Global Service Learning: Global Studies’ Contribution to Service Learning
Michael Bowler, Assistant Professor, Global Studies Program, Winona State
University, Winona, MN
There is a new kind of service learning that I will refer to as global service
learning, which allows global studies students to join the important advocacy and policy
work of many global organizations online. My favorite semester assignment in my
Introduction to Global Studies course is to have students follow a global organization of
their choice such as the ONE Campaign made up of concerned citizens responding to
poverty and HIV-AIDS, KIVA which allows individuals to fund their choice of worthy
micro-credit candidates, or the World Wildlife Fund that encourages supporters to write
letters to elected representative advocating their policy initiatives. Students need to
know that this is service learning with a new global policy focus. The service-learning
community needs to recognize that these global online initiatives represent incredible
global, policy, and distance learning advances for service learning. Global educators
have to realize that it is precisely these kinds of global service learning opportunities that
will bring their students solidly into the global studies fold. Further, global service
learning focuses on the key elements of global studies: the development of sufficient
international political will, policies, and strategies to deal with critical world problems.
For global studies students keenly interested in other cultures, languages, and
study abroad, a service-learning assignment with an international organization allows
them to make personal connections with global issues, policies, and systems. Given
these cultural interests, this personal connection is crucial to introducing global studies
majors to a deeper appreciation for global service, policy, and social change. In making a
personal organizational choice and connection to global policy and assistance, students
are drawn into global systems on their own terms- online and active! In interviews I have
conducted with our global studies majors, most see service learning more as local
community service and unrelated to global studies. They do not yet envisage the value of
a service component for the global organization they are following. Consequently a more
important priority is securing an internship, without awareness as to how following and
participating in the work of a global organization helps. Their request was for the
program to assist in gaining available internships, not in facilitating choice and
preparation.
A global studies approach to service learning greatly expands the concept of
service learning. According to the National Service Learning Clearing House (2009),
“service learning combines service objectives with learning objectives with the intent that
the activity change both the recipient and the provider of the service. This is
accomplished by combining service tasks with structured opportunities that link the task
to self-reflection, self-discovery, and the acquisition and comprehension of values, skills,
and knowledge content”. While this is an expansive definition of service learning,
service-learning programs are usually local in scope and direct or hands-on in terms of
service. Even international service-learning projects have tended to be limited to direct
service on-site to local community abroad (Denver University, 2009; Poethig, 2009).
However, global service learning expands learning into that which is international,
distant, and advocacy-based as well as preparing students for both study abroad and
internships.
An ideal way to develop service-learning experience would be to encourage
participation in study abroad programs with a twist: those involving experiential learning
and social change that include an internship component. The Higher Education
Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA)(2009) offers academic programs abroad related
to the study of social change unique to the area studied that including internships,
language study, and social change seminars. HECUA programs include Development
and Community Program in Bangladesh (which I have co-directed), Conflict Resolution
in Northern Ireland and the Effect of Globalization on the Social Welfare State in
Norway.
Many students returning from study abroad are caught up in how to get back to
the country where they studied. Unfortunately what is often lost in the rush to return is
the processing of the study abroad experience, including social change brought about by
way of policy advocacy and community development.
With regard to the major problem of world hunger, the late US Senator Paul
Simon once said, “Someone who sits down and writes a letter about hunger…almost
literally has to be saving a life…”(Howell, 2004). Global service learning involves
advocating for programs and policies that will alleviate world problems. It is this early
linkage to empowerment and advocacy, taught through participation in global servicelearning assignments, that helps students prepare for lifelong study and service toward
positive social change in our world. It is only through such global service-learning
experiences that students and professionals can effectively support organizations that
provide solutions to key international issues. If we want to attract students with
international interests, nurture their global experience and professionalism, and send them
out as graduates to work toward solutions to world problems, we must from the
beginning establish strong global service-learning opportunities.
References
Denver University International Service Learning Program website, (2009).
http://www.du.edu/intl/isl.
Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA) website, (2009).
http://www.hecua.org/.
Howell, Barbara, (2004). “How Far Along Are We in Ending World Hunger,” NY: Bread
for the World.
National Service Learning Clearing House website, (2009).
http://www.servicelearning.org/what_is_service-learning/service-learning_is/index.php
Poethig, Kathryn, Ph.D., (2009). California State, Monterey Bay, Campus Compact
Service Learning Syllabi, http://www.compact.org/syllabi/ethnic-studies/global-studiesservice-learning-in-global-affairs-intercultural-communication/3839/