Go Big or They’ll Stay Home: Using Service-Learning to Reclaim the Moral and Societal Purpose of Education
Presentation Format
Individual Presentation
Intended Audience
All Audiences
Presentation Description
Rationale for the topic
For the Ancient Greeks (5th century B.C.), the purpose of education was clear – to move people from being idiots (the Greek word for being concerned with one’s self) to citizens empowered and informed enough to contribute to democratic governance. John Dewey (1916) echoed this sentiment with his belief that “the role of education is to teach individuals how to become more interactive with their social environments in order to co-create those environments.” More recently, in an editorial in the New York Times, The Big University, David Brooks (2015) contends that in the current context of 24/7 content, the only purpose of bringing people together for education is “to thrive at those things that require physical proximity. Very few of us cultivate our souls as hermits. That includes moral and spiritual development. We do it through small groups and relationships and in social contexts.”
The three-part model of service-learning that includes academic content, service, and critical reflection (Clayton et al., 2005) is an opportunity for education at all levels to reclaim its moral and societal purpose and to reflect John Saltmarsh’s and Matthew Hartley’s (2012) charge for education “to serve a larger purpose” and for higher education, in particular, to play a critical role in fostering civic engagement and democratic participation. This model of service-learning has proved to be effective in enhancing students’ academic engagement, sense of citizenship, and personal growth (e.g., Perry, 2011; Eyler and Giles, 1999) in many different contexts. This presentation will focus on the effectiveness of service-learning in promoting the larger purposes of education in the post-disaster contexts of Christchurch, New Zealand after the devastating earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 and Long Island, New York after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. In both situations, university students provided relevant service through relief efforts and were asked to critically reflect on their actions in light of their cultural and social contexts and with regard to what others have had to say about this in literature, philosophy, and religion.
Goals for the presentation
The goals for participants in this presentation are for them:
- to consider the purpose of education within their own cultural and social contexts
- to analyse the findings and lessons learned from the case studies in Christchurch and Long Island
- to determine how these lessons can transfer to any context, particularly if global challenges such as inequality, climate change, and conflict can be dealt with locally.
Ways in which participants will be engaged
The format for the presentation will be interactive and experiential in that participants will be asked to engage with each other about their views as to the purposes of education and how these relate to service-learning. Participants will be invited to connect with the Christchurch and Long Island case studies on personal and intellectual levels and then translate the findings from those case studies into their own contexts. Further, participants will experience an example of how students in those situations were led through a critical reflection process.
Location
Room - 1220A
Start Date
4-15-2016 9:45 AM
End Date
4-15-2016 11:00 AM
Recommended Citation
Osteen, Billy and Perry, Lane Graves III, "Go Big or They’ll Stay Home: Using Service-Learning to Reclaim the Moral and Societal Purpose of Education" (2016). Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning 2016. 95.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gss/2016/2016/95
Go Big or They’ll Stay Home: Using Service-Learning to Reclaim the Moral and Societal Purpose of Education
Room - 1220A
Rationale for the topic
For the Ancient Greeks (5th century B.C.), the purpose of education was clear – to move people from being idiots (the Greek word for being concerned with one’s self) to citizens empowered and informed enough to contribute to democratic governance. John Dewey (1916) echoed this sentiment with his belief that “the role of education is to teach individuals how to become more interactive with their social environments in order to co-create those environments.” More recently, in an editorial in the New York Times, The Big University, David Brooks (2015) contends that in the current context of 24/7 content, the only purpose of bringing people together for education is “to thrive at those things that require physical proximity. Very few of us cultivate our souls as hermits. That includes moral and spiritual development. We do it through small groups and relationships and in social contexts.”
The three-part model of service-learning that includes academic content, service, and critical reflection (Clayton et al., 2005) is an opportunity for education at all levels to reclaim its moral and societal purpose and to reflect John Saltmarsh’s and Matthew Hartley’s (2012) charge for education “to serve a larger purpose” and for higher education, in particular, to play a critical role in fostering civic engagement and democratic participation. This model of service-learning has proved to be effective in enhancing students’ academic engagement, sense of citizenship, and personal growth (e.g., Perry, 2011; Eyler and Giles, 1999) in many different contexts. This presentation will focus on the effectiveness of service-learning in promoting the larger purposes of education in the post-disaster contexts of Christchurch, New Zealand after the devastating earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 and Long Island, New York after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. In both situations, university students provided relevant service through relief efforts and were asked to critically reflect on their actions in light of their cultural and social contexts and with regard to what others have had to say about this in literature, philosophy, and religion.
Goals for the presentation
The goals for participants in this presentation are for them:
- to consider the purpose of education within their own cultural and social contexts
- to analyse the findings and lessons learned from the case studies in Christchurch and Long Island
- to determine how these lessons can transfer to any context, particularly if global challenges such as inequality, climate change, and conflict can be dealt with locally.
Ways in which participants will be engaged
The format for the presentation will be interactive and experiential in that participants will be asked to engage with each other about their views as to the purposes of education and how these relate to service-learning. Participants will be invited to connect with the Christchurch and Long Island case studies on personal and intellectual levels and then translate the findings from those case studies into their own contexts. Further, participants will experience an example of how students in those situations were led through a critical reflection process.
Program Abstract
A recent editorial, The Big University, contends that in the current context of 24/7 content, the only purpose of bringing people together for education is “to thrive at those things that require physical proximity. That includes moral and spiritual development. We do it through small groups and relationships and in social contexts.” Case studies from New Zealand and North Carolina provide proof that service-learning is particularly well positioned to reclaim this purpose of education.