Controversy With Civility: How Service-Learning Impacts Civic Attitudes in the First Year

• In Event: Evening Extravaganza: Taste of Brussels Reception, Author Meet & Greet, Lifetime Achievement Awardee and Keynote Meet & Greet, & Hosted Poster Session
  In Poster: Leadership Education Display Posters

Short Description

In the U.S., current political climates continue to push citizens through turbulent times. There is a need to encourage social activism and civic responsibility at the undergraduate level. This poster will present research on service-learning and civic attitudes in a first-year leadership course.

Detailed Abstract

Currently, US political climates continue to push citizens through more turbulent times. In particular, college students need to navigate turbulent culture with open-mindedness in order to find their relationship with a community. College students often work to define their education and career goals but do not consider their role in civility and citizenship. Emerging research on civic engagement and attitudes helps communicate a need to encourage social activism and civic responsibility at the undergraduate level (Britt, 2012; Manning-Ouellette, Friesen, & Parrott, 2016; Mayhew & Engberg, 2011). Once student’s leadership is situated within an exchange of individual and group values, they can work towards reaching into an understanding of citizenship (Komives & Wagner, 2009). Students that apply their experiences and service work to larger social issues achieve more defined and comprehensive leadership identities (Manning-Ouellette, et al., 2016) thus relating to their role in a global society.
One vehicle to teach more solidified identities of citizenship and civility is to incorporate service-learning into a course (Britt, 2012). Service-learning is defined as a “teaching and learning strategy that attempts to integrate community service with an academic curriculum” (Learn and Serve, 2010). Researchers differentiate service-learning from community service because service-learning projects critically analyze include critical reflection and a relevance to their everyday tasks (Howard, 2003; Jones, Gilbride-Brown, & Gasiorski, 2005). Furthermore, service-learning provides an outlet to experience and reflect on larger social issues, thus navigating civic attitudes towards particular groups of people or complex systems (Britt, 2012). Beatty (2010) and Britt (2012) identify three categories of service-learning: 1) skills practice and reflexivity as the professional model, 2) civic values and critical citizenship as the civic engagement model, and 3) social activism as the social change model of leadership.
Given the categories and definitions of service-learning, this session will focus on presentation of a qualitative study which centers the question:
1. How does service-learning influence the civic attitudes and skills of students in a first-year leadership course at a public institution?
Furthermore, the session will cover several strategies to address the growing desire to increase civil discourse and civic responsibility in college-age students. Participant objectives for the session include:
• Teach how to engage local community organizations in service-learning projects and use them as a tool of civic engagement and responsibility.
• Examine civic attitude reflective data from a first year leadership service-learning course
• Provide recommendations on how pedagogy can support broader student outcomes and further defining citizen definitions
Moreover, the session will discuss the importance of investigating how service-learning intersects with the development of civic responsibility during the first-year of college. The findings will articulate how faculty and staff can build strong and comprehensive leadership courses and programs that employ pedagogy surrounding service-learning, critical reflection, and civic responsibility. Finally, the session will conclude with providing recommendations for designing curriculum around civic engagement and social activism. The session outline includes these areas: a) Introductions and Welcome, b) Theoretical frameworks and service-learning course design, c) Methodology, d) Findings, e) Discussion and Recommendations, f) Participants Questions.

Methodology

Through a qualitative inquiry, we examine the service-learning experiences and civic attitudes of 95 first-year students at a large, public, Midwestern university. We analyzed students’ descriptive reflection from service-learning reflection journals and final reflection papers. Moreover, we analyzed narrative data using Komives & Wagner’s (2009) social change model of leadership as an overarching framework. The social change model assumes that leadership is collaborative in nature and that leadership can be transformed into action within a community to promote positive social change (Komives & Wagner, 2009). The theory presents the seven C’s of leadership which intersect with individual, group, and community identities.
With the social change model as a guiding framework, we employed a directed content analysis on the participants’ narrative course journals and final service-learning reflection papers. “The goal of a directed approach to content analysis is to validate or extend conceptually a theoretical framework or theory. Existing theory or research can help focus the research question” (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005, p. 1281). The directed content analysis approach aides in understanding first-year students, their leadership development, and their civic attitudes. We are currently undergoing data analysis and will be completed by the end of April 2017.

Participant

• Amber Manning-Ouellette, Iowa State University