Running head: POWER AND PRIVILEGE 1

Power and Privilege: The Development of Service-Learning Modules

Nikki Jarvis, Hallie Moberg, & Jon Merrill

Loyola University Chicago

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Creating service-learning modules for Marquette University was both a difficult and

exciting process. The concepts of power and privilege are prevalent in all social interactions.

However, these concepts are illusive and can be difficult to grasp. In creating these service-

learning modules for undergraduate students, our group focused on creating highly engaging

learning activities that would help students connect these concepts to their personal experiences

as well as their service-learning program. We utilized several of our course authors in order to

create significant learning experiences. The following reflection will examine how we

connected and used existing literature in order to create these modules.

Pre-Service Modules

There were three overarching goals in developing the pre-service modules. The first goal

was for students to begin to reflect on their current understanding of power and privilege. This

was accomplished by requiring students to connect their current understanding of these concepts

to personal examples. The second goal was for students to examine their understanding in light

of existing literature. Such literature included excerpts from Peggy McIntosh's "Unpacking the

Invisible Knapsack". Ideally, through connecting their current understanding to these works,

they would be able to add depth to their understanding of the concepts of power and privilege.

The final goal was for students to begin to think forward and explore how these concepts might

impact their service-learning experience. Through this activity, students would hopefully begin

their service-learning experience with a solid understanding of power and privilege as well as an

ability to identify when these issues may arise. Each goal was rooted in Fink's (2003) taxonomy

of significant learning. The first goal targets the human dimension of learning which "…gives

students a new understanding of themselves" as well as allows them to "...acquire a better

understanding of others" (p. 36). The second goals targets integration which focuses on making

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and understanding connections between different things (Fink, 2003). Specifically, students

were tasked with making connections between the personal examples they previously articulated

to scholarly literature or peer discussions. The final goal connects to Fink’s taxonomy of

application. Fink described application as learning where students "…engage in some new kind

of action which may be intellectual, physical, and social" (p. 36). In these modules, students

learned how to critically examine their surroundings in order to identifying how issues of power

and privilege arise. Finally, Fink theorized that by integrating multiple types of learning

taxonomies, "…it be possible to create some interaction effects and synergy that greatly enhance

the achievement of significant learning by students" (p. 38). In other words, through

incorporating more types of learning taxonomies, one will be able to create a more powerful and

significant learning experience. 

Mid-Service Modules

In creating the mid-service modules, the use of backward design to achieve an integrated

learning experience was key.  In this process, it was particularly important that we first design

learning outcomes for each of the modules.  Nilson (2010) stated that, “…outcomes centered

course design guarantees a high level of student engagement because the process steers you

towards student-active teaching strategies” (p. 18). As previously stated, the focus of our

modules was on understanding power and privilege; in order to complete this objective active

learning was key. Due to the online nature of the modules, it is potentially more difficult for

instructors to convey content students. Therefore, student learning relied heavily on student’s

own initiative – reinforcing the need for active and engaging teaching practices. To create these

practices, we followed Fink’s (2003) advice: “…creating the assessment activities first, greatly

clarifies and facilitates answers to the question of what the learning activities need to be” (p. 71).

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With strong learning outcomes designed for each module, it became possible to then develop

assessment tools in which students and faculty would be able to assess their growth in

understanding power and privilege. Finally, we focused on then creating engaging learning

activities that were connected to these assessment tools.

Post-Service Modules

The Post-Service modules followed the themes of Kolb’s (1984) Learning Theory. In

recognizing that concrete experiences form the basis of observation and reflection, the post-

service modules focus on creating space for reflection of the concrete learning students have

partaken in over the semester. All questions relate to the transformative learning that will “…

change one’s frame of reference” triggered by “…disorienting dilemma” (Mezirow, 1997). In

the Post-Service essay, students are asked to unpack the definition of power through a specific

moment experience where they held the power or were subjected to it. This allowed students to

take that moment in its “…frame of reference” and reorient it in terms of power. The service

learning experience can “…create ‘high intensity dissonance’ which causes emotions and

confusion for students that lead to new learning” (Kiely, 2005). In order to work through the

dissonance, the Post Service blog brings an image to the students to reflect on. This brings both

an abstract definition to power and privilege combined with the concrete experience.

Conclusion

Overall, the pre-, mid-, and post-service modules create a space to thread together the

concepts of power and privilege with the social and personal outcomes of the learning

experience. When developing these modules, knowing what the desired learning outcome is and

how assessments of this learning would be implemented facilitated creativity and intentionality

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throughout the process. Designing relevant, creative, and thought provoking learning activities

for each module was the most challenging part of this process and having strong learning

outcomes and readily designed assessment tools made the process of designing the activities less

of a guessing game, and more of a puzzle to be solved.  Hopefully, in responding to the learning

activities for each module, students will experience significant learning.

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References

Fink, L.D. (2003). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to

developing college courses. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kiely, Richard. A Transformative Learning Model for Service-Learning: A Longitudinal Case

Study. University Press, 20015. Michigan Journal of Service Learning, Volume 12, Issue

1. 

Kolb, D.A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and

development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Mezirow, Jack. Transformative Learning: Theory To Practice. Transformative Learning in

Action. Wiley, 1997. 

Nilson, L.B. (2010). Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors.

San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. (Ch. 1 – 3)