Received Jan 10:

Q. Professor Tirpak,
I received an email about your upcoming service-learning course, and after looking into it, was very intrigued. I was especially interested in your ideas of "colonialist" service projects, as this is a problem I have been considering myself lately. This summer I volunteered with a program that also wanted to avoid creating an air of imperialist condescension, but to a certian degree this almost seemed inevitable when one group comes and donates their time and resources to another.I'd be interested in seeing how your project attempts to avoid this problem.

But the actual point of this email is to ask if you plan on offering this course again in the future? My current semester schedule is already settled, but I would like to include your course in a future semester when I can plan around it. Is this a one-time opportunity, or will there be another chance to join you in this project? Thanks for any and all info.

Replied Jan 10:

A: Hi!

I appreciate your email (and apologize for the long response), but want to be sure that you know that I'm not a professor. I'm a recent graduate of UT's Community & Regional Planning (CRP) Program, and I have not been hired by UT to teach (but it sounds good to me!).

I am acting as an instructor for this course through UT's DemTex program - which allows UT students and recent graduates to create and teach course on topics of their choice. DemTex requires student instructors to have a faculty sponsor, and I am working with Dr. Benjamin Gregg of the Dept. of Geography in this capacity.

I would love to work as a professor one day, and I am grateful that the DemTex option exists to allow UT students and recent graduates the chance to develop university-level teaching experience on topics of their choice.

Although I have served as a teaching assistant for several graduate-level courses as a student at UT and my undergraduate education is in social information and learning, these qualifications are not important to DemTex. All DemTex instructors work with a current faculty member as a mentor to assure the quality of the courses offered. In other words, any UT student or recent graduate can offer a DemTex course. I hope that you will consider offering a DemTex course in the future!

To respond to your question, this is my first time offering this course AND working with DemTex (a fairly new program that is apparently going through some growing pains - check the timeline of the sdwaic site for details!). I'm not sure if the course will be offered again as a DemTex course . . . unless I complete more study at UT (possible) and/or DemTex's flexibility with allowing alumni to teach courses via the DemTex program.

Chances are better that the course will be offered in the future as an informal course.

Regardless, I plan to post weekly modules to the site as the course progresses and allow free use of these lessons (you are welcome to follow along as a non-registered student or to work through the exercises later on your own).

There has always been the option of students or recent graduates developing informal courses (non accredited) at UT - which students potentially can earn academic credit for via independent study options with current UT faculty members (more difficult for undergraduates, but possible). I'm willing to work with students who might want to pursue the independent study option now or later on - but it will require much student initiative to pursue this.

I participated in a design-build project in Mexico for credit as a student at UT that was structured in this fashion (credit was earned through independent study with UT faculty), and I know of at least one sustainable development workshop in Brazil that is structured similarly - as an informal course.

Independent study allows my course to be an option for graduate students - if they want to earn credit for it, they will need to structure an independent study with a current UT faculty member.

In terms of students teaching for-credit courses directly, other universities have allowed for accredited student-developed and led course (with faculty mentorship) for quite some time. UT currently seems stuck on the issue of DemTex course accredtation - which has impacted overall participation in the DemTex program.

I just recently discovered that credit for my course (and other DemTex courses) was even an issue - the process for proposing a DemTex course suggests that the course will be for credit (in deed, while else require a faculyt sponsor?).

Regardless, I hope to offer the course this Spring, depending on student interest (I can see how the credit issue could be a huge dis-incentive, though).

I'd prefer to work with a small group of students on this first offering of this course, and so I have purposely not been aggressive about promoting it.

You are absolutely right about the difficulty in structuring equitable service-learning - and in making other forms of experiential learning (such as internships and studios), which don't necessarily have equity concerns at their core, more equitable.

As you might already be aware, not all experiential learning (simply "learning by doing") is service-learning. Service-learning is a specific pedagogy that is rooted in a philosophy of democratic education (as is the DemTex program) and is related to critical pedagogy - which challenges "traditional" / more authoritarian teacher-student relationships, definitions of both (what roles does the community partner play?), and ideas about knowledge creation and transfer - along with classroom boundaries (where the organized learning is situated).

Other forms of experiential learning can "serve" communities and can appear to be very positive, but it id not neccesarily service-learning.

UT offers a criteria for service-learning, but this definition, in my mind, does not adequately stress the democratic education and "counternormative" roots and nature of service-learning. In fact, some academics reject the label "service-learning" altogether for this particular pedagogy, prefering "community-based learning" - in order to avoid the suggestion of a one-directional server-served relationship.

Lately, there's been a lot of questioning of the value of (what some would say is "so-called") service-learning and other forms of experiential learning for community partners - hence, the suggestion that it is a new form of colonialism (this assertion created quite a buzz in the British volunteer sector in past years)

Recent years have also marked the rise of the community benefits agreement movement (or the developing of more formal contracts with community partners about the benefits of working with university-based groups on certain projects and/or the offering of more disclosure - including in terms of the benefits for students and the university / individual professors, more information about the fees that are paid and resources dedicated to specific projects, and the limitations of the partnership - including in terms of student ability and the priorities of the relationship). There has also been increased interest in community protection in research - also related to making university work in and with communities more equitable.

With academic service-learning (service-learning that is based in a class) the emphasis must be on student learning (students are paying to learn) - but in balance with community needs and desires.

I've tried to structure sdwaic so it meets the criteria for academic service-learning that UT has established - and so that it is not dependent on students ability to "successfully" develop or complete distance service projects with American Indian community partners (or coordinate an optional spring break site visit) or not.

Documenting and reflecting on the process of the class (compared with focusing to pre-determined specific community projects or end results - building a school on a reservation, for example), and sharing this documentation and reflection broadly, including through the public sdwaic website, could very well be the most valuable "service" that the course provides.

While I'm optimistic about what students might be able to achieve with the course, much of the learning will come from the challenge of trying to do more direct service-learning by-the-book (according to UT policies and procedures that govern community-based learning - which are in place for good reason, but might have the effect of discouraging innovative instruction and learning), via distance (technology is a blessing and a curse), and with American Indian community partners (who may or may not want to / be able to work with us for numerous reasons).

The class will be filled with contradictions, as students will be aware from day one. However, I think the course will be unique in preparing students to think critically about how they are learning at UT - and how it relates to democratic and sustainable development.

You mention your past work with the program XXXX on a reservation last summer. I would encourage you to think more about that (or any similar) program in regards to the questions posed by the ethical learning handout on sdwaic and/or the ethical volunteering guide that is on the web (which the handout is based on) - specifically, in terms of how resources were utilized and your relationship with the organizing program and community partners.

Since completing the program, has there been any attempt from the organizing program to collect feedback from you about the program? To assess your learning or encourage your reflection on the experience? To keep you updated on the work?

Did you work / interact with many community members while you were there (if not, how was their absence explained)? Did the project occur at a time that was more convenient for you or for the community (how did the program attempt to lower barriers to local participation? Relate to other community events of the time)? Were you brought in primarily to do work that local people could have done? If not, how did you work to help prepare local people to do the work that you were doing?

Did the program abide by local rules and laws (did you register as a volunteer at the local police station)? Were you made aware of potential dangers or off-limits areas in the community? Did you follow university policies and procedures governing experiential learning - specifically, travel policies (this specific project sounds like it would be considered either an organized or sponsored event) and any applicable human subjects research policies?

Did the program screen you in any way (were you asked to submit a police background check - especially, if you worked with children)? What happened with the project after you left the community? What about the cultural and environmental impact of your work (X number of students traveling Y number of miles for Z number of days of work) - could these resources have been better utilzed? Were efforts made to offset the ecological and cultural footprint of your program? What knowledge of the community did you develop before traveling there? How did the program help prepare you?

Based on personal correspondence with one of the coordinators of your particular program, what they have identified as a critical problem is lack of local involvement in their work (including during the other 11 months of the year - when students aren't brought to the community) - which raises a lot of questions. I could see how one student distance service project conducted through this course could be a deeper investigation of this issue - . and a report back to the program on their findings. If this is something that you would be interested in pursuing, I think it would be terrific!

Hope that you will stay in touch - thank you for emailing!

Mark