Community%20Partners%20for%20Civic%20Participation%20and%20Social%20Change

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Community Partners for Civic Participation and
Social Change Dave Wells Assistant Faculty
Director Interdisciplinary Studies Degree Arizona
State University
School of Interdisciplinary Studies

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Outline
School of Interdisciplinary Studies

• Overview
• Models to help you think through possibilities
  (25 minutes)
• Evaluating possibilities for you (25 minutes)
• Exploration Sheet (feel free to jot as I present)
• Time to complete sheet
• Discussion in small groups
• Sharing and trouble shooting
• Assume youre interested. Not going to spend time
  on educational theory to convince you.

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Why do it?
School of Interdisciplinary Studies

• Education More Meaningful
• For Students (beyond textbook learning,
  integrates learning with doing and models what
  wed like to see students do after they graduate)
• More Student-Centered
• For Faculty (youll learn something in the
  process)
• Makes Teaching More Challenging
• You may partially lose control and class may be
  less predictable
• Students may find a need to talk about their
  experience
• Making Impact on the Community, with the
  community as your partner
• Youre like me
• - so devoted to social change and civic
  engagement that it NEEDS to be part of aligning
  your life with your teaching.

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Why not do it?
School of Interdisciplinary Studies

• Developing and maintain relationships with
  community organizations takes time!
• Makes Teaching More Challenging (you saw this
  before!)
• You may partially lose control and class may be
  less predictable
• Students may find a need to talk about their
  experience
• Challenges at your institution like
• Inadequate support (course release, staff
  support, )
• Not what will enable you to keep your job
• Student time constraints
• Making students aware of unique offerings

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Course Planning
School of Interdisciplinary Studies
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Many Models to Choose from (start thinking and
jotting!)
School of Interdisciplinary Studies

• Short-term or Episodic opportunities on or off
  campus (Example 1)
• Creating social action field trips (Example 2)
• Matching with existing on campus programs for off
  campus work (Example 3a)
• Creating on off campus opportunities with limited
  hours for added credit (Example 3b)
• Developing community-based research (Example 4a)
• Community Research for social change outside
  organization (Example 4b)
• Social Action in collaboration or independently
  (Example 5)
• Paired Internships with Integrated Courses
  (Example 6)

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School of Interdisciplinary Studies
Example 1 volunteer or match with on campus
program

• Ask Students to volunteer in a course related
  community project
• In my BIS 301 class, Ive had students do a
  boundary crossing experience, where they either
  do Voices of Discovery on campus or volunteer
  at a community agency for at least 6 hours a
  semester which required them to cross a race,
  gender, social class, religious, age or other
  boundary and then write about it.
• ASU has an office that maintain a volunteer data
  base including long-term, short-term and episodic
  (1 time) opportunities.
• Could have students attend a City Council Meeting
  or other public meeting (or expand that to
  becoming involved in a community issue under
  discussion).
• In Tempe a rental housing task force has been
  formed.
• Also, looking at Pay Day Loans

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School of Interdisciplinary Studies
Example 2 Social Action Field Trip

• Colleague plans to give class an option of going
  to Mexican border with Borderlinks, a nonprofit
  organization based in Tucson (were 100 miles
  north of Tucson)
• Likely tour maquiladoras and see housing
  conditions and compare with appearances on this
  side of border.
• Meet with representatives of various organizations

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School of Interdisciplinary Studies
Example 3a Service Learning Course Match

• ASUs Service Learning Office runs tutoring and
  other instruction aid programs in many schools in
  Phoenix serving at risk youngsters.
• Instructors match their courses with the program
• Service Learning could be added credit
• Could replace assignments in the classwith
  students not doing service learning having
  something else they do.

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Service Learning Program Background and Design
School of Interdisciplinary Studies

• Primary partners school districts and non-profit
  agencies
• Funding partners education, business, and
  industry
• Provides training, oversight, research, and
  community engagement opportunities for
  students and faculty
• Regular courses linked to credit-bearing
  semester-long internships or course-embedded
  projects
• Students apply classroom knowledge in the
  community
• Students infuse classroom with their community
  learning
• Students reflect on community experiences via
  computer-mediated, instructor-led discussions

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MIC 205
SPA 202 (Fall 2002)
ENG 471
AFH 333 Fall 2002
Dept. of Languages Literatures
ENG 480
MTE 180
Dept. of Microbiology
ENG 312
AFH 353 Fall 2002
RDG 301
Department of Mathematics
African American Studies
LIN 572
ENG 217
DCI 498
Education
Department of English
ENG 102
RDG 507
The Service Learning Program at
ASU Academically-Linked Service
Learning Internships
BIO 187
Dept. of Biology
ENG 101
Amer English Culture Program
BIO 100
Stretch 101
Dept. of Plant Biology
Honors College
HON 484
UNI 494 Capstone
School of Architecture
PLB 108
ARP 494
University College
UNI 494 Community Web Dev
SOC 341
Dept. of Sociology
SOC 470
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
Department Of Psychology
UNI 494 Leadership
Center for Solid State Science
BIS 401
Office of Climatology
College of Public Programs
Dept. of Geological Sciences
Dept. of Geography
PSY 101
Gerontology Program
GRN 440, 498, 540
Any PHS
JUS 341
GPH 373
PGS 365
Any PHY
UNI 494 Science Is Fun
GLG 101/103
GPH 111
SWG 591
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MLK, Jr.
Akimel
Eisenhower
Percy Julian
South Mtn. H.S.
Booker T. Washington Head Start
Wilson School
Rose Linda
Lassen
Laird
Mesa School District
Aguilar
WilsonSchool District
South Mountain Youth and Family Center
Fees Middle School
C.O. Greenfield
Jorgensen
Phoenix Citadel Corps
Tempe School District 3
Carminati
Nevitt
Cesar Chavez
The Salvation Army Southwest Div
Sierra Vista
M.O. Bush
The Service Learning Program Tutoring Sites
Conchos
Mesa Corps
M.O. Bush
Tempe Union High School District
Valley View
Roosevelt School District
Mountain Pointe High School
Phoenix Elementary School District 1
Ed Pastor
Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
J.F. Kennedy
Kenilworth
Sunland
M.L.. King
Salt River Elem.
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EXAMPLES OF COMMUNITY CLASSROOM LINKS
School of Interdisciplinary Studies
ENGLISH COMPOSITION

• COMMUNITY raising Stanford 9 scores in the
  Valleys most in-need schools
• CLASSROOM using community work as basis for
  semesters research and editing
• English 101
• English 102
• English 217
• English 312

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School of Interdisciplinary Studies

• LITERATURE FOR ADOLESCENTS
• COMMUNITY helping adolescent readers improve
  literacy skills and gain insights into themselves
  and the larger world
• CLASSROOM creating a real-world application for
  classroom learning
• METHODS OF TEACHING WRITING
• COMMUNITY helping young writers practice the
  Six Traits of Good Writing
• CLASSROOM infusing course work with real-world
  experience

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School of Interdisciplinary Studies

• MATH EDUCATION
• COMMUNITY Helping academically at-risk third
  graders learn basic math skills
• CLASSROOM Motivating potential teachers to learn
  material in non-threatening environments
• ARCHITECTURE
• COMMUNITY Providing gifted but at-risk children
  with experiences that can help them expand the
  limits of their aspirations
• CLASSROOM Enhancing awareness of the public
  role of architects

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School of Interdisciplinary Studies

• SCIENCE
• COMMUNITY Helping minority students realize
  they have the potential to be scientists
• CLASSROOM Creating student-centered
  environments that heighten students academic and
  social engagement in
• Geology
• Microbiology
• Physical Science
• Physical Geography
• Plant Biology

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School of Interdisciplinary Studies

• SOCIOLOGY
• COMMUNITY Assisting at-risk youth develop
  education-based alternatives to anti-social
  behavior
• CLASSROOM Heightening understanding of
  classroom theories as they relate to community
  issues
• Urban Issues
• Modern Social Problems
• Racial and Ethnic Relations

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School of Interdisciplinary Studies
Example 3b Service hours with multiple
placements (Welfare Reform Course )

• Welfare Reform Course at Earlham College with 20
  hour community service component (4 credits
  instead of 3). Students worked at agencies with
  local connection to course
• Indiana Workforce Development
• Women, Infants, Children (WIC)
• Richmond (IN) Housing Authority
• Family and Children Services
• Genesis Battered Womens Shelter

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School of Interdisciplinary Studies
Readings plus Experience

• Students read texts giving both history,
  perspectives on the issue, models of how labor
  markets worked
• A former welfare mom visited the class to discuss
  her experience
• The students discussed every week new experiences
• Ultimately students presented their experience
  for campus community and wrote reports sent to
  the agencies.

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School of Interdisciplinary Studies
Example 4a Community Based Research (Research
Methods Course)

• With assistance of Nonprofit Management Institute
  we solicited requests for nonprofit research
  projects.
• We match one section (30 students) with an
  organization and seek to answer their research
  questions with quantitative and qualitative
  methods--which the students are learning about in
  the course.
• Meeting a community need (under funded
  organization), while providing a lasting
  educational experience.
• Works best in terms of time involvement if you
  have a continual relationship with a few
  organizations.

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School of Interdisciplinary Studies
Past Projects

• -Arizona Coalition to End Domestic Violence
• Analyzed Dept. of Public Safety data on arrests
  and dispositions of crimes that sometimes were
  connected to domestic violence. With further
  work after the course, released formal report at
  press conference with organization.
• CARE Partnership
• Door to door community survey with bilingual
  junior high translators.
• Helped inventory community dental clinics for
  capacity and procedures as part of an oral health
  needs assessment.
• Women in New Recovery
• Coordinated to support Needs assessment federal
  grant with survey distribution and focus group
  notes.
• Not My Kid
• Helped with program evaluation by doing pre and
  post surveys after their classroom presentations
  (drug and eating disorders)

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School of Interdisciplinary Studies
Example 4bCommunity Research (Research in the
Class outside organizations )

• We conducted a content analysis of media coverage
  (print and TV) of politics, especially state
  government in February 2004.
• Students coded results, developed a paper
• Issued a press release, held a press conference
• One student got to appear on our public affairs
  program on the PBS affiliate.

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School of Interdisciplinary Studies
Example 5 Social Action in collaboration or
independently

• UCLA professor who teamed his social movements
  course with a union organizing drive for Los
  Angeles downtown hotels.
• This coming semester, for my Power, Politics,
  and Social Change course, we plan to introduce
  legislation or work closely with someone new to
  the legislative process, and then take a
  significant role in trying to move that
  legislation.

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School of Interdisciplinary Studies
Example 6 Paired Internships with Integrated
Courses (Power, Politics and Social Change)

• Arizona Public Policy Senior Seminar ( 3 units)
• Legislative Advocacy Applied Study Internship (3
  units)
• Builds off existing internship requirement, but
  ties to senior seminar in our curriculum. Run
  every Spring coinciding with State Legislative
  Session
• Challenge How do you find 25 community
  placements?

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School of Interdisciplinary Studies
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School of Interdisciplinary Studies
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School of Interdisciplinary Studies
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School of Interdisciplinary Studies
CHALLENGES!

• More than just picking the right books!
• Need to recruit organizations and do advance
  planning
• Need to work on joint expectations (especially
  challenging in our research methods course)
• Be cognizant of your student limitations. ASU
  students have far more limitations (paid work)
  than did Earlham College liberal arts students.
• May need patience. It took two years to develop
  and cultivate sufficient internship connections
  for the paired course building off of 4 prior
  years of extensive community and political
  involvement.

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Course Planning
School of Interdisciplinary Studies
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Contact Information
School of Interdisciplinary Studies

• Dave Wells, Ph.D.
• Interdisciplinary Studies Program
• david.wells_at_asu.edu
• 480-727-7038
• Web sites
• http//www.public.asu.edu/wellsda/teaching
• http//www.MakeDemocracyWork.org (my archived
  public policy newspaper op-eds)