Middlebury Union High School, Middlebury, VT

SSHHAARRIINNGG SSCCHHOOLLAARRSSHHIIPP — EXPANDING ACCESS TO QUALITY EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION — AN INITIATIVE OF THE NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION

CAMPUS INNOVATIONS IN EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION

SUBMITTER Name: Coughlan (Casey) O’Meara Ed.D. Current Position: History Teacher Institution: Middlebury Union High School, Middlebury, VT. Department: History Contact Information: [email protected]

CAMPUS INNOVATION Name of Innovative Practice: Gateway Course RELI/INTD 298 – Privilege & Poverty Academic Cluster Description: The Origin of Action: Social Justice Service-Learning For more than 200 years, Middlebury College has provided a liberal arts education, which recognizes learning within and beyond the classroom. In addition to its undergraduate programs, Middlebury provides learning opportunities for students through a language school, schools abroad, a school of English, a school of the environment, and an institute for international studies. Middlebury College accepts fewer than 20 percent of its undergraduate applicants, resulting in a student body of just over 2,500. Goals and Objectives Middlebury’s Religion/Interdisciplinary Privilege and Poverty course explores social issues through theory and “real-world” application1. The class aims to apply Middlebury principles locally to some of the world’s most complex social problems. The Religion/Interdisciplinary Privilege and Poverty class facilitates civic responsibility and experiential learning through social justice service-learning pedagogy as an example of civic learning over the course of a semester. All courses, through their pedagogy, should inspire their students towards action. Interest in civic learning, among many college and university students, has led to events of social justice on campuses. However, academic curricula do not always support these efforts (Butin & Seider, 2012). Students may assist in coordinating services in a homeless shelter but are often not taking courses exposing them to the issues underlying homelessness. As a result, participation in campus-supported programs and service in communities may only be temporary (Hartley & Hollander, 2005). Social justice service-learning at Middlebury provides experiences for students at a homeless shelter while supporting their understanding of poverty and their civic perspectives. Structure and Process Middlebury College developed an academic cluster, for which the entry into the cluster is the Religion/Interdisciplinary Privilege and Poverty class. A cluster is a series of courses from various departments, in which issues of poverty and privilege comprise the theory of the course. Middlebury’s gateway course into this academic cluster

1 References to the course, and its syllabus, are from James Calvin Davis’s Privilege and Poverty: The Ethics of Economic Inequality, Middlebury College, fall of 2015. asks students to consider privilege and poverty through topics such as food security, education, and health care. Through various philosophical and religious frameworks, students develop perspectives on what an ethical society owes people living in poverty. Individuals consider their civic perspectives through readings, class conversations, semester projects, and writings. Assessed components of the course include students’ semester projects and class participation weighted at 30%, and a final paper accounting for 40% of a course grade. Although many students participate in volunteer work (Hurtado & DeAngelo, 2012), some students arrive on college and university campuses not fully understanding their personal and social responsibility to societal issues. Complex social problems require students to recognize their personal worldviews and those of less privileged communities in order to address societal inequities (Enos, 2015; Hurtado, Ruiz, & Whang, 2012). Higher education therefore has a responsibility to educate its students for academic, economic, and social pursuits, locally and globally, through experiential learning as a type of civic learning (Gould, 2011; Soltan, 2014; Torney-Purta, Cabrera, Roohr, Liu, & Rios, 2015). Middlebury College offers experiences for service-learning, but they may or may not include issues of social justice connected to service in communities, as part of the courses’ content. The limited number of courses facilitating service-learning at Middlebury neglects a vital component of civic learning. Nonetheless, the college’s Privilege and Poverty academic cluster facilitates learning experiences characteristic of social justice service-learning. The Religion/Interdisciplinary Privilege and Poverty course’s learning approaches foster opportunities to change students’ civic perspectives, and serve as model pedagogy for civic learning at Middlebury College. Experiential Learning Theory and Transformative Learning Theory inform the design of this course. Each of these theories serves to emphasize their potential impacts on student learning and their success for the implementation of civic learning. Dewey’s (1938) work with experiential learning and Kolb’s (1984) Experiential Learning Theory, combined with Mezirow’s (1981, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2012) Transformative Learning Theory and Kiely’s (2005) transformation of perspective, form this course’s theoretical framework. Transformation and Transformative Learning Theory are components of experiential learning and social justice service-learning pedagogy. A transformative learning framework guides the examination of experiential learning as a potential example of students’ civic perspective transformation and civic learning pedagogy. The theoretical constructs evidenced through this course are illustrated below.

Perceived Self Experiential Learning Event(s) Altered Perceived Self

(Frame of Reference) (Transformation) (Frame of Reference)

Experience Reflection Action

This visual shows how a learner moves through an experiential learning event and may go through a transformation. This visual also displays the theories constructing the framework for Middlebury’s gateway course into the Privilege and Poverty. Middlebury College recognized experiential learning in its latest strategic plan, completed in 2006, as it continues to pursue its vision and mission. The strategic plan identifies a database to support service-learning projects from community partners and alumni, and increased funding for student internships as experiential learning objectives. Middlebury considered participation in experiential learning for all students prior to graduation. An article in the school’s newspaper, in 2013, stated that Middlebury’s Educational Affairs Committee (EAC) established a work group to discuss whether experiential learning should be a graduation requirement, or whether to include this option as a distribution requirement. Although experiential learning was never made a condition of graduation, it exists in various forms on Middlebury’s campus. MiddCORE, a program supporting academic credit, relies on experiential learning. Other opportunities through Social Entrepreneurship, Environmental Studies, FoodWorks, and Middlebury Entrepreneurs provide experiential learning and credit towards graduation. Community service has also long been a part of Middlebury College’s commitment to its students and communities; an office of community service has existed on campus since the 1980s. Middlebury remains committed to service and experience in their communities through membership in the Campus Compact. In 2006 and again in 2015, Middlebury was recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for its efforts in community engagement. The Carnegie Foundation acknowledged Middlebury’s teaching, learning, and research initiatives connected to its communities. Middlebury College exhibits a commitment to work within its communities through experiential learning. Community engagement happens when students and faculty can explore classroom content within Middlebury’s surrounding communities. Academic courses connecting content in Geography, Art and Architecture, Education, Biology, and Psychology facilitate experiential learning through community engagement. Students can also work directly with community partners through the Office of Community Engagement, as an example of community connected learning. Through the Office of Community Engagement, Privilege and Poverty, Middlebury’s curricular initiative in experiential learning and civic responsibility, is facilitated as an example of social justice service-learning and civic learning pedagogy. To facilitate mutually beneficial relationships for community partners and students, the Office of Community Engagement supports dialogue between course instructors and individuals at the service-learning sites. Religion/Interdisciplinary Privilege and Poverty, the gateway course to the Privilege and Poverty academic cluster, is recommended for students during their first or second year at Middlebury College. The course is only offered during the fall semester and provides a study of inequities locally and abroad, through history, economics, sociology, philosophy, theology, and other areas. In the course, students examine privilege and poverty as well as their origins and impact on individuals and humanity. Students reflect on and discuss the ethical implications of citizens living with substantially less wealth than others, and whether the privileged have an obligation to those in poverty. Various readings, discussions, presentations, writings, service-learning experiences, guest speakers, visual materials, and documentaries provided the following objectives for the fall of 2015 Religion/Interdisciplinary Privilege and Poverty class: recognition of normative assumptions embedded in “our” usage of the terms “inequality,” “privilege,” and “poverty;” an introductory understanding of the insight that interdisciplinary study lends to definitions and assessments of “inequality,” “privilege,” and “poverty;” an ability to critique and/or apply a range of ethical frameworks for assessing individual and social responsibility to persons living in conditions of poverty. Students developed an understanding of inequity through various curricular documents. A few of the readings about privilege and poverty in the United States included David K. Shipler, from The Working Poor: Invisible in America (2004); Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield, from “Air Conditioning, Cable TV, and an Xbox: What Is Poverty in the United States Today?” (2011), and selections from Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Moral Man and Immoral Society” (1932). A guest speaker was also included in the study of inequality, through a presentation and discussions of poverty and privilege. The speaker was a professor of economics and discussed domestic and global understandings of inequality and its measurement. Readings, discussions, documentaries, role-plays and guest speakers were also included in this class, as they related to race, class, or something else influencing privilege, poverty, and power. Four of the readings about “privilege” and social responsibility included Garrett Hardin’s “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor” (1974); Peter Singer’s Practical Ethics (1979) and his “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” (1972); John Rawls’s 1967 “Distributive Justice” (Freeman, 1999). The film Inequality for All (2013) and a guest speaker were included to help students understand privilege. A past president of Save the Children and Executive-in-Residence at Middlebury College discussed the roles of non-governmental organizations through a comparative look at privilege and poverty locally and globally. An understanding of inequality and religion was developed through various selected texts from the Hebrew and Christian Bibles; John R. Schneider’s The Good of Affluence (2002); Walter Rauschenbusch’s A Theology for the Social Gospel (1917); and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice for All (1986). In addition, an understanding of the causes and consequences of poverty and privilege were developed through student-led discussions of the film A Place at the Table (2013); Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ (2015); and Robert D. Putnam’s Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis (2015). While enrolled in this course, students also experienced social justice service-learning off campus. The Director of Community Engagement and the course professor provided opportunities in service-learning in partnership with organizations in the county surrounding Middlebury College. Through these social justice service-learning experiences, students in the fall of 2015 Religion/Interdisciplinary Privilege and Poverty course moved outside their “normal” experiences as Middlebury College students to examine privilege and poverty within their off-campus communities. Semester Projects Students participated in semester projects to connect the theory from readings and discussions with specific experiences of privilege or poverty in Addison County. The Director of Community Engagement and the course’s professor provided service-learning opportunities in partnership with local organizations. Lived experiences to consider one’s civic perspective were facilitated through first-hand experiences on issues related to poverty off-campus. Semester project field experiences were supported through the school’s annual Action Fair. At the Action Fair community agencies and student service organizations presented community engagement opportunities for students’ semester projects. A sampling of semester project offerings included: the local Parent/Child Center, a volunteer-based organization providing food and housing, a locally funded poverty relief group, an organization providing local residents with food, shelter, and housing during times of emergency, an on-campus organization sourcing locally affordable food, and area public schools. There also is a number of college created organizations supporting those in the community experiencing poverty. Through these social justice service-learning experiences, students in the gateway course moved outside their “normal” experiences as college students to examine privilege and poverty within their off-campus communities. Semester projects required students to keep a journal of experiences in their communities. Conversations during the class connected students’ semester projects off-campus to the course material. At the end of the course students represented the work from their semester projects by submitting a journal, essay, visual representation of the work, or some other example of their learning. Students were expected to be involved in their semester projects for approximately eight weeks. Class Participation This course is a discussion-based class. Participation in conversations is essential to individual learning and the success of the class. Students modified their thinking as a result of listening to their classmates, reflecting on the readings assigned, and their experiences in their semester projects. Many studies support the importance of reflection (Deeley, 2010; Hodges, 2014; Jones et al., 2013; Kiely, 2005; King, 2004; Nohl, 2015) through discussion as a process that transforms learning, as a feature of the course content, and a place for consideration of a civic perspective. Examples of social justice were not only included in the written curriculum but also emerged through the taught curriculum and applied learning experiences. Gurin-Sands, Gurin, Nagda, & Osuna’s (2012), Hackman’s (2005), Storms’s (2012), and Mitchell’s (2007) findings support the course content pedagogy as the foundation for social justice and service-learning as features of civic learning pedagogy. Students benefited from conversations with their classmates about the course readings and, as a result, informed the development of their civic perspectives. This is consistent with the findings of Gurin-Sands et al. (2012), Nagda et al. (2003), and Nagda, Gurin, Sorenson, Gurin-Sands, & Osuna (2009), who report that dialogue is one factor that helps individuals to form their perspectives. One of the most important facets of civic knowledge and participation in communities is the sharing of experiences that occur regularly through service (Enos, 2015; Jacoby, 2009, 2015; Levine, 2007; Saltmarsh et al., 2009; Westheimer & Kahne, 2004). The theoretical nature of the course readings provided a challenge when read in isolation but, when discussed in class and reflected upon in combination with the semester projects, allowed students to understand the concepts of privilege and poverty and uncovered the root causes that perpetuate the needs recognized by community partners. Final Paper In 8-10 pages, students developed their own normative position on what an ethical society owes persons living in conditions of poverty. This summative product incorporates the philosophical and religious frameworks studied during the semester as they connect to student’s semester projects. Reflection informs development of personal moral positions on privilege and poverty, leading to action during the semester projects. As examples of social justice service-learning, semester projects allow students to connect the somewhat theoretical course readings and conversations with experiences of real people. Students’ papers are informed by their semester projects, and are not reports on that project; instead, students develop their own broader moral position on privilege and poverty. The Challenge of Implementation The role of effectively facilitated social justice service-learning, quite simply, was found to be the most integral aspect of the students’ civic perspective transformations. Without it, as participants noted, their civic perspectives would not have changed. The professor’s use of learning strategies to best meet the needs of the students in Middlebury College’s fall of 2015 Religion/Interdisciplinary Privilege and Poverty course created experiences, opportunities for reflections, conceptualized possibilities based on experiences, and action directed towards the development of students’ civic perspectives. The students perceived many benefits to their learning through opportunities provided by the course content, including course readings, guest speakers, presentations, discussions, documentaries, and their semester projects. Students identified Middlebury College’s fall of 2015 Religion/Interdisciplinary Privilege and Poverty course towards developing interdependent reciprocal collegial relationships with their professor, classmates, and community partners around the challenges of privilege and poverty. The importance of students serving communities outside of the Middlebury College campus, which addressed issues of privilege and poverty, acknowledged the necessity of social justice service-learning. The students stated that, through shared experience, they supported one another and offered strategies and resources to address privilege, poverty, and other social justice issues. Additionally, students recognized that their perspectives became more socially just and civic-centered as a result of experiences through the curriculum and instructional practices of Middlebury College’s fall of 2015 Religion/Interdisciplinary Privilege and Poverty course. Social justice service-learning as civic pedagogy asked that students contemplate the origin of their actions in their communities. Experiential learning approaches require a different sort of preparation and awareness of student learning, compared with the more predictable lecture-based models typical of higher education. Effectively facilitated civic learning through the Religion/Interdisciplinary Privilege and Poverty course included various perspectives on issues presented in class; collaboration in various learning experiences; community-focused research on “real-world” problems; empathy through classroom and community-connected experiences; individual and group reflection; and the connection of theory to practice. A more formal approach to campus-wide engagement in social justice service-learning would create greater acceptance of its pedagogy in Middlebury classrooms and its communities. The features of effectively facilitated social justice service-learning identified should become the model pedagogy for civic learning at Middlebury College. Students spoke about feeling comfortable, trusting their classmates, and feeling respected in the class. The importance of fostering an environment conducive to courageous honesty is often cited as an essential factor in successful perspective transformation (Hackman, 2005; Mitchell, 2007; Storms, 2012). Gradual perspective transformation through the course took place as students read, discussed, experienced and discussed, and reflected to create new learning (Kiely, 2005; Mezirow, 1981, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2012). Finally, there is an opportunity to further realize the benefits of community engagement and the interdisciplinary nature of the fall of 2015 Religion/Interdisciplinary Privilege and Poverty course. While students considered the collective experience of being enrolled in Privilege and Poverty valuable, they reported that the most significant pedagogical benefits came as a result of their semester projects and collaborating with their classmates through conversation (Gurin- Sands et al., 2012; Nagda et al., 2003; Nagda et al., 2009; Pedersen, Woolum, & Gagne, 2007). Discussions resulting from the professor’s strategies to apply theory through the semester projects, guest speakers, readings, presentations, and documentaries as part of the curriculum design proved to be crucial for students’ transformations of civic perspectives.

References Butin, D. W. (2012). When Engagement is not enough: Building the next generation of the engaged campus. In Butin, D. W., & Seider, S. (2012). The engaged campus: Certificates, minors, and majors as the new community engagement. New York, NY: Palgrave. Colicchio T., Goldman J., Harrington, R., Skoll, J., Weyermann, D., Lurie, C. W., Lurie, J.(Producers), Silverbush, L., & Jacobson, K. (Directors). (2013). A place at the table [Motion Picture]. United States: Participant Media. Deeley, S. (2010). Service learning: Thinking outside of the box. Active Learning in Higher Education, 11(1), 43-53. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York, NY: Collier Books. Dungan S., & Chaiken, J. (Producers), & Kornbluth, J. (Director). (2013). Inequality for all [Motion Picture]. United States: RADiUS-TWC. Enos, S. L. (2015). Service-learning and social entrepreneurship in higher education. New York, NY: Palgrave. Freeman, S. (Ed.). (1999). John Rawls collected papers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Gould, J. (2011). Guardian of democracy: The civic mission of schools. Washington, D.C.:National Conference on Citizenship. Gurin-Sands, C., Gurin, P., Nagda, B. A., & Osuna, S. (2012). Fostering a commitment to social action: How talking, thinking, and feeling make a difference in intergroup dialogue. Equity & Excellence in Education, 45(1), 60-79. Hackman, H. (2005). Five essential components for social justice education. Equity & Excellence in Education, 38, 81-99. Hardin, G. (1974). Lifeboat ethics: The case against helping the poor. BioScience, 24(10), 561-568. Hartley, M., & Hollander, E. L. (2005). The Elusive Ideal: Civic Learning and Higher Education. The Institutions of American Democracy: The Public Schools, 1(1) 252-276. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/gse_pubs/272 Hodges, S. (2014). Transformative learning as an “inter-practice” phenomenon. Adult Education Quarterly, 64(2), 165- 181. Hurtado, S., & DeAngelo, L. (2012). Linking diversity and civic-minded practices with student outcomes: New evidence from national surveys. Liberal Education 98 (2), 14–23. Hurtado, S., Ruiz, A., & Whang, H. (2012). Advancing and assessing civic learning: New results from the diverse learning environment survey. Diversity & Democracy, 15(3), 10‐12. Jacoby, B., & Associates. (2009). Civic engagement in higher education: Concepts and practices. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass. Jacoby, B. (2015). Service-learning essentials: Questions, answers, and lessons learned. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Jones, S., LePeau, L., & Robbins, C. (2013). Exploring the possibilities and limitations of service-learning: A critical analysis of college student narratives about HIV/AIDS. The Journal of Higher Education 84(2), 214-238. Kiely, R. (2005). A transformative learning model for service-learning: A longitudinal case study. Michigan Journal of Community Service-learning, 12(1), 5-22. King, J. T. (2004). Service-learning as a site for critical pedagogy: A case of collaboration, caring, and defamiliarization across borders. Journal of Experiential Education, 26(3), 121-137. Levine, P. (2007). The future of democracy, developing the next generation of American citizens. Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England. Mezirow, J. (1981). A critical theory of adult learning and education. Adult Education, 32(1), 3-24. Mezirow, J. (1997). Transformative learning: Theory to practice. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 74, 5- 12. Mezirow, J. (l998). On critical reflection. Adult Education Quarterly, 48(3), 185-198. Mezirow, J., & Associates. (2000). Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Mezirow, J. (2012). Learning to think like an adult: Core concepts of transformative learning theory. In E. W. Taylor & P. Cranton (Eds.), Handbook of transformative learning: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 73-96). San Francisco: Jossey- Bass. Mitchell, T. D. (2007). Critical service-learning as social justice education: A case study of the citizen scholars program. Equity and Excellence in Education, 40, 101-112. doi: 10.1080/10665680701228797 Nagda, B. A., Gurin, P., & Lopez, G. E. (2003). Transformative pedagogy for democracy and social justice. Race Ethnicity and Education, 6(2), 165-191. Nagda, B. A., Gurin, P., Sorenson, N., Gurin-Sands, C., & Osuna, S. M. (2009). From separate corners to dialogue and action. Race and Social Problems, 1(1), 45-55. Niebuhr, R. (1932). Moral man and immoral society: A study in ethics and politics. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. Nohl, A. M. (2015). Typical phases of transformative learning: A practice-based model. Adult Education Quarterly, 65(1), 35-49. Pedersen, P. J., Woolum, S., & Gagne, B. (2007). Service learning: Model for community evaluation. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 11(1), 193-200. Pope Francis, (2015). Laudato si’ on care for our common home [Encyclical]. Vatican City: Vatican Publishing House. Putnam, R. D. (2015). Our kids: The American dream in crisis. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Rauschenbusch, W. (1917). A theology for the social gospel. New York, NY: Macmillan. Rector, R., & Sheffield, R. (2011). Air conditioning, cable TV, and an Xbox: What is poverty in the United States today? In Mick C. S. (2014) Poverty/privilege in a reader for writers (pp. 48-51). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Saltmarsh, J., Hartley, M., & Clayton, P. (2009). Democratic engagement white paper. Boston, MA: New England Resource Center for Higher Education. Schneider, J. R. (2002). The good of affluence: Seeking god in a culture of wealth. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans. Shipler, D. K. (2004). The working poor: Invisible in America. New York, NY: Knopf Doubleday. Singer, P. (1972). Famine, affluence, and morality. Wiley, 1(3), 229-243. Singer, P. (1979). Practical ethics. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Soltan, K. E. (2014). The emerging field of a new civics. In Levine P. and Soltan K. E. (Eds.), Civic studies: Approaches to the emerging field (pp. 9-19). Washington, D.C.: Bringing Theory to Practice and the Association of American Colleges & Universities. Storms, S. B. (2012). Preparing students for social action in a social justice education course: What works? Equity and Excellence in Education, 45(4), 547-560. doi: 10.1080/10665684.2012.719424 Torney-Purta, J., Cabrera, J. C., Roohr, K. C., Liu, O. L., & Rios, J. A. (2015). Assessing civic competency and engagement in higher education: Research background, frameworks, and directions for next-generation assessment. ETS Research Report Series. doi: 10.1002/ets2.12081 United States Catholic Bishops. (1986). Economic justice for all: Pastoral letter on catholic social teaching and the U.S. economy. Washington, D.C.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Westheimer, J., & Kahne, J. (2004). What kind of citizen? The politics of educating for democracy. American Educational Research Journal, 41(2), 237-269.

Focus of Practice: service-learning, active learning, internships, social justice

Key Words: experiential learning, transformative learning, social justice education, civic learning

SUBMITTER PROFILE

Coughlan (Casey) O’Meara, Ed.D. works to individualize learning through students’ and teachers’ interests and abilities, to serve their needs and help them grow in his position at Middlebury Union High School in Middlebury Vermont. Dr. O’Meara earned his doctorate from Northeastern University, under the direction of Dr. Kristal Clemons. His dissertation is titled the Origin of Action: Social Justice Service-Learning and examined a sample of students in a Middlebury College course to determine the degree to which social justice service-learning, as an example of Experiential and Transformative Learning Theories, represented civic learning pedagogy. Research questions focused on understanding how students’ civic perspectives were influenced by student participation in social justice service-learning pedagogy. Dr. O’Meara’s recent publications include: I Reassessed Who I Am, Critical Questions in Education, 2017. Community Engaged Learning, Community Works Journal, 2017. Sticky Bombs! Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, 2017.