Unleashing the transformative potential of International Experience

for personal and professional learning

Phil Bamber and Alison Clark, Faculty of Education

Liverpool Hope University

Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, 22nd November 2011

Overview of the session

12.00: Introductions and plan for the session12.10: International Service-Learning research findings (Phil)12.50: Discussion

1.30: Break

1.50: Wider Perspectives in Education: An example of embedding international experience within the curriculum (Alison) 2.20: Discussion 2.50: What next?

Mission and values

To be well rounded, holistic, integrated, a team, a community of communities, collaborating in wider partnerships.

To take faith seriously, being fully Anglican, fully Catholic, fully ecumenical, fully open to those of all faiths and beliefs.

To contribute to the educational, religious, cultural, social and economic life of Liverpool, Merseyside, the North West and beyond educating the whole person in mind, body, spirit, including those who might otherwise not have had the opportunity to enter Higher Education.

Faculty of Education

‘The guiding vision and orientation of the Faculty is to develop educational thought and practices which promote education as a humanising influence on each person and on society locally, nationally and internationally.’

Discussion

1. In what ways are sending programmes problematic?

2. What aspects of current practice do you value?

3. What opportunities do sending programmes present?

4. What are the implications of this research and discussion for practice (for example, how do we structure sending programmes?)

Finding the Transformative Learning in International Service-Learning

Phil Bamber

Why participate in sending programmes?

“Your project will be rewarding and stimulating, you will learn new language

skills, make new friends, travel to unusual and exotic places and work with

communities that few travellers or tourists would ever visit or meet.”

Outreach International

Definitions of ISL A structured academic experience in another country in

which students (a) participate in organised service activity that addresses

identified community needs; (b) learn from direct interaction and cross cultural dialogue

with others; and(c) reflect on the experience in such a way as to gain further

understanding of course content, a deeper understanding of global and intercultural issues, a broader appreciation of the host country and the discipline, and an enhanced sense of their own responsibilities as citizens, locally and globally.

(Bringle and Hatcher, 2011: 19)

Guiding observations ISL can expose and also reinforce unequal relations of power.

A mismatch between the aims of ISL providers and the motivation and actions of student participants.

Staff and student participants fail to critically reflect on their experience, for instance on issues of development and poverty or fail to evaluate their contribution.

Patronising, charitable attitudes of ‘what we can do for them’ reinforced

Returned volunteers assume the role of experts on poverty and development and act as advocates of international volunteering yet often perpetuate and reinforce stereotypes with their friends, family and perhaps even young people they are teaching.

The importance of ‘connecting’ with the teachers working in these locations.

Young people often claim to have learnt a great deal from these experiences yet struggle to articulate exactly what this is.

‘People travel to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering.’

St. Augustine

‘We shall not cease from our exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and to know the place for the first time.’

TS Eliot

Definitions of ISL

A form of ecological engagement with aesthetic, moral and spiritual dimensions that is enacted through participation with the lives and ‘worlds’ of those living in different countries and which enables ethical reflection, enhances personal efficacy and seeks to engender a more just and sustainable society.

(Bamber and Pike, forthcoming)

ISL at Liverpool Hope University

500+ staff and students at Liverpool Hope University have completed ISL projects over the last 2 decades

(Bamber et al, 2008)

‘Working within a team offers personal and emotional security as well as a stimulating place to learn and achieve. We aim to ensure that volunteers are safe and happy whilst on projects and that their work is properly carried out so that the well-being of the host community is in safe hands.’

(Grantham and Stevenson, 2008: 98)

Year Number of ISL projects

Number of countries

Number of staff volunteers

Number of student volunteers

Male:female student volunteer split

Number of students from Faculty of Education (QTS:EDU where known)

1987 2 1 1 0    1988 2 1 1 1 1  

1989 2 1 4 2 1:1  

1990 2 1 4 2 0:2  

1991 2 1 2 2 1:1  

1992 4 2 4 2 0:2  

1993 3 1 2 2 1:1  

1994 4 2 4 4 1:3  

1995 6 1 6 2 0:2  

1996 2 1 8 2 1:1  

1997 6 2 17 8 1:7  

1998 6 2 14 6 2:4  

1999 9 4 20 10 1:9  

2000 6 2 18 11 4:7  

2001 11 5 24 16 2:14  

2002 4 3 9 5 1:4  

2003 12 5 26 15 1:14  

2004 8 5 18 12 3:9  

2005 16 5 29 15 1:14 8/2

2006 13 6 19 12 0:12  

2007 10 6 22 16 3:13 9/1

2008 0 0 0 0 0  

2009 11 9 24 26 4:22  

2010 11 7 21 33 4:29 11/8

2011 9 7 19 30 6:24 11/11

TOTAL 234

HOW believes in the power of education to achieve positive and lasting change. 3 values are central to the way we work in order to achieve our vision: partnership, learning and social justice. These are lived out through our guiding principles;

We value sustainable relationships within and between communities at home and overseas. We strive to embody a spirit of reciprocity, open-ness, mutual respect and integrity in these

relationships. We believe the needs of partners should be heard and responded to. We believe in being openly accountable for our work. We recognise the importance of learning from and trusting each other, of receiving as well as

giving. We recognise the importance of challenging our learning, and broadening it to include the learning

generated by service to others. We will learn from the skills, knowledge and understanding gained from experience. We recognise that service to others is an important dimension in the spiritual development of

individuals and institutions. We believe in the power of shared endeavour to generate learning, to transforms lives and to

strengthen people’s capacity to sustain action towards a fairer world.

(Bamber, 2008: xiii – xiv)

Starting points: research and policy

Michigan Journal of Community Service-LearningKiely (2004 and 2005) Crabtree (2008)

Adult Education QuarterlyYorks and Kasl (2002) Kreber et al. (2007)

Development EducationMartin (2011) Davies and Lam (2010)

PolicyNIDOS (2009) Raleigh International (2009) DEMOS (2011)

Starting points: influencesTransformative Learning Transformative learning occurs for Mezirow as we are led to

question our way of seeing the world, as we begin to think for ourselves. He describes how transformative learning may lead adults to experience ‘perspective transformation’, a shifting of their ‘world-view’;

(perspective transformation is) the process of becomingcritically aware of how and who our presuppositions have cometo constrain the way we perceive, understand and feel about ourworld; of reformulating these assumptions to permit a more inclusive,discriminating, permeable and integrative perspective; and of makingdecisions or otherwise acting on these new understandings.(Mezirow, 1991: 14)

Mezirow goes on to define transformative learning as ‘learning that transforms problematic frames of reference to make them more inclusive, discriminating, reflective, open and emotionally able to change’ (2009: 22).

Phases of the study

Phase

Method Number of research

participants

Date of data collection

Year of ISL experience

1 Semi-structured, intensive interviews

7 March 2007 1993, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005

2 Structured grouped interviews

14 March 2008 Summer 2007

3 Semi-structured, biographical interviews

6 May 2009 Summer 2009

4 Focus groups 

5 June 2010 Summer 2009

Data analysis has involved phenomenological description (Van Manen, 1990; Groeneweld, 2004), constant comparative thematic analysis (Cresswell, 2007: 64) followed by a critical, hermeneutical analysis (Allman, 1999).

The study: Phase 1

Pseudonym

Year of ISLexperienc

e

Location of project overseas Current employment

Rachel 1993 India (Tibetan community) Primary teacher

Ann 1999 India (Tibetan community) Secondary teacher

Patrick 2001 Malawi Secondary teacher

Katie 2003 India (Tibetan community) Support worker in school

John 2004 Malawi University part-time worker

Angela 2005 Sri Lanka Primary teacher overseas

Sue 2004 / 2005 India (Hindu community) and South Africa

Primary teacher

Semi-structured interviews with 7 returned student volunteers conducted in March 2007, ranging from 14 years to 2 years after their return from their project overseas (re-entry).

Preliminary findings:

Authenticity as a transformative process of becoming

Selfhood

WorldlinessReciprocity

Being sincere, candid or honest (Kreber, 2007) / confronting the truth about oneself.

Emergent congruence between values and

actions.

Fostering the growth and development of each others being (Jarvis, 1992).

Moves from ‘doing for’ to ‘being with’.

Being disencumbered by other voices (Barnett, 2007).

Overturning constraining assumptions and prejudice.

Authenticity as selfhood Being sincere, candid or honest (Kreber, 2007) / confronting the truth about oneself. Emergent congruence between values and actions.

Yeah, the supermarket thing... Obviously, there are four people coming back with bags of stuff... and yeah, you’ve spent more than the wages maybe for a month of the teachers. What we did, when we went to the supermarket, we use to come back late at night and sneak all the stuff in, so it wasn’t done deliberately during the day in front of everybody. Inevitably you will get one or two people come out who want to help you move some stuff... but it was better when we did that at night time.

John

The month or so that follows a project will be rather depressing... you’ve left some friends behind, you’ve left the situation behind... that without too much inconvenience you could probably help endlessly... you’re not as active when you get back... there are a lot of things missing when you return back. But you do get back to normal... you do... it only takes two years!

Patrick

It’s a bit rubbish really because you come home on the plane and you are like yes I am never going to eat meat and I am going to be really healthy, and I am going to exercise all the time and you just don’t because you come back and you get into your routine of life, and everything falls into place, so like I totally hold up my hands and say no nothing has really changed for me.

Vicky

The year I went we’d taken Lego; when we went back it was in the office in a glass case. I feel as though it’s ‘Look what we’ve got’, and you can put it on show and that will surely only make people feel inadequate.

Rachel

Authenticity as reciprocityFostering the growth and development of each others being (Jarvis, 1992). Moves from ‘doing for’ to ‘being with’.

We soon realised that the approach ‘this is how you should do it’ was totally inappropriate. When we were marking the books we sat in the staff room with the class teachers and had a look at the work and discussed it…… we tried to involve them as much as we could and we all learnt a great deal.

Katie

it’s the qualities as well of you as a person that when you go for you can have your QTS, you can be a teacher, you can you know have the degree, but it’s the person that you are you can bring so many qualities, and just chat with someone on your project as it’s more important than anything else…you just did not feel that you were there on the project to deliver something you felt like you were part of them, part of their team

Mary

For the first time I actually questioned what education was for. How would completing their Grade 12 exams help these young people function in society? I can honestly say I’d never thought about that before. It has fundamentally shaped my approach in school and in the classroom.

Patrick

A big thing I think is that you realise how materialistic this country is, not just our country the culture, everyone has got to have the latest phone, MP3 player, or car, anything, it’s all about stuff, and when you are taken away from all that, and your are put into a situation where they don’t have as much stuff, it is more based on people and relationships with people, and the way people act with each other, and kindness and it makes you realise that that is what is the most important and all that stuff does not matters at all and you what you have in terms of things of monetary value it means nothing you never any richer for any of that stuff it’s all about what is inside you.

Vanessa

Authenticity as worldlinessBeing disencumbered by other voices (Barnett, 2007). Overturning constraining assumptions and prejudice.

Because you come back… and you realise how lucky you are. Because you know, they… when you’re mixing with children, they’re so happy, they don’t know… any different, you know, from what we know, from our culture… and… you come back, and our children are just so… not satisfied with anything they get, and these children have hardly got anything and… just completely satisfied that they’ve got a family and…

Jennie

all them things seem to take a new perspective when you arrive there. In terms of happiness... although I didn’t connect being poor with being unhappy... because a lot of these people were happy; I’ve never heard such infectious laughter coming from the children around the village... apparently, looking at them, they don’t seem to have very much in terms of material things... but they’ve a great family network, although the situation might be desperate at times, I don’t know... but really happy, full of life... that was something, I was surprised... I was expecting to be kind of shocked... you know, poor people, miserable... but it wasn’t... obviously it was deprived, the area...

It is likely there is something in the background, a lot of unpleasant things in their background... maybe its just seeing strangers, it makes them happy or whatever... they were able to put on that kind of front... as far as I was concerned it made me happy just to hear them laughing: really giggling falling about laughing, at me, or whatever... it’s just great.

John

An expanded conceptualisation of transformative learning as a complex process of becoming authentic

Interconnections between authenticity as selfhood, reciprocity and worldliness‘The (role) of the philanthropist is indeed a dangerous one; and the man who would do his neighbour good must first study how not to do him evil, and must begin by pulling the beam out of his own eye.’ George MacDonald

Transformation of both habits of mind as well as habits of being‘We don’t think our way into a new kind of living, rather we live our way into a new kind of thinking.’(Palmer, 1980: 57)

The conditions for transformation need to be continuously made and remade.‘I had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered moments… There was no particular day on which I said, From henceforth I will devote myself to the liberation of my people; instead, I simply found myself doing so, and could not do otherwise.’(Mandela, 1995: 95)

Discussion

1. In what ways are sending programmes problematic?

2. What aspects of current practice do you value?

3. What opportunities do sending programmes present?

4. What are the implications of this research and discussion for practice (for example, how do we structure sending programmes?)

5 Compulsory units Face to face

On line(via VLE)

Reflective journal

A. Practical and cultural guidelines

B. Expectations

C. Health and safety

D. Encountering and considering culture

E. Dimensions of poverty

Optional…..

Globalisation

Approaches to development

Preparing for Global Hope…

Starting pointsBamber, P. and Pike, M. (forthcoming) Towards an Ethical Ecology of International Service-Learning, Journal of Curriculum Studies. Bamber, P. (2011) The transformative potential of International Service-Learning at a University with a Christian Foundation in the UK. Journal of Beliefs and Values, Vol. 32 (3) 355-369.Bamber, P. (2011) Educating for Global Citizenship in Gadsby, H. and Bullivant, A. Global learning and sustainable development. London: Routledge. Pp. 56-75.Bringle, R. and Tonkin, H. (2004) International Service-Learning: A Research Agenda in Tonkin,H. (Eds) Service-Learning Across Cultures: Promise and Achievement. New York: The International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership. Bringle, R. and Hatcher, J. (2011) International Service Learning in Bringle, R, Hatcher, J and Jones S. International Service Learning: Conceptual Frameworks and Research. Virginia: Stylus. Pp. 3-28. Crabtree, R. (2008) Theoretical Foundations for International Service-Learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, Fall 2008 pp. 18-36. Available at http://ginsberg.umich.edu/mjcsl/Davies, D. and Lam, E. (2010) The Role of First-hand Expewrience in the Development Education of University Students, Intenrational Journbal of Development Education and Global Learning, Vol. 2 (2), 35-52.

Starting pointsDEMOS (2011) Service International: This is the Big Society without borders. London: DEMOS. Available at http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/service-internationalKiely, R. (2004) A chameleon with a complex: searching for transformation in international service learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, Spring 2004 pp. 5-20. Available at http://ginsberg.umich.edu/mjcsl/Kiely, R. (2005) A transformative learning model for service-learning: a longitudinal case study. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, Fall 2005 pp. 5-22. Available at http://ginsberg.umich.edu/mjcsl/Martin, F. (2011) Global Ethics, Sustainability and Partnership in Butt, G. (Ed.) Geography, Education and the Future. London: Continuum. Pp. 206-222. Network of International Development Organisations in Scotland (NIDOS) (2009) http://www.nidos.org.uk/downloads/IV%20COP%20and%20Vol%20Charter%20jul09.pdfYorks, L. And Kasl, E. (2002) Toward a theory and practice of whole-person learning: Reconceptualising experience and the role of affect, Adult Education Quarterly, 52 (3), 176-192. Raleigh (2009) Rallying Together. A research study of Raleigh’s work with disadvantaged young people. London: IPPR. Available at http://www.ippr.org/publications/55/1673/rallying-together-summary-of-a-research-study-of-raleighs-work-with-disadvantaged-young-people

Other references Allman, P. (1999) Revolutionary social transformation. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey.

Bamber, P, Clarkson, J and Bourke, L. (2008) In safe hands; guiding principles for International Service-Learning, Stoke on Trent: Trentham.

Barnett, R. (2007) A Will to Learn: Being a Student in an Age of Uncertainty. Buckingham: open University Press.

Cresswell, J.W. (2007) Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. London: Sage.

Groeneweld, T. (2004) A phenomenological research design illustrated. The International Journal of Qualitative Methods. Vol. 3-26

Jacoby, B. (1996). Service-Learning and Higher Education: Concepts and Practices. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Jarvis, P. (1992) The paradoxes of learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kreber, C et al (2007) What do you mean by ‘Authentic’? A Comparative Review of the Literature on Conceptions of Authenticity in Teaching. Adult Education Quarterly, 58 (1) pp.22-43.

Mandela, N. (1995) A Long Walk to Freedom. London: Abacus.

Mezirow, J. (1991) Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Mezirow, J.38 (2000) Learning as transformation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Palmer, P. (1980) The Promise of Paradox. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.