I've been conducting interviews with service learning students who spent the term working with a residential foster care facility in Detroit. One event that the students have been referencing over and over again in the interviews: a group of foster kids pretending to look for time capsules and buried treasure in the gardens behind the facility. On a Saturday morning, a group of the students and I were working with several of the foster kids prepping the gardens for the winter (the facility is a Greening of Detroit site and home to one of GofD's urban gardening programs). Just a moment in which kids used their imaginations, but also a moment of hope, a moment of play, a moment that my students are now reflecting on as life-affirming. Not a moment that erases the material realities of residents, but something that's still meaningful, especially for students for whom emotional discourse is a big part of how they talk about civic engagement.
(cross-listed in bdegenaro)
Monday, December 10, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
blunt
In the service learning course this term, one of the first moments of direct contact at our work site consisted of the following comment: "Where did all the white girls come from?"
The students and I had car-pooled to the site for a tour and an orientation session. Naturally, the comment became part of our discussion during the subsequent class. The students and I observed that the comment struck a dischord for multiple reasons. The blunt articulation of identity markers just isn't part of "university talk." The marker "girls" potentially condescends and offends and has certain kinds of historical weight (male bosses calling adult women "girls").
How to approach such a comment? First, with an open discussion where we (not just, or even primarily, me) talk about the rhetorics (the multiple dimensions, the multiple contexts, the multiple uses--all of which are competing, contested, overlapping, and contradictory) of the comment. One of those rhetorics: our identities as outsiders who don't have the right to impose a certain kind of talk. Another: our human right to dignity. Another: the ways gender informs the comments' meaning. Another: the ways race informs the comments' meaning.
Were the young women in the class offended by the statement? If so, as women? As members of various racial and ethnic identities? Turns out, not at all. One Arab-American, muslim woman made the comment "Nobody's ever called me a white girl before," which brought levity to the discussion. The consensus was that these were adolescent guys responding to college women. The consensus was also that to pay too much attention to the comment would serve to reinforce racial stereotypes (young African-American males as threats) and a troubling hierarchy (outsiders/college-types coming into a setting and dictating the "rules" of how to talk).
Fair enough. As a learning moment, the discussion nicely highlighted the importance of contextualizing language and analyzing multi-valent meanings/contexts of discourse. And yet, I hope that we didn't gloss over the gender implications with a "boys will be boys"-esque trope.
(x-listed in bdegenaro)
The students and I had car-pooled to the site for a tour and an orientation session. Naturally, the comment became part of our discussion during the subsequent class. The students and I observed that the comment struck a dischord for multiple reasons. The blunt articulation of identity markers just isn't part of "university talk." The marker "girls" potentially condescends and offends and has certain kinds of historical weight (male bosses calling adult women "girls").
How to approach such a comment? First, with an open discussion where we (not just, or even primarily, me) talk about the rhetorics (the multiple dimensions, the multiple contexts, the multiple uses--all of which are competing, contested, overlapping, and contradictory) of the comment. One of those rhetorics: our identities as outsiders who don't have the right to impose a certain kind of talk. Another: our human right to dignity. Another: the ways gender informs the comments' meaning. Another: the ways race informs the comments' meaning.
Were the young women in the class offended by the statement? If so, as women? As members of various racial and ethnic identities? Turns out, not at all. One Arab-American, muslim woman made the comment "Nobody's ever called me a white girl before," which brought levity to the discussion. The consensus was that these were adolescent guys responding to college women. The consensus was also that to pay too much attention to the comment would serve to reinforce racial stereotypes (young African-American males as threats) and a troubling hierarchy (outsiders/college-types coming into a setting and dictating the "rules" of how to talk).
Fair enough. As a learning moment, the discussion nicely highlighted the importance of contextualizing language and analyzing multi-valent meanings/contexts of discourse. And yet, I hope that we didn't gloss over the gender implications with a "boys will be boys"-esque trope.
(x-listed in bdegenaro)
Friday, September 21, 2007
a time to serve
We also discussed yesterday Richard Stengel's Time Magazine cover story on the efficacy of a national service program. Stengel argues that we need a stronger, more-centralized plan for supporting civic engagement. Among other proposals, he suggests the formation of a national service academy (akin to military academies), a public institution of higher education that would train young people interested in careers in various sectors of public service. He also argues for Baby Bonds, federal investment of $5,000 in every baby born in the U.S. Once of age, an individual would have the option of giving one year of service in return for the matured bond (about $20,000). Stengel's report is provocative on many levels. He also points out that cynicism and mistrust of the government is at an all-time high and so is volunteerism. And he cites some interesting studies that suggest that civic engagement is highest in homogenous communities--the more diverse a community, the less civically engaged its members.
We had a great (though quite heated) discussion of the article in class. Several students took much offense of the notion of "paid" service and thought this would sully the intentions and motivations of servers as well as the service itself. Some rejected the analogy and connection between "military service" and "community service" (Stengel suggests that those interested in their baby bonds could opt for either) as another example of polluting the "purity" of service. For some in the class, "service" has this exalted, pure, and apolitical status. Nobody in the class who opposed the military service/community service conflation expressed general opposition to the military in general or current policy in particular...but they did see military work as a completely different domain, a domain involving politics. My sense (and I want to clarify this next week) is that many in the class see joining the military as a political statement and/or a statement of particular partisan leanings. But community service, in their eyes, exists outside the world of political partisanship.
Stengel, Richard. "A Time to Serve." Time Magazine (10 September 2007): 49-67.
x-listed in 'bdegenaro'
We had a great (though quite heated) discussion of the article in class. Several students took much offense of the notion of "paid" service and thought this would sully the intentions and motivations of servers as well as the service itself. Some rejected the analogy and connection between "military service" and "community service" (Stengel suggests that those interested in their baby bonds could opt for either) as another example of polluting the "purity" of service. For some in the class, "service" has this exalted, pure, and apolitical status. Nobody in the class who opposed the military service/community service conflation expressed general opposition to the military in general or current policy in particular...but they did see military work as a completely different domain, a domain involving politics. My sense (and I want to clarify this next week) is that many in the class see joining the military as a political statement and/or a statement of particular partisan leanings. But community service, in their eyes, exists outside the world of political partisanship.
Stengel, Richard. "A Time to Serve." Time Magazine (10 September 2007): 49-67.
x-listed in 'bdegenaro'
workgroups
In my Writing for Civic Literacy class, students formed workgroups for their collaborative projects. Glad we waited until we'd had several class discussions and done a whole-class site visit to the foster home...which I think gave everybody more context for thinking about the actual work. Looks like we've got four workgroups.
1. Success Stories. A series of reports on folks who have aged out of the system and found success with independent living. St. Peter's wants to use these reports in their grants and as web content, to demonstrate effectiveness.
2. Legislative advocacy plan. A comprehensive report on the state of foster care in Detroit to use in Lansing to justify public support for the home.
3. Vocational plan. A comprehensive report on the Detroit job market including recommendations on the feasability of on-site vocational programming.
4. Training manuals for tutors. Instructions for their new volunteers who'll be doing direct, one-on-one instruction with the residents.
Woo! This is going to be an interesting couple of months.
x-listed in 'bdegenaro'
1. Success Stories. A series of reports on folks who have aged out of the system and found success with independent living. St. Peter's wants to use these reports in their grants and as web content, to demonstrate effectiveness.
2. Legislative advocacy plan. A comprehensive report on the state of foster care in Detroit to use in Lansing to justify public support for the home.
3. Vocational plan. A comprehensive report on the Detroit job market including recommendations on the feasability of on-site vocational programming.
4. Training manuals for tutors. Instructions for their new volunteers who'll be doing direct, one-on-one instruction with the residents.
Woo! This is going to be an interesting couple of months.
x-listed in 'bdegenaro'
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Morton
Keith Morton. "The Irony of Service: Charity, Project, and Social Change in Service Learning." Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning 2 (1995): 19-32.
Morton rejects the prevailing notion that there exists a continuum of types of service and that faculty need to move students away from volunteerism toward advocacy. Instead, he proposes three distinct paradigms: charity, project, and social change, each having a set of logics and the potential for thin or thick execution, integrity, and depth.
"Most commonly, a service continuum is presented as running from charity to advocacy, from the personal to the political, from individual acts of caring that transcend time and space to collective action on mutual concerns that are grounded in particular places and histories" (20). In the continuum model, charity is painted as "giving of the self" with no concern for "lasting impact" (20). Advocacy, meanwhile, is concerned with change and is more "mature" and "complex" (20). Thus, something to move students toward, as it has greater concern with root causes and investment in relationships (21).
Instead, acknowledge that each has its own logic. We should thus be "challenging and supporting students to enter more deeply into the paradign in which they work; and intentionally exposing students to creative dissonance among the three forms" (21).
Charity's limited in that the work is fragmentary, focuses on deficits, and can create a dependency (21), but positive in that the work is person-centered and spiritually rich (25-26). Project models emphasize community problems and develop plans for solving those problems (21), the limitations being that sometimes there are unforseen consequences, universities are painted as saviors/experts, and can lack flexibility (22) and that the motivator for addressing problems can be a negative emotion like anger (27). Social change models involve collaborative work that reveals and analyzes root causes of injustice and power imbalances (22).
Any of these might be "thin" if "paternalistic" or fails to offer alternatives or "leave people tired and cynical" (28). "Thick" if "grounded in deeply held, internally coherent values; match means and ends, describe a primary way of interpreting and relating to the world; offer a way of defining problems and solutions; and suggest a vision of what a transformed world might look like" (28).
Morton rejects the prevailing notion that there exists a continuum of types of service and that faculty need to move students away from volunteerism toward advocacy. Instead, he proposes three distinct paradigms: charity, project, and social change, each having a set of logics and the potential for thin or thick execution, integrity, and depth.
"Most commonly, a service continuum is presented as running from charity to advocacy, from the personal to the political, from individual acts of caring that transcend time and space to collective action on mutual concerns that are grounded in particular places and histories" (20). In the continuum model, charity is painted as "giving of the self" with no concern for "lasting impact" (20). Advocacy, meanwhile, is concerned with change and is more "mature" and "complex" (20). Thus, something to move students toward, as it has greater concern with root causes and investment in relationships (21).
Instead, acknowledge that each has its own logic. We should thus be "challenging and supporting students to enter more deeply into the paradign in which they work; and intentionally exposing students to creative dissonance among the three forms" (21).
Charity's limited in that the work is fragmentary, focuses on deficits, and can create a dependency (21), but positive in that the work is person-centered and spiritually rich (25-26). Project models emphasize community problems and develop plans for solving those problems (21), the limitations being that sometimes there are unforseen consequences, universities are painted as saviors/experts, and can lack flexibility (22) and that the motivator for addressing problems can be a negative emotion like anger (27). Social change models involve collaborative work that reveals and analyzes root causes of injustice and power imbalances (22).
Any of these might be "thin" if "paternalistic" or fails to offer alternatives or "leave people tired and cynical" (28). "Thick" if "grounded in deeply held, internally coherent values; match means and ends, describe a primary way of interpreting and relating to the world; offer a way of defining problems and solutions; and suggest a vision of what a transformed world might look like" (28).
Friday, September 7, 2007
what kind of civic engagement makes us happy?
Yesterday I had the first sesion of my upper-level 'Writing for Civic Literacy' class. Great group of students, all coming to the class with a good deal of experience doing various kinds of civic work. Four have spent time doing hurricane relief on the gulf coast. Several spoke of growing up "in the church," where community service was mandatory. Most involve themselves in Volunteer Dearborn activities via student life on campus. Glad that they all have frames of reference to draw on in our discussions as well as our planning for our own course projects with the foster home.
My research assistant, who's sitting in on the class and conducting the interviews for our project looking into student notions of civics and community, is an intern with a think-tank in the college of ed. and doing research on child abuse and the foster care system. So she'll provide invaluable context for our work and be another resource for student projects.
For the research, I've been looking at a lot of literature on service learning (look here for critical summaries of that literature) that tries to take the pulse of student perceptions of civic engagement. The party line seems to be that students have much affinity for volunteerism but much skepticism toward activism. Much of the literature bemoans this as a sign of apathy and disengagement from the political process. One thread I'm starting to explore is the idea that students have an affective connection to "volunteer work," which feels good and lacks the agonism and discomfort of "activist work" (something I felt while handing out peace literature at the Dream Cruise two weeks ago!). Okay, that's worth exploring. But having digested the Wingspread Statement (a manifest written by students a few years back), I'm seeing that there may be a kind of converse to this, too. Many faculty have the opposite affective desire: one that involves a bodily attraction and passion for activism. The literature reflects this, especially that which bemoans apolitical students and uses as its evidence resistance to electoral politics and attraction to 'service sans politics.'
(cross-listed on bdegenaro blog)
My research assistant, who's sitting in on the class and conducting the interviews for our project looking into student notions of civics and community, is an intern with a think-tank in the college of ed. and doing research on child abuse and the foster care system. So she'll provide invaluable context for our work and be another resource for student projects.
For the research, I've been looking at a lot of literature on service learning (look here for critical summaries of that literature) that tries to take the pulse of student perceptions of civic engagement. The party line seems to be that students have much affinity for volunteerism but much skepticism toward activism. Much of the literature bemoans this as a sign of apathy and disengagement from the political process. One thread I'm starting to explore is the idea that students have an affective connection to "volunteer work," which feels good and lacks the agonism and discomfort of "activist work" (something I felt while handing out peace literature at the Dream Cruise two weeks ago!). Okay, that's worth exploring. But having digested the Wingspread Statement (a manifest written by students a few years back), I'm seeing that there may be a kind of converse to this, too. Many faculty have the opposite affective desire: one that involves a bodily attraction and passion for activism. The literature reflects this, especially that which bemoans apolitical students and uses as its evidence resistance to electoral politics and attraction to 'service sans politics.'
(cross-listed on bdegenaro blog)
Hart
Hart, Joseph. "Protest Is Deal. Long Live Protest." Utne Reader (May-June 2007): 38-40.
Hart suggests that the contemporary anti-war movement fails to affect much change and gain wider coverage because the movement uses the same tired strategies (i.e., non-violent street protests) that have been dominant for four decades. One critic quoted in the series' centerpiece calls these techniques "political exhibitionism" (39), referencing the fetishizing of the symbolic. The piece also charges that for many activists, this performance has become an end in and of itself. Hart argues that to get mass attention, the peace movement needs to engage the public in ways that are creative, dynamic, and interactive.
Some thoughts: This is what I'm talking about regarding affective dimensions of faculty-student relationships in service learning. Many faculty seem to be tied to the exhibiontism of activism and regret that students aren't tied to the same modes of social change. Faculty may feel nostalgia or other affective connections to activist modes. The problem arises when the ASL literature frames students as passive or apolitical. Maybe they just have a different set of affective connections (one tied to volunteerism, perhaps, or maybe too Wingspread's notion of "service politics").
Hart suggests that the contemporary anti-war movement fails to affect much change and gain wider coverage because the movement uses the same tired strategies (i.e., non-violent street protests) that have been dominant for four decades. One critic quoted in the series' centerpiece calls these techniques "political exhibitionism" (39), referencing the fetishizing of the symbolic. The piece also charges that for many activists, this performance has become an end in and of itself. Hart argues that to get mass attention, the peace movement needs to engage the public in ways that are creative, dynamic, and interactive.
Some thoughts: This is what I'm talking about regarding affective dimensions of faculty-student relationships in service learning. Many faculty seem to be tied to the exhibiontism of activism and regret that students aren't tied to the same modes of social change. Faculty may feel nostalgia or other affective connections to activist modes. The problem arises when the ASL literature frames students as passive or apolitical. Maybe they just have a different set of affective connections (one tied to volunteerism, perhaps, or maybe too Wingspread's notion of "service politics").
Long
Long, Sarah E. "The New Student Politics: The Wingspread Statement on Civic Engagement." Second Edition. Providence, Rhode Island: Campus Compact, 2002.
The official statement-cum-manifesto of the 2001 Wingspread Summit on Student Civic Engagement, which gathered 33 undergraduate activists and volunteers to discuss civic engagement.
I: Democracy and Education
Long et al argue that statisticians have got it wrong when they only use markers like voting to measure engagement, which they feel has "multiple manifestations" including the arts (alt papers, poetry slams) and involvement with the local or the global instead of the national level. They find "conventional politics...inaccessible" and state that "service is a viable and preferable (if not superior) alternative" (1). Countering binary thinking of much of the literature, they argue that service is an "alternative politics" where they: build relationships, learn organizing skills, increase awareness, and strategize for problem solving and social change. In other words, it's a step toward more traditional politics (2). They get involved for a variety of reasons (many overlooked or not well understood) including faith-inspired reasons and special interests rooted in identity markers. Service has more potential than traditional politics of bringing voiceless into the process of decision-making. "Democracy is defined less in terms of civic obligation than of the social responsibility of the individual" (5)...Long et al want to reclaim the rhetoric of the individual and frame engagement as personal and rooted in individual and/or sub-cultural identity. But they want context too: "The realization that individual choices have larger public repercussions is an integral piece of one's moral, social, intellectual, and civic development" (6). They see service as an incremental, developmental step toward traditional politics.
They suggest that ASL programs 1) avoid making agencies or community partners feel like they're being studied or objectified, 2) orient students into the community and the work they'll be doing, 3) emphasize quality of experience over minimum numbers of hours, 4) transcend the administrative imperative to use service as good p.r. for the university, 5) "teach us the community-building/organizing skills that we need" (8), foreground reciprocity, 6) devote material resources, 7) involve students in program development and leadership, giving them a real voice in the process, 8) avoid the too-common model of higher ed where "we are encouraged to be primarily consumers of knowledge and democracy--not active producers" (12).
II: Service and Politics
Long et al develop a model of the modes of civic engagement: conventional politics, community service, and "service politics." They reject the notion that service and volunteerism is necessarily apolitical, instead seeing the service-to-politics process as a developmental one.
They define conventional politics as electoral politics and/or working with institutions like political parties and special interest groups. Community service on the other hand is no less engaged with social issues or critical understandings of social context. The latter is more desirable for many young people who "dislike the institutional focus" and have an "anti-institutional bias." They use the analogy of formal religion and say the service is imperative is like having an individual spirituality that one follows. The third mode, "service politics," "becomes the means through which students can move from community service to political engagement. Those who develop connections to larger systemic issues building on their roots in community service adopt a framework through which service politics leads to greater social change" (18). They "find contemporary political life distasteful and unresponsive to their efforts" (19). Service politics can look at root causes of social problems: "Service politics is a form of civic engagement that looks at systems, while service is typicallty geared toward symptoms" (19). Activism can be a natural outgrowth of service politics.
Some thoughts: my work with SPHB can follow this service politics model. They do the work, study context, do project-based learning, and then their research papers can be the moment of political praxis. I don't impose an agenda, but give them resources and opportunities for political awareness and consciousness and contextual understanding of social problems. Then, allow them, through their own term papers, to involve themselves in material change.
Students may be drawn to service work for affective reasons. The feel-good nature of volunteerism which avoids the agonism of activism. But perhaps faculty are drawn to activism for affective reasons--a bodily and passionate attraction-cum-romance for activism (with a twinge of nostalgia)?
The official statement-cum-manifesto of the 2001 Wingspread Summit on Student Civic Engagement, which gathered 33 undergraduate activists and volunteers to discuss civic engagement.
I: Democracy and Education
Long et al argue that statisticians have got it wrong when they only use markers like voting to measure engagement, which they feel has "multiple manifestations" including the arts (alt papers, poetry slams) and involvement with the local or the global instead of the national level. They find "conventional politics...inaccessible" and state that "service is a viable and preferable (if not superior) alternative" (1). Countering binary thinking of much of the literature, they argue that service is an "alternative politics" where they: build relationships, learn organizing skills, increase awareness, and strategize for problem solving and social change. In other words, it's a step toward more traditional politics (2). They get involved for a variety of reasons (many overlooked or not well understood) including faith-inspired reasons and special interests rooted in identity markers. Service has more potential than traditional politics of bringing voiceless into the process of decision-making. "Democracy is defined less in terms of civic obligation than of the social responsibility of the individual" (5)...Long et al want to reclaim the rhetoric of the individual and frame engagement as personal and rooted in individual and/or sub-cultural identity. But they want context too: "The realization that individual choices have larger public repercussions is an integral piece of one's moral, social, intellectual, and civic development" (6). They see service as an incremental, developmental step toward traditional politics.
They suggest that ASL programs 1) avoid making agencies or community partners feel like they're being studied or objectified, 2) orient students into the community and the work they'll be doing, 3) emphasize quality of experience over minimum numbers of hours, 4) transcend the administrative imperative to use service as good p.r. for the university, 5) "teach us the community-building/organizing skills that we need" (8), foreground reciprocity, 6) devote material resources, 7) involve students in program development and leadership, giving them a real voice in the process, 8) avoid the too-common model of higher ed where "we are encouraged to be primarily consumers of knowledge and democracy--not active producers" (12).
II: Service and Politics
Long et al develop a model of the modes of civic engagement: conventional politics, community service, and "service politics." They reject the notion that service and volunteerism is necessarily apolitical, instead seeing the service-to-politics process as a developmental one.
They define conventional politics as electoral politics and/or working with institutions like political parties and special interest groups. Community service on the other hand is no less engaged with social issues or critical understandings of social context. The latter is more desirable for many young people who "dislike the institutional focus" and have an "anti-institutional bias." They use the analogy of formal religion and say the service is imperative is like having an individual spirituality that one follows. The third mode, "service politics," "becomes the means through which students can move from community service to political engagement. Those who develop connections to larger systemic issues building on their roots in community service adopt a framework through which service politics leads to greater social change" (18). They "find contemporary political life distasteful and unresponsive to their efforts" (19). Service politics can look at root causes of social problems: "Service politics is a form of civic engagement that looks at systems, while service is typicallty geared toward symptoms" (19). Activism can be a natural outgrowth of service politics.
Some thoughts: my work with SPHB can follow this service politics model. They do the work, study context, do project-based learning, and then their research papers can be the moment of political praxis. I don't impose an agenda, but give them resources and opportunities for political awareness and consciousness and contextual understanding of social problems. Then, allow them, through their own term papers, to involve themselves in material change.
Students may be drawn to service work for affective reasons. The feel-good nature of volunteerism which avoids the agonism of activism. But perhaps faculty are drawn to activism for affective reasons--a bodily and passionate attraction-cum-romance for activism (with a twinge of nostalgia)?
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Murphy
Murphy, Troy A. "Romantic Democracy and the Rhetoric of Heroic Citizenship." Communication Quarterly 51 (2003): 192-208.
In the U.S.American context, "citizens who 'roll up their sleeves' and 'make a difference' in their communities ostensibly exemplify an ideal form of citizenship to which all Americans might aspire. Such citizens are as 'ordinary' as the larger American public for whom they serve as models, but are 'extraordinary' because of their individual effort, quiet humility, and selfless acts of citizenship" (193). We're taken as a culture with this iconic image of the everyday hero. This icon, who does "apolitical acts of volunteerism" (193), becomes normative, excluding political and rhetorical dimension of citizenship. The icon is quiet (esp. in the political arena), is not part of the political process and is not engaged in collective action or organizing or advocacy. "The heroic citizen as constructed sets a standard for ideal citizenship that depoliticizes the very idea of citizenship and works to further marginalize the legitimacy of more rhetorical, public, and potentially contentious aspects of democratic citizenship. Whether it is the broader image of all citizens as heroes who essentially disregard politics and quietly go about their daily lives without complaint, or the specific actions of highlighted representative characters who define the most admirable qualities of participation through romantic images of community service, the 'good citizen' as public image is marked by a quiescent and harmonious disposition which is antithetical to the types of rhetorical contestation and political action that is sometimes necessary in a democratic society" (203).
The narrative of the heroic individual fails to challenge the cynical attitude we have toward government and politicians. Reagan popularized the "heroes in the gallery" at his states of the union..."good citizens" who "care rather than complain" (199). Bush 2 similarly valorized everyday heroes of 9/11. Rosa Parks: valorized for her everyday-ness, but her organizing with NAACP is often overlooked. Paul Rogat Loeb's work problematizes this model for actually obscuring root causes of injustice.
Some thoughts: Murphy calls the heroic icon normative...but, going a step further, isn't the icon serving a social control role, a la Foucauldian disciplining. We're disciplined by the narrative or Rosa Parks and the other mythologies Murphy outlines. Further, there seems to be an affective dimension that makes us happy. We're pleased and reassured by the narrative. In reality, citizenship doesn't always feel good.
In the U.S.American context, "citizens who 'roll up their sleeves' and 'make a difference' in their communities ostensibly exemplify an ideal form of citizenship to which all Americans might aspire. Such citizens are as 'ordinary' as the larger American public for whom they serve as models, but are 'extraordinary' because of their individual effort, quiet humility, and selfless acts of citizenship" (193). We're taken as a culture with this iconic image of the everyday hero. This icon, who does "apolitical acts of volunteerism" (193), becomes normative, excluding political and rhetorical dimension of citizenship. The icon is quiet (esp. in the political arena), is not part of the political process and is not engaged in collective action or organizing or advocacy. "The heroic citizen as constructed sets a standard for ideal citizenship that depoliticizes the very idea of citizenship and works to further marginalize the legitimacy of more rhetorical, public, and potentially contentious aspects of democratic citizenship. Whether it is the broader image of all citizens as heroes who essentially disregard politics and quietly go about their daily lives without complaint, or the specific actions of highlighted representative characters who define the most admirable qualities of participation through romantic images of community service, the 'good citizen' as public image is marked by a quiescent and harmonious disposition which is antithetical to the types of rhetorical contestation and political action that is sometimes necessary in a democratic society" (203).
The narrative of the heroic individual fails to challenge the cynical attitude we have toward government and politicians. Reagan popularized the "heroes in the gallery" at his states of the union..."good citizens" who "care rather than complain" (199). Bush 2 similarly valorized everyday heroes of 9/11. Rosa Parks: valorized for her everyday-ness, but her organizing with NAACP is often overlooked. Paul Rogat Loeb's work problematizes this model for actually obscuring root causes of injustice.
Some thoughts: Murphy calls the heroic icon normative...but, going a step further, isn't the icon serving a social control role, a la Foucauldian disciplining. We're disciplined by the narrative or Rosa Parks and the other mythologies Murphy outlines. Further, there seems to be an affective dimension that makes us happy. We're pleased and reassured by the narrative. In reality, citizenship doesn't always feel good.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Deans, b
Deans, Tom. "Shifting Locations, Genres, and Motives: An Activity Theory Analysis of Service-Learning Writing Pedagogies." The Locations of Composition. Ed. Christopher J. Keller and Christian R. Weisser. Albany: State U of New York P, 2007. 289-306.
Deans argues that looking at the location of writing (classroom to community agency) is less useful than looking at the activity system of writing because we then begin "thinking about the interactions and contradictions between two activity systems (the university and the community partner organization)" (290). An activity system is like a discourse community, but one that is perpetually dynamic, in flux (291). The activity system provides a vocabulary for analysis of relationships: tools/genres, subjects, rules, objects/motives, community, and division of labor. This type of analysis is more multi-faceted than place-based analysis: e.g., genre analysis, looking at explicit and implicit motives of multiple agents, the contradictions from student perspectives (working for a grade vs. working for agency's betterment) and faculty perspectives (the agency/power of professor vs. that of the site supervisor).
Deans argues that looking at the location of writing (classroom to community agency) is less useful than looking at the activity system of writing because we then begin "thinking about the interactions and contradictions between two activity systems (the university and the community partner organization)" (290). An activity system is like a discourse community, but one that is perpetually dynamic, in flux (291). The activity system provides a vocabulary for analysis of relationships: tools/genres, subjects, rules, objects/motives, community, and division of labor. This type of analysis is more multi-faceted than place-based analysis: e.g., genre analysis, looking at explicit and implicit motives of multiple agents, the contradictions from student perspectives (working for a grade vs. working for agency's betterment) and faculty perspectives (the agency/power of professor vs. that of the site supervisor).
Brooke and McIntosh
Brooke, Robert, and Jason McIntosh. "Deep Maps: Teaching Rhetorical Engagement through Place-Based Education." The Locations of Composition. Ed. Christopher J. Keller and Christian R. Weisser. Albany: State U of New York P, 2007. 131-149.
Brooke and McIntosh suggest that having students draw deep maps is useful as a pre-writing/brainstorming activity, especially in terms of getting students to engage in place-based writing and address civic matters in real writing projects. They write, "Initially, writers need to become accustomed to seeing themselves in a place, that is, they need to become aware of the various ways location (literal and mental) creates their understanding of landscape, culture, class, race, and gender, and surrounds them with local issues and local possibilities" (132). Writing about place is a starting point, they say, toward project-based civic writing. The student becomes personally invested in place. Similar to what I've been calling a pedagogy of person-in-place. Mapping is "an exploratory moment that supported a personal context for place-conscious writing" (140). Place is part of rhetoric: "where to locate one's argument" (147). "Once that link is made, then a whole new energy for writing becomes possible--and a whole new energy for shaping the state of the places we will live, and the kinds of places we can help those locations become" (147).
Brooke and McIntosh suggest that having students draw deep maps is useful as a pre-writing/brainstorming activity, especially in terms of getting students to engage in place-based writing and address civic matters in real writing projects. They write, "Initially, writers need to become accustomed to seeing themselves in a place, that is, they need to become aware of the various ways location (literal and mental) creates their understanding of landscape, culture, class, race, and gender, and surrounds them with local issues and local possibilities" (132). Writing about place is a starting point, they say, toward project-based civic writing. The student becomes personally invested in place. Similar to what I've been calling a pedagogy of person-in-place. Mapping is "an exploratory moment that supported a personal context for place-conscious writing" (140). Place is part of rhetoric: "where to locate one's argument" (147). "Once that link is made, then a whole new energy for writing becomes possible--and a whole new energy for shaping the state of the places we will live, and the kinds of places we can help those locations become" (147).
Hesford
Hesford, Wendy S. "Global/Local Labor Politics and the Promise of Service Learning." Radical Relevance: Toward a Scholarship of the Whole Left. Ed. Laura Gray-Rosendale and Steven Rosendale. Albany: State U of New York P, 2005. 183-202.
Hesford reviews the implications of the globalized and corporatized university, including consumerist models of curriculum and pedagogy, calling upon her audience to interrogate how ASL accepts/rejects exploitative labor practices. ASL provides labor as well as value for both higher ed and community agencies and we should be aware, Hesford writes, of how specific programs impact labor and material realities. E.g., she explains how her students provided volunteer labor to a shelter that had formerly relied upon public moneys. Do ASL programs facilitate decreased state funding for social services? Further, one year the shelter failed to garner a grant for funding labor during the summer (when it felt the lack of student labor). Hesford wonders if her students would be better off protesting at the state capital or continuing to provide the services/labor. Unpaid interships at private corporations effect local economies, providing free labor for the company and taking paid work from an employee. ASL, likewise, enters into labor-based relationship with worksites. Further, the service work remains feminized--a dynamic we often fail to question. Being reflexive isn't enough, for reflexivity doesn't necessarily address these material relationships.
Hesford reviews the implications of the globalized and corporatized university, including consumerist models of curriculum and pedagogy, calling upon her audience to interrogate how ASL accepts/rejects exploitative labor practices. ASL provides labor as well as value for both higher ed and community agencies and we should be aware, Hesford writes, of how specific programs impact labor and material realities. E.g., she explains how her students provided volunteer labor to a shelter that had formerly relied upon public moneys. Do ASL programs facilitate decreased state funding for social services? Further, one year the shelter failed to garner a grant for funding labor during the summer (when it felt the lack of student labor). Hesford wonders if her students would be better off protesting at the state capital or continuing to provide the services/labor. Unpaid interships at private corporations effect local economies, providing free labor for the company and taking paid work from an employee. ASL, likewise, enters into labor-based relationship with worksites. Further, the service work remains feminized--a dynamic we often fail to question. Being reflexive isn't enough, for reflexivity doesn't necessarily address these material relationships.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Weisser
Weisser, Christian R. Moving Beyond Academic Discourse: Composition Studies and the Public Sphere. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois U.P., 2002.
Weisser narrates a brilliant, accessible, clearly articulated history of the field in his early chapters, suggesting that student-centered expressive models of process begat social constructivist views of language and knowledge, which in turn begat the social turn, which is now evolving into emphases on public writing. He sees service learning and community-based courses (forays in the public sphere) as the next step in this evolution.
Mature evolution as a field, he says, means looking toward theories from other disciplines and Weisser relies on social theory. He theorizes the notion of the "public sphere," leaning heavily on Habermas. Habermas, Weisser says, defined public sphere as a "discursive domain where private individuals debate social and political issues" in a setting apart from the state (47). Habermas bought into the myths of freedom and free and equal participation (everybody debates rationally regardless of identity) as well as the notion that the public sphere could take up issues of "common concern" (universal). Inns, coffeehouses, and pubs flourished in mid-18th century but began to decline after the liberal revolutions late in that century--many critics suggest the public sphere's been in decline ever since, a decline fostered by industrialism and the growth of capitalism. Nancy Fraser and others critiqued Habermas' notions for being idealized. Fraser argued that what is "public" and what is "common concern" are rhetorical notions (e.g., wife battering) (85).
Drawing on (critiques of) Habermas, Weisser develops his own model of public writing. Public writing happens in a particular cultural setting and is by extension shaped by context and ideology (96-97). Yes, there's a context for a given debate, but it's more than that. We also need to teach things like who has been and still is excluded from the debate: the "need to consider how ideology, racism, classism, and sexism have played significant roles" (99). Acknowledge "imbalances of power" in the debate (103). Small, local, specialized venues count--it's not just letters to the editor of a major newspaper--a local venue counts as well (104-105). The public isn't a monolithic concept; public writing need not be directed to a "diverse audience" or a "general audience." Social change happens at the local level with special interest groups who organize and mobilize one another and create "subaltern counterpublics" (106) before and during the process of reaching out. Weisser further complicates Habermas' notion of "common concern" and "public" issue as well, reiterating that a public issue need not be on the entire public's radar. In fact, it might not be (sexual orientation, e.g.) (107-109).
Finally, he critiques the over-emphasis on public writing as something that's geared toward changing minds. He returns to Habermas's notion that public sphere is apart from the state. Not so, he says, noting that public writing ought to engage the government and other apparatuses. It's not just about pontificating in a park or on an editorial page. Affect change in public policy. Contrary to Habermas's conception, affecting actual material change is part of the public sphere. "Students' public writing can have significant, tangible, immediate results if it is directed toward publics where both debate and decision making are central goals. As facilitators of public writing, it is important that we help students locate strong publics where their voices can lead to action" (111).
Weisser narrates a brilliant, accessible, clearly articulated history of the field in his early chapters, suggesting that student-centered expressive models of process begat social constructivist views of language and knowledge, which in turn begat the social turn, which is now evolving into emphases on public writing. He sees service learning and community-based courses (forays in the public sphere) as the next step in this evolution.
Mature evolution as a field, he says, means looking toward theories from other disciplines and Weisser relies on social theory. He theorizes the notion of the "public sphere," leaning heavily on Habermas. Habermas, Weisser says, defined public sphere as a "discursive domain where private individuals debate social and political issues" in a setting apart from the state (47). Habermas bought into the myths of freedom and free and equal participation (everybody debates rationally regardless of identity) as well as the notion that the public sphere could take up issues of "common concern" (universal). Inns, coffeehouses, and pubs flourished in mid-18th century but began to decline after the liberal revolutions late in that century--many critics suggest the public sphere's been in decline ever since, a decline fostered by industrialism and the growth of capitalism. Nancy Fraser and others critiqued Habermas' notions for being idealized. Fraser argued that what is "public" and what is "common concern" are rhetorical notions (e.g., wife battering) (85).
Drawing on (critiques of) Habermas, Weisser develops his own model of public writing. Public writing happens in a particular cultural setting and is by extension shaped by context and ideology (96-97). Yes, there's a context for a given debate, but it's more than that. We also need to teach things like who has been and still is excluded from the debate: the "need to consider how ideology, racism, classism, and sexism have played significant roles" (99). Acknowledge "imbalances of power" in the debate (103). Small, local, specialized venues count--it's not just letters to the editor of a major newspaper--a local venue counts as well (104-105). The public isn't a monolithic concept; public writing need not be directed to a "diverse audience" or a "general audience." Social change happens at the local level with special interest groups who organize and mobilize one another and create "subaltern counterpublics" (106) before and during the process of reaching out. Weisser further complicates Habermas' notion of "common concern" and "public" issue as well, reiterating that a public issue need not be on the entire public's radar. In fact, it might not be (sexual orientation, e.g.) (107-109).
Finally, he critiques the over-emphasis on public writing as something that's geared toward changing minds. He returns to Habermas's notion that public sphere is apart from the state. Not so, he says, noting that public writing ought to engage the government and other apparatuses. It's not just about pontificating in a park or on an editorial page. Affect change in public policy. Contrary to Habermas's conception, affecting actual material change is part of the public sphere. "Students' public writing can have significant, tangible, immediate results if it is directed toward publics where both debate and decision making are central goals. As facilitators of public writing, it is important that we help students locate strong publics where their voices can lead to action" (111).
Bickford and Reynolds
Bickford, Donna M., and Nedra Reynolds. "Activism and Service Learning: Reframing Volunteerism as Acts of Dissent." Pedagogy 2 (2002): 229-252.
Bickford and Reynolds notice that their service learning students often express enthusiasm for volunteering but a negative, resistant attitude toward activism. They wonder what the causes and implications of this trend might be. They critique the ASL literature as well as practices for not emphasizing two specific kinds of context: history and geography: "too often infused with the volunteer ethos...that ignores the structural reasons to help others" (230).
They mean to theorize activism as a complementary pedagogy/practice to ASL. In ASL "relationships are clearly based on difference" (237)--us and them, university and agency, but move toward a difference-erasing community-unity. "Activism argues for relationships based on connection" (237): grassroots organizing where various agents agitate for an issue, "a shared goal of creating social change" (237), but acknowledges that difference matters.
Change student anti-activism perception by teaching the history of consciousness-raising (eg, feminism) and organizing (Jane Addams, Dorothy Day, everyday struggles). Get students engaged critically with the politics of space and place via critical methodologies like mapping neighborhoods and even just the campus. They want to "...keep the emphasis of their work on the structural formations of communities rather on their individual members" (243). Give students choice in determining projects--even if they choose acts of dissent in support of causes we despise.
Some thoughts: At what point does place-based pedagogy become de-humanized? I wonder this about Reynolds other work too--while I'm drawn to the materiality of place, I want to revise this into a person-in-place pedagogy. Kind of like a text-in-context pedagogy. That person-in-place model (Loeb is useful here) seems to be the most material rhetoric of all. Does volunteering have an affective component ("happy talk") that activism lacks? After all, activism has an agonistic component (working class) that's at odds with middle-class decorum of higher ed.
Bickford and Reynolds notice that their service learning students often express enthusiasm for volunteering but a negative, resistant attitude toward activism. They wonder what the causes and implications of this trend might be. They critique the ASL literature as well as practices for not emphasizing two specific kinds of context: history and geography: "too often infused with the volunteer ethos...that ignores the structural reasons to help others" (230).
They mean to theorize activism as a complementary pedagogy/practice to ASL. In ASL "relationships are clearly based on difference" (237)--us and them, university and agency, but move toward a difference-erasing community-unity. "Activism argues for relationships based on connection" (237): grassroots organizing where various agents agitate for an issue, "a shared goal of creating social change" (237), but acknowledges that difference matters.
Change student anti-activism perception by teaching the history of consciousness-raising (eg, feminism) and organizing (Jane Addams, Dorothy Day, everyday struggles). Get students engaged critically with the politics of space and place via critical methodologies like mapping neighborhoods and even just the campus. They want to "...keep the emphasis of their work on the structural formations of communities rather on their individual members" (243). Give students choice in determining projects--even if they choose acts of dissent in support of causes we despise.
Some thoughts: At what point does place-based pedagogy become de-humanized? I wonder this about Reynolds other work too--while I'm drawn to the materiality of place, I want to revise this into a person-in-place pedagogy. Kind of like a text-in-context pedagogy. That person-in-place model (Loeb is useful here) seems to be the most material rhetoric of all. Does volunteering have an affective component ("happy talk") that activism lacks? After all, activism has an agonistic component (working class) that's at odds with middle-class decorum of higher ed.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Flower
Flower, Linda. "Intercultural Inquiry and the Transformation of Service." College English 65 (2002): 181-201.
Flower says ASL students need to INQUIRE instead of coming in ready to ACT. The renewed interest in civic engagement in the 90s brought with it a desire to critique (183) that sometimes sacrificed the agency of community members due to "the political certainty of critique or of feet-first activism" (184). Instead, built mutual, collaborative understandings of problems--even if our own assumptions are challenged or called into question. Process is messy but helps us move from a 'service' or 'critique' model into one that's genuinely collaborative. She writes, "My argument is this: the conflicts and contradictions of community outreach call for an intercultural inquiry that not only seeks more diverse rival readings, but constructs multivoiced negotiated meanings in practice" (182).
Flower says ASL students need to INQUIRE instead of coming in ready to ACT. The renewed interest in civic engagement in the 90s brought with it a desire to critique (183) that sometimes sacrificed the agency of community members due to "the political certainty of critique or of feet-first activism" (184). Instead, built mutual, collaborative understandings of problems--even if our own assumptions are challenged or called into question. Process is messy but helps us move from a 'service' or 'critique' model into one that's genuinely collaborative. She writes, "My argument is this: the conflicts and contradictions of community outreach call for an intercultural inquiry that not only seeks more diverse rival readings, but constructs multivoiced negotiated meanings in practice" (182).
Deans
Deans, Thomas. Writing Partnerships: Service Learning in Composition. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 2000.
A comprehensive overview of relationship between composition and ASL. Sees ASL as an extension of Dewey's experiential ed. and pragmatism and Freire's notion of critical praxis. Classifies ASL projects into three camps: writing FOR the community (often genre-based, with the advantage of providing real rhetorical situations), ABOUT the community (reflection-based, emphasis on some combination of personal growth and analysis), and WITH the community (encompassing collaborative-based work often involving hybrid discourses). Deans resists advocating one of these, instead suggesting we use his schema as a heuristic for asking what our own pedagogical goals are.
A comprehensive overview of relationship between composition and ASL. Sees ASL as an extension of Dewey's experiential ed. and pragmatism and Freire's notion of critical praxis. Classifies ASL projects into three camps: writing FOR the community (often genre-based, with the advantage of providing real rhetorical situations), ABOUT the community (reflection-based, emphasis on some combination of personal growth and analysis), and WITH the community (encompassing collaborative-based work often involving hybrid discourses). Deans resists advocating one of these, instead suggesting we use his schema as a heuristic for asking what our own pedagogical goals are.
Cushman, b
Cushman, Ellen. "The Public Intellectual, Service Learning, and Activist Research." College English 61 (1999): 328-336.
Cushman argues that we should broaden our conception of 'public intellectual' to account for the democratic gains being made by ASL and activist research initiatives. Instead of just looking at NYTimes editorialists as public intellectuals, we should consider the literacy workers, activists on the ground, volunteers, etc. to also be part of that group.
Cushman argues that we should broaden our conception of 'public intellectual' to account for the democratic gains being made by ASL and activist research initiatives. Instead of just looking at NYTimes editorialists as public intellectuals, we should consider the literacy workers, activists on the ground, volunteers, etc. to also be part of that group.
Cushman
Cushman, Ellen. "Sustainable Service Learing Programs." College Composition and Communication 54 (2002): 40-65.
Cushman argues that the best ASL programs address needs of ALL stakeholders, especially the agency. In and out model and end-of-term-research-project models leave agencies out in the cold, very often. The role of the professor is paramount: integrate teaching, research, and service and create a collaborative atmosphere of mutuality/reciprocity. Sustain attention on issues and sustain involvement at particular sites. Tells us to foreground partner needs.
"When the professor takes intellectual risks alongside students and with community partners, the professor ensures that (1) the students' and scholar's writing and thinking address community needs and writing tasks; (2) students and scholars have well-defined methodologies guiding the group inquiry and problem solving; and (3) the course materials, discussions, workshops, assignments, observations, and volunteer time are well integrated to form a unified curriculum" (44).
Cushman argues that the best ASL programs address needs of ALL stakeholders, especially the agency. In and out model and end-of-term-research-project models leave agencies out in the cold, very often. The role of the professor is paramount: integrate teaching, research, and service and create a collaborative atmosphere of mutuality/reciprocity. Sustain attention on issues and sustain involvement at particular sites. Tells us to foreground partner needs.
"When the professor takes intellectual risks alongside students and with community partners, the professor ensures that (1) the students' and scholar's writing and thinking address community needs and writing tasks; (2) students and scholars have well-defined methodologies guiding the group inquiry and problem solving; and (3) the course materials, discussions, workshops, assignments, observations, and volunteer time are well integrated to form a unified curriculum" (44).
Coogan, b
Coogan, David. "Service Learning and Social Change: The Case for Materialist Rhetoric." College Composition and Communication 57 (2006): 667-693.
"The promise is not just to make good citizens but to enable student-citizens to write for social change" (667). Actual production of rhetoric is too often neglected in favor of analysis/consumption of rhetoric by ASL programs. Coogan argues in favor of a material rhetoric model where students produce actual texts: "not just a case for rhetorical activism in service learning but a case for rhetorical scholarship in the public sphere" (670).
His material model is one of ADVOCACY: discovery, analysis, production, assessment. This process starts with getting out into the local context, inquiring into context, analyzing material conditions, producting rhetoric and evaluating efficacy. Coogan describes project in Chicago Public Schools to illustrate this model.
"The promise is not just to make good citizens but to enable student-citizens to write for social change" (667). Actual production of rhetoric is too often neglected in favor of analysis/consumption of rhetoric by ASL programs. Coogan argues in favor of a material rhetoric model where students produce actual texts: "not just a case for rhetorical activism in service learning but a case for rhetorical scholarship in the public sphere" (670).
His material model is one of ADVOCACY: discovery, analysis, production, assessment. This process starts with getting out into the local context, inquiring into context, analyzing material conditions, producting rhetoric and evaluating efficacy. Coogan describes project in Chicago Public Schools to illustrate this model.
Himley
Himley, Margaret. "Facing (up to) 'The Stranger' in Community Service Learning." College Composition and Communication 55 (2004): 416-438.
In feminst and po-co studies, 'the stranger' is one who is fetishized and/or feared, and "haunts the project of community service learning" (417). Even ASL projects rooted in reciprocity (a la Cushman) contend with power assymetries--the need to exploit, even if just to get a story (ethnography, for example)--but we nonetheless need to keep envisioning projects that foster social justice. The dilemmas have no answers, but we need to keep encountering the stranger nonetheless. The stranger "reveals the power assymetries, social antagonisms, and historical detriments that are all too often concealed by discourses of volunteerism or civic literacy" (417).
In feminst and po-co studies, 'the stranger' is one who is fetishized and/or feared, and "haunts the project of community service learning" (417). Even ASL projects rooted in reciprocity (a la Cushman) contend with power assymetries--the need to exploit, even if just to get a story (ethnography, for example)--but we nonetheless need to keep envisioning projects that foster social justice. The dilemmas have no answers, but we need to keep encountering the stranger nonetheless. The stranger "reveals the power assymetries, social antagonisms, and historical detriments that are all too often concealed by discourses of volunteerism or civic literacy" (417).
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