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Toward a Transformative GSL Ethics: How Global Service-Learning Faculty Reconcile Clashing Personal and Institutional Values Surrounding GSL
Get PDFGlobal service-learning (GSL) course offerings have expanded rapidly in the last decade at U.S. universities and colleges, yet faculty are not always prepared for the ethical challenges of development work with disadvantaged communities in international settings. Based on a qualitative study of 25 GSL faculty across a range of higher education institutions in the United States, this article describes what drives faculty members to participate in GSL, analyzes the community engagement principles that guide their GSL work, and assesses how they cope with the dissonance that arises when striving to meet the sometimes-conflicting needs of students, communities, and educational institutions. We find that these faculty employ a “transformative GSL ethics” to realize their motivations and visions for a counter-normative approach to community engagement. We argue that higher education institutions must shift their norms, values, and practices with respect to professional development and pedagogy if they are to continue promoting the GSL agenda.
Community Partner Perceptions in a Health Care Shortage Area
No full textThis study illuminates community partner perspectives regarding their relationship with a public academic health center (AHC) in a health care shortage area (HCSA). Community-based and statewide leadership invested deeply in the AHC’s programs and initiatives to prepare health care providers for practice in the region, to decrease the provider shortage and improve local health care outcomes. The mixed-methods study sought to identify current community engagement partnerships and examine relationships from the perspective of community partners. Phase 1 of the study utilized an adaptation of the Outreach and Engagement Measurement Instrument (OEMI) as a survey to gather data from employees at the institution. Phase 2 of the study gathered data from the community partners through communities of interest focus groups. Data was analyzed using the Kellogg Commission’s seven-part test of engagement. Findings from the survey identified community partner perspectives that informed AHC and partner collaborations during a period of multiple crises
Top-Down Motivation in University–Community Engagement
No full textThis study aimed to investigate the process of a top-down motivational approach in university–community engagement (UCE). We conducted a qualitative single case study in Indonesia using direct observations and semistructured interviews with 16 informants in three categories of actors: university, local community, and intermediary. Our main finding is that all actors are motivated by a top-down motivational approach. The university provides service to the community to fulfill its obligation to the government, and the local community is obligated to follow the village chief’s directive to participate in community service. As an intermediary between the university and the community, the village chief supports community service because participation will make the chief (and community) eligible to receive grant funds from the central government. These empirical findings provide a new understanding of how UCE works in a country that employs top-down government to implement its regulation at the grassroots level
The Civic-Minded Graduate Construct in the Context of the Engaged University—A Case Study of a University From Slovakia
No full textOur exploratory study analyzes the civic-mindedness of university graduates in an engaged university with emphasis on Central and Eastern Europe, particularly Slovakia. The research sample consisted of 452 graduates of the second level of university studies. To map and analyze civic-mindedness, we used the Civic-Minded Graduate Questionnaire (CMG; Steinberg et al., 2011). At the selected university, graduates scored the highest in skills and dispositions and the lowest in behavioral intentions. Furthermore, we found that those graduates who volunteered during their university studies had statistically significant greater development in the areas knowledge, skills, dispositions, and behavioral intentions, as well as in CMG scale overall, than those who did not participate in volunteering. Our study showed that the CMG concept is usable in countries with different contexts of the development of the university environment and the idea of citizenship and can help map the level of civic-mindedness among university graduates.
The effects of health, family, and altruism on retirement savings
No full textUsing data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this paper broadens the analysis of retire- ment savings by examining the effects of health, children, altruism, and family of origin attributes on the decision of whether to save for retirement and on how much retirement savings are accumu- lated. The presence of children in the household generally reduces the probability of saving for retirement. Poor personal or parental health diminishes retirement savings outcomes. Altruistic behavior generally presents as complementary to retirement savings, and the evidence suggests chil- dren of mothers who saved for retirement are more likely to do the same
