Empowering Students and
Faculty Through Communitybased Learning…..and making a
real difference in the world
Spring 2011
Dr. Susan Dicklitch
Franklin & Marshall College
What is
Community-Based
Learning?
CBL/Service-Learning Pedagogy
 Community-based learning deliberately integrates
community service activities with educational objectives
 CBL is NOT the equivalent of Voluntarism
 CBL fills a real need in the community– students perform a
valuable, significant, and necessary service which has real
consequences to the community
(Robert Bringle and Julie Hatcher, “Reflection in Service-Learning: Making Meaning of Experience”, Educational Horizons.
Summer 1999, pp. 179-185).
Questions for Faculty Utilizing
CBL
 What do you want your students to get out of the
CBL experience?
 How does the CBL component tie in to your
course objectives?
 How will those outcomes be supported by course
activities, readings & assignments?
 How will the CBL experience factor into your
evaluation of the students’ learning?
The 3 R’s of Community-Based
Learning:
Rigor
Reflection
Reciprocity
RIGOR
High Quality CBL courses
successfully blend academic
rigor with Community Service
REFLECTION
Reflection is the bridge between
experience and theory
(Robert Bringle and Julie Hatcher, “Reflection in Service-Learning: Making Meaning of
Experience”, Educational Horizons. Summer 1999, pp. 179-185).
RECIPROCITY
THE STUDENT LEARNS FROM THE
COMMUNITY
&
THE COMMUNITY BENEFITS/LEARNS
FROM THE STUDENT SERVICE
Human Rights-Human Wrongs
WHY?
 Africanist by training
 No knowledge of U.S. asylum law
 Asked to be an expert witness on a Ugandan asylum case
 Powerful, real-life experience – wanted to give students
that same experience
HR-HWs
 First taught HR-HW in 2002
 Senior seminar level
 Students not expected to have any previous legal training
 Students are taught about asylum law & human rights in
general
 5 hour legal-training workshop by community partner
HR-HW
WHAT?
 Students work in teams of 2 on real political asylum cases
 Interview asylum seeker – story of persecution: Affidavit
 Conduct country-conditions research: Evidentiary Packet
 Examine case law: Legal Brief/Legal Memo
 Reflect on experience: Reflection Journal
HR-HW
HOW?
 Found a community partner (PIRC -- local NGO) that works
with asylum seekers
 York County Prison – ½ hour away from F&M in York
County, (maximum-security prison)
 Houses about 800 detained immigrants (not all asylum
seekers)
Community Need?
 Asylum seekers are not provided counsel by the
government
 Only get legal counsel if they can afford it, or if they are lucky
enough -- a pro-bono attorney
 In 2010, only 43% of “aliens” that went before
an immigration judge were represented
Making a Real Difference?
 Students worked on 57 political asylum cases from 2002-
2010
 Asylum seekers came from 31 different countries
 21 positive outcomes (asylum, withholding of removal, or
CAT relief) – 35% grant rate
 The grant rate for affirmative cases = 61%
 The grant rate for defensive cases = 35% (EOIR 2010 Stats)
Empowering Students?

At the beginning of this course, I did not know much about immigration law. I did not know
anything about asylum or withholding of removal. At the beginning of this course, I did not think
I was interested in being a lawyer or that there were careers in law that could really make such a
positive impact on the lives of the suffering. I did not think that working on the case and
listening to my client’s story would my me feel physically ill and would keep me up at night. But,
then again, I did not know that I would feel this passionate about a cause and that the
overwhelming feeling of work combined with the pressure to put together a good case would
actually produce one of the most rewarding feelings that I’ve ever felt from a class. At the
beginning of this course, I did not know what this course would actually mean to me.

Now, I realize that it means first hand knowledge and experience in an issue that I will
never forget because I lived through it. It means a greater understanding of what is happening
around the globe along with how that affects what is happening in the United States. It means
understanding of the asylum law process, its shortfalls, its strengths and potentially how it
could be reformed. And it means seeing judges and ICE attorneys as people instead of as the
heartless robots that they can sometimes appear to be from the applicants’ perspective. All of
this together means that I am more of a global citizen than ever with knowledge of how we are
all interrelated (GG, HR-HW, 2009).
 “Yesterday, I went to meet KL at York County Prison. It was
one of the most visceral experiences of my life. She is 21
years old and already has two children. She is only two
years older than me. As I heard her story, the harsh reality
of what goes on during war became clear to me. I have
never had to experience war first hand. I have seen it on
television, read about it in books, but I have never sat face
to face with someone who had witnessed the wrath of war
like KL has”. (AM, HR-HW, 2007)
Why Successful?
 Addresses a real community need
 Engages students in a real-world issue/problem
 It’s up-close-and-personal
 Real partnership between our community partner (PIRC) &
the students/faculty
 Continued faculty/research/engagement
Challenges:
 CBL courses are labor intensive/logistically challenging
 CBL courses can also be more costly than regular,
traditional courses
 Tenure/promotion systems often do not value “pedagogy”
over research
 Often difficult to find meaningful and intensive CBL
experiences for both students and community partners
(reciprocity) – find out what the needs are of your
community
Suggestions:
 Quality over quantity
 Need administrative/institutional support
 Develop faculty (paid) workshops (summer or during
semester)
 Don’t be afraid to try!
“Take Aways”:
 CLB is a valid academic pedagogy (it is not simply glorified
voluntarism)
 If done correctly, it challenges students cognitively, and
affectively – the unique blend of cognitive and affective
learning often makes a lasting impression on students
 You can do it!
EOIR, 2010)
PART II:
Five Models of CBL
1)
Discipline-Based CBL

Students are expected to serve in the community
throughout the semester & to reflect on their
experiences on a regular basis using course content as a
basis for analysis and understanding
2. Problem-Based CBL

Students (or teams of students) relate to the
community as “consultants” working for a “client”

Presumes that students will have some knowledge they
can draw upon to make recommendations to the
community
3. Capstone Courses

Generally designed for majors & minors in a given
discipline

Usually senior level

Draw on knowledge students obtained throughout their
coursework & combine it with relevant service work in the
community
4. CBL Internships
 Like traditional internships, more intense than typical CBL
courses with students working as many as 10-20 hours a week in
a community setting
 Students charged with producing a body of work that is of value
to the community
 Unlike regular internships -- have regular & on-going reflective
opportunities that help students analyze their new experiences
using discipline-based theories
5) Undergraduate CommunityBased Action Research
 Students work closely with faculty members to learn
research methodology while serving as advocates for
communities
 Like an independent study option
(Excerpted from: Kerrissa Heffernan, Fundamental of Service-Learning Course Construction. RI: Campus
Compact, 2001, pp. 2-7.).
What are the Learning Objectives
of CBL?
 To engage students in learning outside of the academic
classroom – for the rest of their lives they are going to be
in that community
 Hands-on practical experience (boards, service clubs,
interacting with school districts etc.,)
 Knowledge with application
 helping students to actualize the tools that are needed to
navigate the world (part cognitive, part affective), e.g., Mission
Statement of the College
The Do’s of CBL
Pedagogy
 Academic credit is for learning, not for service
 Do not compromise academic rigor
 Set learning goals for students
 Establish criteria for the selection of community service
placements
 Lay out your learning strategies
 Prepare students for learning from the community
 Minimize the distinction between the students’
community learning role & classroom learning role
 RELAX!!!! (be prepared for loss of control)
Howard J. (1993) Community Service learning in the curriculum, in J. Howard (ed) Praxis I: A faculty
casebook on community service learning,(Ann Arbor, MI: OCSL Press) pp. 3-12.