ERIC Number: EJ1359665
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Oct
Pages: 29
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1085-4568
EISSN: EISSN-2380-8144
Essential Participants: Centering the Experiences of Southern Hosts in Global Service-Learning Pedagogy and Practice
Jessica Vorstermans; Katie MacDonald
Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, v34 n3 p94-122 Oct 2022
In this paper we are concerned with the ways in which hosts are often excluded from scholarship and programming of global service learning. By global service learning (GSL), we mean a multiplicity of programs that occur facilitating service work for people across borders, generally with volunteers moving from the North to the South. We present findings from a research project conducted in 2014 with 37 host families. We circulated a survey to better understand host experiences of, expectations of, and hopes for GSL. Drawing on these survey results we provide some prompting questions for GSL participants (both students and program designers) to shift focus from student experience to relationship and mutuality. Using global service learning literature, critical disability theory and critical pedagogy through an intersectional lens, we center questions of uneven labor, accessibility, and structures of inequity. Three main themes emerged from our data: mutuality, gendered labor, and preparation. We present several infographic images capturing themes from the study to facilitate discussions with students who are preparing for GSL experiences and for those who are leading and designing programming. Our intention is to provide tools for educators to center the voices, desires, and motivations of Southern hosts in all of their GSL preparations.
Descriptors: Service Learning, Global Approach, Student Exchange Programs, Study Abroad, Critical Theory, Foreign Countries, Foreign Students, College Students, Family Attitudes, Motivation, Program Design, Expectation
Frontiers Journal. Dickinson College P.O. Box 1773, Carlisle, PA 17013. Tel: 717-254-8858; Fax: 717-245-1677; Web site: https://www.frontiersjournal.org/index.php/Frontiers
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada; Ecuador; Honduras; Dominican Republic; Ghana; Rwanda
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A