Civic Learning at the Intersections:
U.S. Diversity, Global Education, and Democracy’s Unfinished Work
Pre-conference Workshops
Thursday, October 18, 2007 | 2:00 – 5:00 p.m.
(Pre-registration required: $100 for Members and $125 for Nonmembers)
Workshop 1: Awareness, Coalition, Action: Fostering Campus-Wide Collaboration for Engaging Students in Multicultural Understanding and Social Responsibility
Building coalitions on campus and introducing new models for collaboration across a myriad of issues and initiatives has historically proved to be a formidable task. How do you build coalitions involving Hillel, the Black Student Alliance, the Undergraduate Women’s Council, and the Queer Straight Alliance? How do you get faculty, staff, and student groups to work together on diversity initiatives? Individuals pursuing change on campus by bringing together a multiplicity of groups face cultural, psychological, intergroup, and financial barriers. Yet, interpersonal, intergroup, and interdepartmental collaborations and coalitions are at the heart of successful programs and initiatives designed to engage students in multicultural understanding and social responsibility. This workshop will 1) present a conceptual model for understanding campus diversity; 2) identify the barriers that prevent us from forming coalitions, 3) engage participants with strategies for overcoming those barriers, and 4) provide promising models for engaging students using collaborative approaches. Participants will have an opportunity to work together with other participants in thinking about a specific project or initiative for their respective campus. This is a highly interactive workshop involving simulation activities, group work, and dialogue..
Jésus Trevino, Associate Provost, Center for Multicultural Excellence, and Melissa Martinez, Coordinator for Multicultural Advising, Center for Academic and Career Development, Denise Pappas-Lucero, Administrative Assistant and Trainer, Center for Multicultural Excellence, University of Denver
Workshop 2: Residential Curriculum: A Strategy for Citizenship Development
Calls for citizenship development abound both within and outside of higher education. Yet, colleges often find themselves unable to deliver on the promises of citizenship development. Examined through a new paradigm, residential campuses can provide a substantive context for citizenship development. The University of Delaware has developed a model to further the general education of each residence hall student based on 12 citizenship education outcomes. This interactive workshop will explore the residential curriculum as a strategy for nurturing students who demonstrate civic engagement toward the development of a sustainable society. The University of Delaware’s curricular, developmentally sequenced approach to citizenship offers a replacement for the traditional programming model. This new approach provides a means by which the residential campus can capitalize on the residence halls to further student learning gains particular to citizenship education. Participants will examine the curricular approach, intersections with academic affairs, related learning outcomes and competencies, and how this approach can further citizenship development. Residential lesson plans for diversity awareness and for personal and social responsibility will be included. While components of the University of Delaware residential curriculum model will be used as examples, the primary strategy will be to engage participants on drafting their own unique design.
Jim Tweedy, Associate Director of Residence Life, Kathleen Kerr, Director of Resident Life, and Havidan Rodriquez, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and International Programs, University of Delaware
Workshop 3: Building Capacity for Institutional Learning at the Intersections of U.S. Diversity, Global Education, and Civic Engagement
This interactive workshop will give participants the opportunity to explore pedagogical techniques and structural supports for student learning that bridge intercultural skills and complex thinking across civic engagement experiences that fully consider local and global contexts.
Participants will examine research results, discuss models, and plan opportunities for their home campus that focus on integrating curricular and co-curricular experiences for students and drawing together faculty and staff in synergistic efforts to achieve these objectives. The diversity of institution types and their constituents should provide fertile ground for broadening imagination, sharing strategies, and considering practical approaches for making these intersections productive way stations along the path to social justice.
A.T. Miller, Coordinator of Multicultural Teaching and Learning at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, and Director of the Global Intercultural Experience for Undergraduates at the National Center for Institutional Diversity, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Workshop 4: Civic Engagement for an Inclusive Democracy
For the last 30 years, key indicators of civic engagement have been in decline. U.S. voter turnout is near the bottom of democratic nations and the National Commission on Civic Renewal claims the United States become a “nation of spectators”. While colleges and universities are responding to the call to foster civic engagement activities, many students may not understand the difference between performing good works and taking responsibility for the systemic problems within our society. As educators it is our role to assist our students in recognizing that the actions of one group of citizens must be assessed in terms of the influence on the lives of others. Students must learn how to define and promote the common good in their communities and be empowered to influence policy at the national level. This workshop will feature a discussion of current on-campus practices in which students move beyond good works. Participants will analyze how students are using shared leadership and critical thinking skills to address systemic problems in their communities. Discussion will address the strengths of current practice and student outcomes as well as the outcomes we would like to achieve in the future.
Mary Ryan, President, Washington Internship Institute; and Karen Spear, Executive Director, Consortium for Innovative Environments in Learning
Workshop 5: Evaluating Community-Engaged Learning from Multiple Perspectives
How do we know what impact our community engaged activities are having on students, faculty and community partners? What are the unique and the complimentary outcomes of such activities? This workshop will illustrate strategies for designing, evaluating and improving community-engaged learning from multiple perspectives. Participants will design strategies that will help them to evaluate and improve their own programs. From the perspective of students, evaluation will focus on civic learning outcomes as well as the development of civic skills. With respect to faculty, the emphasis of evaluation will be on skills and knowledge necessary to create effective community learning opportunities in the curriculum, and then design practical evaluations. In the context of community, evaluation strategies will focus on providing meaningful information for community partners as well as identifying useful insights for partnership development and enhancement. Information will be exchanged among participants about specific evaluation approaches, faculty development activities, and useful resources.
Sherril Gelmon, Professor of Public Health, Mark O. Hatfield School of Government, Portland State University
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