems they perceive in their own community. As opposed to the dominant models of objectivity touted by scientific knowledge and corporate research, which has tended to keep Appalachian people from benefitting from their own natural resources, case studies focus on two communities in Jellico, Tennessee and Dungannon, Virginia, a mining community in Bumpass Cove, and a community responding to pollution in Yellow Creek, Kentucky--all of which have developed strategies to confront these economic injustices through a process of "participatory research."
Leading the vanguard of a movement known as "public journalism," Rosen argues that the media must take a more active role in developing the public sphere by enhancing political debate, encouraging and strengthening civic involvement, and generally recuperating public life.
The nineteen chapters (plus introduction and afterword) of this book criticize the alleged tendency of education to promote analysis and examination "without helping students develop the means to anchor their own experiences, past and future, in moral and civic lessons from complex texts" (xxiii). The consumer model of education--whereby students "seek to get what they want as rapidly, as easily, and cheaply as possible"--has led to the detriment of students' civic responsibilities. In their various ways, the contributors maintain that "a morally and civically responsible individual recongnizes himself or herself as a member of a larger social fabric and therefore considers social problems to be at least partly his or her own; such an individual is willing to see the moral and civic dimensions of issues, to make and justify informed moral and civic judgments, and to take action when appropriate" (xxvi). Most generally, the chapters explore what civic engagment means and how educational institutions, departments, disciplines, and curricula can promote it in its various expressions. Mathews, David.
Politics for People: Finding a Responsible Public Voice. A practical manual that has been used by foundation officers, educators, and journalists, Politics for People examines the disconnect between representative democracy and direct citizen action, calling for a "deliberative public democracy"--that is, professional partisan politics must be combined with public dialogue. Mathews, a former politician, college president, and currently director of the Kettering Foundation, examines the activities of a wide variety of civic groups to see the ways in which individual citizens and communities create a politics relevant to their everyday lives.
--need to dev. this section with Tom and Pat --use other biblio from Laurel? --a dimension on versions of literacy: Street's Social Literacies, Mitchell and Weiler, eds. Rewriting Literacy, Graff's Labyrinths of Literacy, and Kozol's Illiterate America.
|
|
The
bookful blockhead, ignorantly Your
mind now, moldering like wedding-cake, |