Service-Learning to Facilitate Development of Leadership Skills and Community Engagement from a Feminist Perspective Across Two Service Learning Generations
Presentation Format
Interactive Workshop
Intended Audience
All Audiences
Presentation Description
Service-learning (SL) is an opportunity to extend learning to outside of the classroom. Often times in classroom setting students learn about issues along with how to address these issues but do not necessarily get a chance to apply them right away in a real-world setting. This SL arrangement was unique for two reasons. First, the mentor of the two SL students was also a SL student for the same class and instructor, psychobiology of women with Dr. Nancy Kenney, twelve years ago. Second, one of the two SL students shared dual roles as mentee and student because of her role as the co-director of the nonprofit organization hosting the two SL students. The nonprofit organization, the Younger Women’s Task Force-Seattle, focuses on the empowerment of younger women with research, policy and scholarship programs. During this SL mentor-mentee interaction, techniques were developed to improve communication, community organization, and mentor-mentee dynamics from a feminist perspective.
As Oxley and IIea (2016) explain, the aim was to teach the SL students while both women from the nonprofit organization functioned as co-learners and teachers. Further, they lead with the belief that feminism is not about ridiculing men but instead questions institutions. The end goal of this SL experience was to teach SL students how to lead as women with gender equity at the forefront of their leadership style as it developed. An overview of feminist theory, drawing from the works of Bell Hooks and Gloria Steinem, will be presented at the beginning of this workshop.
This workshop will provide strategies for effective mentoring of students that encouraged them to constantly reflect on their choice of words, prioritization of tasks and assumptions made about community members while looking for the nuanced ways that female oppression systematically influences their decisions and beliefs. Various scenarios of mentor-mentee communication and development will be offered for the participants to break off and work through. Engaging group discussion on what participants did in certain scenarios, whether difficult or easy, will also promote input from the audience and will yield developed skills and knowledge to take away from this workshop. After this interactive discussion, workshop leaders will take questions from the audience and will ask for specific examples from the audience of challenges they face that welcome participatory problem solving. Workshop attendants will contribute to a brainstorming exercise for this problem solving task. The workshop will end with a recap of the group learning and will explore future implications from the continuation of SL involvement across generations with a feminist approach.
Location
Room - 1220A
Start Date
4-15-2016 8:15 AM
End Date
4-15-2016 9:30 AM
Recommended Citation
Woelfel, Tiffany; Pighin, Marissa; and Gonazalez, Jacqueline, "Service-Learning to Facilitate Development of Leadership Skills and Community Engagement from a Feminist Perspective Across Two Service Learning Generations" (2016). Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning 2016. 59.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gss/2016/2016/59
Service-Learning to Facilitate Development of Leadership Skills and Community Engagement from a Feminist Perspective Across Two Service Learning Generations
Room - 1220A
Service-learning (SL) is an opportunity to extend learning to outside of the classroom. Often times in classroom setting students learn about issues along with how to address these issues but do not necessarily get a chance to apply them right away in a real-world setting. This SL arrangement was unique for two reasons. First, the mentor of the two SL students was also a SL student for the same class and instructor, psychobiology of women with Dr. Nancy Kenney, twelve years ago. Second, one of the two SL students shared dual roles as mentee and student because of her role as the co-director of the nonprofit organization hosting the two SL students. The nonprofit organization, the Younger Women’s Task Force-Seattle, focuses on the empowerment of younger women with research, policy and scholarship programs. During this SL mentor-mentee interaction, techniques were developed to improve communication, community organization, and mentor-mentee dynamics from a feminist perspective.
As Oxley and IIea (2016) explain, the aim was to teach the SL students while both women from the nonprofit organization functioned as co-learners and teachers. Further, they lead with the belief that feminism is not about ridiculing men but instead questions institutions. The end goal of this SL experience was to teach SL students how to lead as women with gender equity at the forefront of their leadership style as it developed. An overview of feminist theory, drawing from the works of Bell Hooks and Gloria Steinem, will be presented at the beginning of this workshop.
This workshop will provide strategies for effective mentoring of students that encouraged them to constantly reflect on their choice of words, prioritization of tasks and assumptions made about community members while looking for the nuanced ways that female oppression systematically influences their decisions and beliefs. Various scenarios of mentor-mentee communication and development will be offered for the participants to break off and work through. Engaging group discussion on what participants did in certain scenarios, whether difficult or easy, will also promote input from the audience and will yield developed skills and knowledge to take away from this workshop. After this interactive discussion, workshop leaders will take questions from the audience and will ask for specific examples from the audience of challenges they face that welcome participatory problem solving. Workshop attendants will contribute to a brainstorming exercise for this problem solving task. The workshop will end with a recap of the group learning and will explore future implications from the continuation of SL involvement across generations with a feminist approach.
Program Abstract
Two service-learning (SL) students are in a class on the psychobiology of women. Their mentor, a current MPH student, was a SL student in the same class over a decade ago. The mentor and one of the two students are also co-directors of a nonprofit organization focused on the empowerment of younger women. During this workshop, audience members will engage in dialogue to improve communication, community organization, and mentor-mentee dynamics from a feminist perspective.