Resources: Global Civic Engagement & Community Partnerships, Reflective Intercultural Learning, Assessment

[Announcement from he-sl listserv]

Dear Colleagues: 

I have been fortunate to work with several colleagues to amass peer-reviewed articles and other relevant resources at the Building a Better World Forum for Global Service-Learning.  The website grew out of the recognition of the availability of rigorous, open-source scholarship at the nexus of the fields of international education, service-learning, and university-community engagement - coupled with the frequent lack of integration of these disparate areas of research literature. We invite you to visit, provide feedback, suggest additional resources, and offer challenging topics for discussion.

As a start, we have organized over 250 separate pieces of content from the Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning, Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, and The Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, along with books, chapters, dissertations and theses, together under the following themes: 

§  Reflective Practice

§  Learning and Assessment

§  Health and Safety

§  Global Civic Engagement

§  Community-Driven Development

§  Intercultural Development

§  Power and Privilege

§  Global Service-Learning

In addition to the research pages linked above, we also have a tools and syllabi area, a blog, and other resources.  The blog has provided opportunities to hear from diverse scholars and practitioners at the leading edge of challenges in global learning and university-community engagement. These entries include, among others: 

• The Hole in Our Helping, Richard Slimbach, Azusa Pacific University
• Are International Service-Learning Projects Sustainable? Where is the Focus on Community? Nora Reynolds, Temple University
• The National Survey of Alternative Breaks: Using Both Qualitative and Quantitative Research to Understand Immersive and Global Service-Learning Experiences, Elizabeth Niehaus, University of Maryland
• Critical Global Engagement, Colonialism, Development, Charity, and Critical Service-Learning, Nadia De Leon, Western Kentucky University 
• Culture. Shock. Service. Study Abroad. Global Citizenship? – New Master’s Thesis with Provocative Data, Julia Lang, Oregon State University 

I would love to hear feedback from you regarding what you would like to see more of on the site, proposals you have for blog posts, or ways in which you find the site useful. This last request will help justify what has been an entirely volunteer effort - and may help us develop a plan to continue to update the cite as an ongoing resource. 

Many thanks for your thoughts, your ideas, your feedback, and your work in this field. 

Best, 

Eric 

P.S. If you'd like to follow the site, there's en email sign-up on the right side, or you can keep up with us on twitter. Looking forward to the conversations! 

--

Eric Hartman, Ph.D. 

Visiting Assistant Professor of Global Studies, Providence College

Editor & Co-Founder, Building a Better World Forum for Global Service-Learning
Building a Better World Tweets @BuildingBetterW