A Case Study of Undergraduates Developing Understandings While Learning, Working, and Creating Relationships Across Cultures

• In Event: 31.091 - Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: 31.091-25 - Issues in Urban Education: Diversity and Social Justice

Abstract

This is a case study of a university summer program where 15 undergraduates spent four weeks working with Mexican teachers tutoring in English and a local NGO building a house for a family of twelve. Students were engaged in authentic activities designed to develop cultural awareness—of themselves, each other and our Mexican hosts. Living and working outside their comfort zones, they gained understandings of literacy development, dual language literacy, Mexican culture, and poverty. The opportunities to experience new cultures and to interact with children in poverty and their families revealed that the students also gained understandings that allow them to examine related issues within their own communities and the U. S. through a more nuanced and informed lens.

Author

• Martha A. Adler, University of Michigan - Dearborn