This morning, I, a doctoral student in the University of Incarnate Word’s Dreeben School of Education, was part of a conversation including a UIW faculty member, Women’s Global Connection, Incarnate Word Sisters, and members of an organization devoted to supporting efforts to create more peace and justice in Peru. We were meeting to figure out how to make the upcoming WGC immersion trip to Peru focused on fostering the cultural learning of its travelers and developing their sense of civic responsibility.
Engaging in this kind of dialogue is how we put the idea of serving back into service learning. Current research (Asghar & Rowe 2017) shows that international service-learning programs are more focused on the experiential education of the student and less concerned about community impact. It is necessary to enlighten student travelers on the needs and concerns of the community which they seek to aid. A visit to the Museum of Memory and Tolerance in Lima where students learn of the extremely violent and oppressive regime all of Peru was under for decades, a time when women and children were most vulnerable, would help them understand the weight and historic significance behind a Photovoice service project on sexualized violence against children. The students who shadow or take the vitals of patients in the Chimbote clinic can make the connection between themselves and St. Martin de Porres, by learning of how he devoted his life to caring for the sick regardless of their skin color, disease, or size of their pocketbook. Student volunteers can also observe first-hand how excess pollution affects the health and well-being of an entire community upon meeting the Shipiba artisans whose tribe is facing hunger as a result of ecological damage levied by industry and whom believe that “creation is the womb we live in.Finally, if what Sister Martha says is true, that if we keep destroying the planet, we are committing suicide” (M. Kirk, personal communication, May 4, 2019), what does that mean for many of the developing countries that do not have adequate waste management or ways to circumvent contamination.
Experiential learning is necessary to shed insight on the needs of the population which service trips aim to support.
This past semester I narrowed down my research from one where I was looking at how to build a more successful relationship between partnering international organizations to one focused on the efficacy and sustainability of service-learning trips. I’m currently participating in an internship which allows me to be directly involved with creating an international service-learning trip to Peru. This is helping me better understand how the students, communities, and partnerships mutually benefit and learn from one another and where their needs are or should be addressed.
There is a need among WGC and their partnering international organizations to build long-term sustainable relationships and it begins with conversation. In all this we have a social responsibility, an obligation: “To teach to others what we know, and to try with what’s left of our lives to find goodness and a meaning to this life” (Stone et al., n.d.).
My research agenda highlights the major gaps and challenges of international service learning and current enquiry into this field. My upcoming next steps are in Peru and Kenya during the 2019 WGC immersion trips where I will be exploring the communication and relationship between those teaming up on these service-learning missions. This involves creating workshops/engagements that will enable students and domestic organizations to successfully collaborate with international women’s groups. The investigation includes qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews, quantitative methods of direct observation and gathering of documents and records, and participatory action research in the form of Photovoice. All of this will be done with the intention of building a prototype of an effectual immersion trip dependent on the open communication and trusting relationship between its partnering entities.
Asghar, Mandy, & Rowe, Nick. (2017). Reciprocity and Critical Reflection as the Key to Social Justice in Service Learning: A Case Study. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 54(2), 117-125.
Stone, O., Stone, O., Sheen, C., Berenger, T. and Dafoe, W. (n.d.). Platoon (1986). DVD.
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