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Incorporating Intergroup Dialogue Processes Into a Critical Service-Learning Program

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Incorporating Intergroup Dialogue Processes Into a Critical Service-Learning Program University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses November 2016 Talking the Walk: Incorporating Intergroup Dialogue Processes into a Critical Service-Learning Program David Neely University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons Recommended Citation Neely, David, "Talking the Walk: Incorporating Intergroup Dialogue Processes into a Critical Service- Learning Program" (2016). Doctoral Dissertations. 783. https://doi.org/10.7275/9016675.0 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/783 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Talking the Walk: Incorporating Intergroup Dialogue Processes into a Critical Service- Learning Program A Dissertation Presented by DAVID S. NEELY Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY September 2016 College of Education © Copyright by David S. Neely 2016 All Rights Reserved Talking the Walk: Incorporating Intergroup Dialogue Processes into a Critical Service- Learning Program A Dissertation Presented by DAVID S. NEELY Approved as to style and content by: Gary D. Malaney, Co-Chair Ximena Zúñiga, Co-Chair Arthur S. Keene, Member Joseph B. Berger, Senior Associate Dean College of Education DEDICATION To Milton Polsky (with his era of social justice activists and educators) and Quinn Neely (with the coming generation of social justice advocates) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Throughout my long journey of writing this dissertation, I have noticed many similarities with running a marathon. This was a commitment I could never have completed without the support, encouragement, and love of my family, friends, colleagues, and mentors. First, I want to thank my friends in the Social Justice Education and Higher Education programs who ran beside me stride for stride through different stretches of this learning process, including Jo Allen-Oleet, Shuli Archer, Dre Domingue, Jackie Johnson, Tyson Rose, and Marjorie Valdivia. Thank you also to my pace leaders, those doctoral student mentors further down the road who brilliantly modeled social justice teaching and dialogue facilitation. Elaine Brigham, Safire DeJong, Mike Funk Molly Keehn (dialogue coach extraordinaire), Taj Smith, and Rani Varghese, you are all such an inspiration! To my supportive colleagues in the Residential Learning Communities office, thank you for listening to my dissertation stories and woes for these past few years. Next, I want to acknowledge my coaches, those faculty mentors who have guided my learning inside and outside of the classroom. Thank you, Maurianne Adams, for advising me on my Social Justice Education Graduate Certificate and for helping me think about how to incorporate social justice education content and processes into my teaching. This dissertation project could never have come to fruition without the continued support of the 2011-2012 Citizen Scholars Program Teaching Team: John Reiff, Art Keene, Katja Hahn d’Errico, Gloria DiFulvio, and Chris Felton. John, while you have introduced me to so many foundational concepts of service-learning and v mentored me as a professional, I am even more inspired by the way you have modeled servant leadership and truly live your values. Thank you, 13s, the passionate students in the 13th cohort of the Citizens Scholars Program! Put simply, this dissertation is yours. Your words breathe life into this dissertation and fill me with hope. The time and energy you contributed to this research project means more to me than you will ever know. To my committee, thank you for staying the course with me for many more years than I anticipated, even beyond two of your retirements. Thank you, Art Keene, for your enthusiasm! This research would not have been possible without your support and belief in the potential of dialogue to transform relationships and open new spaces for civic learning. Thank you, Gary Malaney, for your consistency as an advisor and your thoughtful edits. You have always been approachable and available, something I have never taken for granted. Thank you, Ximena Zúñiga, for welcoming me into the Social Justice Education and Intergroup Dialogue family since my first semester on campus. Your ongoing mentorship and support has helped me become a better facilitator, coach, writer, researcher, and person! When I applied for admission to UMass Amherst, my hope was to meet you and enroll in one of your classes. That you have mentored me for years, involved me in your teaching and research, and ultimately co-chaired my dissertation committee is such an incredible gift! My close friends and family have stood along the race course, around every turn and at the top of every hill, spurring me onward. Becky and Jo Allen-Oleet, thanks for continuing to cheer me on at every phase of this process. Thank you to my Polsky family: vi Milton, Roberta, Jonah, Jenny, Olivia, and Spencer! Milt, your lifelong passion for social justice, engaged teaching, and creative activism is true inspiration to me! Thank you, Dad, for all of your support, for reading my dissertation proposal, and for telling me how proud you are of me. That has meant so much! Joe, you continue to inspire me through the courageous actions you take to confront and interrupt racism and other forms of injustice in your daily life. Mom, you have supported me in this process in more ways than I can possibly count, but what means the most to me is your friendship and constant love for me just as I am (doctor or not). Quinn, though I had aspired to write the final words of this dissertation before you were born, it is so much sweeter to be able to share the final steps of this journey with you in my arms. Every day you remind me what matters most in life – not degrees and titles, but hugs and giggles! Maddy, were it not for your perpetual love and support – moving to a new city, listening to me for hundreds of hours talking through my doctoral highs and lows, rubbing my sore shoulders, making handmade signs to encourage me through challenging stretches, and staying up late while I wrote “just one more sentence” – I would never have crossed the finish line. Babels, you are my rock! To conclude, I want to acknowledge all of the scholars and educators (formal and informal) whose individual and collective contributions have provided the foundation for this dissertation. My many privileges (including my race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, first-language, age, and abilities) have made the path toward finishing this dissertation navigable for me in countless ways that are not made available to so many others whose brilliance and perseverance is under-supported and under-acknowledged. It vii is my hope that in even the smallest of ways, this dissertation (and the dialogue project upon which it was based) contributes to movement for justice-oriented social change. viii ABSTRACT TALKING THE WALK: INCORPORATING INTERGROUP DIALOGUE PROCESSES INTO A CRITICAL SERVICE-LEARNING PROGRAM SEPTEMBER 2016 DAVID S. NEELY, B.M., UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN M.A., NEW YORK UNIVERSITY Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Associate Professor Gary D. Malaney and Professor Ximena Zúñiga Service-learning, particularly critical service-learning, is relational work that endeavors to create and maintain more just relationships among students and community members within and across social identity groups (Mitchell, 2008). It is essential that students in service-learning courses learn how to talk, listen and collaborate with community members in ways that acknowledge and explore how social identities, privilege, and oppression impact people’s life experiences and relationships. However, in our socially-segregated society, in which schools and neighborhoods are as divided by race and income as they were half a century ago (Reardon & Bischoff, 2011; Reardon & Owens, 2014), many college students are not accustomed to talking, learning, and working with others across differences. Research suggests that when college students participate in structured dialogue across differences, such as intergroup dialogue, they are better prepared to understand and engage with others across diverse social identities (Gurin, Nagda, & Zúñiga, 2013). Yet, research on the outcomes of integrating intergroup dialogue pedagogy into service-learning courses is sparse. ix Informed by existing literature on service-learning and intergroup dialogue, this qualitative case study of the Citizen Scholars Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst provides an account of how 18 undergraduate students learned about and practiced dialogue processes as a curricular component of a multi-semester, cohort-based service-learning program. Case study methodology was employed to analyze 25 individual interview transcripts, 36 final papers, and 126 reflective memos. Three significant findings emerged from the thematic analysis of the data. First, learning to dialogue and engaging in dialogue with others about social identity issues profoundly mattered to the CSP students. Second, practicing dialogue in a structured,
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