Empowering Leadership for Civic Engagement

1. Presented by Katherine Nordyke, Director Citizenship & Service-Learning Missouri State University March 7, 2014 Promoting Student Success through Leadership and Service-Learning: Preparing Our Students to be Educated Citizens in a Global World

2. Leadership & Service-Learning • Student Success & Retention • High Impact Practices • Leadership, Civic Engagement & Service-Learning • Types of Service-Learning • High-Quality Service-Learning • iLEAD Program at Missouri State • Questions for Consideration • Defining your Service-Learning Project • Academic Integration • Collaboration and Classroom Logistics • Resources Available • Lunch • Defining your Plan & Hands-On Experience • Q & A Period

3. Student Success: Leadership

4. Leadership It is the combination of both Civic Engagement & Service-Learning that instills leadership within students; inspiring and empowering students to go out into the world, as educated citizen leaders, and make a difference.

5. Social Change Leadership is… • A call for each of us to serve as citizen leaders • First and foremost, leadership is about creating change • Three organizing curricular elements

6. Social Change Leadership is…

7. Creating Change • First, and foremost it is about creating change • What makes leadership different from other forms of human interaction • Three important elements: • Involves “purposefully” seeking change intentionally designed by “change agents” • Involves transformation change rather than small incremental adjustments • Purpose of change is a positive movement “Leadership is about making improvements and correcting discrepancies between “what is” and “what ought to be” for all members of a community of society.” (Crawford, C.B., Brungardt, C.L. & Maughan, M.R.C. (2005))

8. Collaboration • The ability to bring people together for collective action • Designed to help bring together diverse community groups for the purpose of making real and measurable changes in their communities • Working together is the KEY to truly effective leadership • Important because: • Achieve tangible results • Effective problem-solving process • Empowers both leaders and followers • Changes the way that leaders and followers solve public problems

9. Civic Leadership • Social Change Leadership, civic leadership is about asking themselves and others to believe in something larger than personal self-interest • Civic theme shifts from goal attainment for the collective good (the good of the group) to leadership that emphasizes the COMMON GOOD (the good of society as a whole) • Encourages ALL persons to take action on behalf of the larger good. “Very simply, each citizen has a responsibility to carry change forward.” (Crawford, C.B., Brungardt, C.L. & Maughan, M.R.C. (2005))

10. Social Change Leadership: Values & Attributes UCLA Social Change Model of Leadership Development: (Crawford, C.B., Brungardt, C.L. & Maughan, M.R.C. (2005))

11. Social Change Leadership Goal: Is to promote efforts to develop and encourage citizen leaders to address community problems, embracing collaborative methods to initiate and sustain positive action. Social Change Leadership is a Call to Action for all individuals to assume roles as social change agents in an effort to make the world a better place. (Crawford, C.B., Brungardt, C.L. & Maughan, M.R.C. (2005))

12. Student Success: Civic Engagement

13. Civic Engagement Civic engagementmeans: • Working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities • Developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference • Promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes

14. Civic Engagement Framework

15. Civic Engagement • Occurs through the development of the capacity for engagement within students/citizens • Can be taught and measured as civic learning • If we think of civic learning as having the components of knowledge, skills, and values we can get a better understanding of what it looks like:

16. Civic Learning

17. Civic Skills • General abilities students develop through community engagement • Skills and abilities promote and foster: • Critical thinking • Communication • Public problem solving • Civic judgment • Civic imagination and creativity • Collaboration (a key component of leadership)

18. Civic Knowledge • Consists of political, historical, and civic knowledge gained from both academic and community engagement • A key ingredient for civic knowledge is historical knowledge that contextualizes community-based experiences • Students gain civic knowledge through their interaction with communities

19. Civic Values • Justice and Equality for all • Appreciation for Diversity • Inclusive Excellence • Respect and Dignity for all • Commitment to participation in making the world a better place

20. So How is Civic Engagement Taught? • The underlying aim of civic engagement is to produce meaningful service and experiences for all involved participants • Reciprocal relationship between all involved parties • Community partners explain their needs • Students and faculty work with the community partners to find a sustainable ways to address their need • Experience serves as a common ground for students to enhance their scholarship, raise questions and explore alternative solutions with new social consciousness, not only in the classroom but as they move into the world as professionals

21. Civic Learning = Cultivating… • Civic Skills • Civic Knowledge • Civic Values In order to take Civic Action

22. Student Success: Service-Learning

23. Defining Service-Learning Service-Learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities (NYLC, 2001).

24. Service-Learning

25. Why Service-Learning? Service-learning is: • High Impact Program • Fosters and Promotes: • Student Success • Retention • Skills, Sensitivities and Commitments necessary for effective citizenship in a global world – engaging students in community-based problem-solving and addressing social justice issues – locally, nationally, and globally

26. Myths About Service-Learning • Myth #1: Service-Learning is the same as student community service • Myth #2: Service-Learning is just another name for internships • Myth #3: Service-Learning is the addition of community service to an already existing course (Adapted from Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning’s Service-Learning Course Design Workbook (2011)

27. Social Change Leadership

28. Social Change Leadership

29. Top 5 Reasons to do Service-Learning • Get to know & build your community • Understand course content • Gain experience • Strengthen career decisions • Networking & building a strong resume’

30. Characteristics of Service-Learning • Positive, meaningful, and related to participants • Involves cooperative rather than competitive experiences • Promotes skills associated with teamwork, community involvement and citizenship • Addresses complex problems in complex settings rather than simplified problems in isolation

31. Characteristics of Service-Learning - Continued • Service-Learning experiences are appropriate to the participants’ ages and developmental abilities • Service-Learning addresses issues that are personally relevant to participants • Service-learning leads to attainable and visible outcomes that are valued by those being served

32. Service-Learning is Experiential Learning • Occurs when students learn by actively engaging in experiences that have benefits and consequences, along with focused reflection (Missouri State Learning Standards, 2010) • Students experience practical applications of the material being taught, and develop new skills, attitudes, and ways of thinking - Service-learning falls under the broader umbrella of experiential education (National Youth Leadership Council)

33. Service-Learning is Experiential Learning • What is Happening Now? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTAfHBwW2mk&feature=player_embedded

34. Types of Service-Learning Direct Service-Learning: person-to-person, face-to-face service projects in which the students’ service directly impacts individuals who receive the service from the students. Examples include: • Tutoring other students and adults • Conducting art/music/dance programs for younger students • Helping other students resolve conflict • Giving performances on violence and drug prevention • Creating lessons and presenting them to younger students

35. Types of Service-Learning Indirect Service-Learning: working on broad issues, environmental projects, community development-projects that have clear benefits to the community or environment, but not necessarily to individual identified people with whom the students are working. Examples include: • Compiling a town history • Working to restore historic structures or building low-income housing • Removing exotic plants and restoring ecosystems

36. Types of Service-Learning Research-Based Service-Learning: gathering and presenting information on areas of interest and need; projects that find, gather, and report on information that is needed within a community. Examples include: • Writing a guide on available community services and translating it into Spanish or other languages of new residents • Conducting longitudinal studies of local bodies of water; water testing for local residents; food insecurity projects

37. Types of Service-Learning Advocacy Service-Learning: educating others about topics of public interest - projects that aim to create awareness and action on some issue that is in the public interest. Examples include: • Planning and putting on public forums on topics of interest in the community • Conducting public information campaigns on topics of interest or local needs • Training the community in fire safety or disaster preparation

38. High Quality Service-Learning The service responds to an actual community need that is recognized by the community. The service is age-appropriate and well organized. The service is designed to achieve significant benefits for students and the community.

39. High Quality Service-Learning • Collaboration • The service-learning project is a collaboration among as many of these partners as is feasible: • Students, community-based organization staff, support staff, administrators, faculty, and recipients of service • All partners benefit from the project and contribute to its planning

40. High Quality Service-Learning • Student Voice • Students participate actively in: • Choosing and planning the service project • Planning and implementing the reflection sessions, evaluation and celebration • Taking on roles and tasks that are appropriate to their age

41. High Quality Service-Learning • Civic Responsibility • The service-learning project promotes students’ responsibility to care for others and contribute to the community • By participating in the service-learning project, students understand how they can impact their community

42. High Quality Service-Learning • Reflection • Reflection establishes connections between students’ service experiences and the academic curriculum • Reflection activities occur before, during, and after the service-learning project

43. High Quality Service-Learning • Evaluation • All the partners, especially students, are involved in evaluating the service-learning project • The evaluation seeks to measure progress toward the learning and service goals of the project

44. High Quality Service-Learning High Quality Service-Learning is not Volunteerism; there is a distinct difference. • Service-Learning is NOT: • An episodic volunteer program • Only for high school or college students • One-sided: benefiting only students or only the community

45. Service-Learning = Experiential Learning

46. K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice • Developed by the National Youth Leadership Council • Service-Learning is a philosophy, pedagogy, and a model for community development that is used as an instructional strategy to meet learning goals and/or content standards. (National Youth Leadership Council (2008)

47. K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice • Meaningful Service • Link to Curriculum • Reflection • Diversity • Youth Voice • Partnerships • Progress Monitoring • Duration and Intensity (National Youth Leadership Council (2008)

48. Promoting Leadership, Engagement and Democracy iLEAD…Do you?

49. iLEAD Program at MSU • iLEAD = Leadership, Engagement & Democracy • Promotes Civic Leadership and Service-Learning

50. iLEAD Course Description iLEAD! Do YOU?  YOU can start leading NOW! This course is all about preparing you to become engaged leaders in a global society.  As you prepare to become an educated citizen leader in a global world, this course will help you to gain important skills and knowledge through participation in various experiential learning activities centered around MSU’s Public Affairs mission.