ERIC EJ936445: Learning to Unlearn: Transformative Education in the City

2011·0.15 MB·English

by  ERIC

Learnng to Unlearn:
Transformatve Educaton n the Cty
Mieka Ritsema
International Honors Program
Barbara Knecht
International Honors Program
Kenneth Kruckemeyer
International Honors Program
Introduction: Urban Immersion
Whle urban settlements have been an ntegral part of human lfe for
mllenna, ctes today are arguably at the heart of survval on, and of, ths
planet . More than half of the world’s populaton now lves n ctes, and
urban centers present some of the greatest socal and envronmental chal-
lenges of our tme (UN HABITAT 2008) . Though students may study n or
travel through ctes whle learnng abroad, urban settngs typcally provde
the scenery rather than the focus for study abroad programs . The Interna-
tonal Honors Program (IHP), n contrast, studes the urban context tself
and embraces the consequental role of ctes n the world as the thematc
heart of our study abroad program, Ctes n the 21st Century . In ths artcle,
we dscuss the content and the learnng opportuntes that are avalable when
the cty s the classroom . We descrbe the current desgn of the program and
methods that we use, and suggest how the ntercultural context and nter-
dscplnary nature of ths experence can be adapted to other programs n
nternatonal educaton .
Most U .S . students have lmted knowledge of ctes and urban lfe out-
sde of the Unted States . Studyng globalzaton n unversty courses, stu-
dents may read Mke Davs’s Planet of Slums (2006) or Teresa Caldera’s Cty
of Walls (2000) to learn about ncreasng nequty manfested n slums and
gated communtes . But just as lkely ther nformaton conssts of dramatc
snapshots . They may have glmpsed urban Inda n Slumdog Mllonare or
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Mieka Ritsema, Barbara Knecht, and Kenneth Kruckemeyer
heard n the news about a cty n Chna devoted to sock-makng . There may
be passng recognton that major sports events take place n ctes, such as
Bejng’s 2008 Olympcs or Cape Town’s 2010 World Cup . Through these
snapshots, a sngle dmenson stands to represent a dynamc, multfaceted,
and ntrcately connected human settlement .
The IHP Ctes n the 21st Century program (IHP Ctes) ams to expose
students to the rchness and complexty of lfe n ctes . Ctes are centers of
ndvdual opportunty and cvc engagement and also stes of soco-economc
dsparty and poltcal nequalty . For some a cty provdes remarkable luxury
and for others unbelevable deprvaton . Beyond the extremes, however, ct-
es offer dverse prospects for most nhabtants, able to provde opportun-
tes for work, educaton, and artstc expresson . Ths dense concentraton of
resources s the very aspect of ctes that creates the opportunty for learnng .
IHP Ctes s a thematc, comparatve program n whch students exam-
ne the ssues of 21st century lfe n the U .S . and abroad by studyng people,
plannng, and poltcs n specfic ctes . Snce the program began n 1999,
t has begun wth an orentaton n a Unted States cty, followed by travel
to ctes n three countres over the course of a semester . The strategy s to
provde a structured, comparatve analyss of smlartes and dfferences of
urbansm n dverse places . The group, consstng of 30 to 35 students and
four faculty, ncludng a Fellow, spends approxmately two weeks n a cty n
the Unted States, followed by four to five weeks n three other countres,
one cty each n Afrca, Asa and South Amerca .
The purpose of study abroad s for students to learn other ways of lvng
n and understandng the world, usually through a process of mmerson .
Most study abroad programs focus on cultural mmerson characterzed by
learnng a language and lvng n one place for a semester or two . The IHP
Ctes program aspres to urban mmerson, teachng students how to read
a cty by ganng an understandng of the systems and rhythms of ctes that
make them productve for large numbers of people .
Study abroad s well known for beng a transformng experence for stu-
dents . Studyng the cty has the power to make that transformaton both
personal and socetal, as students examne how everyday lves, ncludng
ther own, are affected by the forces, systems and crcumstances of ctes . Our
objectve n the IHP Ctes program s for students to get at the heart of how
ctes work, and thus how these students, n ther personal and professonal
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lves, can nfluence the future of ctes .
The City as the Classroom
The fundamental tenet of the IHP Ctes program s that the cty s the
classroom . Ths means that every aspect of lvng n a cty s a potental source
of learnng . For example, students must rde the local transportaton n order
to observe, experence, and reflect on how t works for cty resdents and vs-
tors . The hstory of a neghborhood s learned through conversatons wth
shop owners . By carryng out transactons n the local currency and explorng
local lunch spots, students compare the extent of purchasng power n dffer-
ent ctes . Adjustng to host famles means learnng about struggles, celebra-
tons, and the mundane practces of everyday lfe n very dfferent urban con-
texts . The goal s to begn to understand how people make ctes meanngful
and how ctes work, that s to say, how systems of transportaton or housng
or nequty are produced, contested, and lved on a daly bass .
When the cty becomes the classroom, students must shft ther expec-
tatons of what consttutes experts and expertse . The Ctes program s
desgned to transfer the source of knowledge to the actors and nsttutons
of the cty where sources for learnng are abundant and contradctory . To do
so, students must unlearn ther expectatons for the learnng process tself .
Learnng to unlearn means settng asde and questonng one’s assumptons
and preconceved notons about how to learn, n order to hear, see and expe-
rence the cty on other people’s terms . The framework for expertse shfts
from faculty and books to host famles, government planners, urban recy-
clers, shopkeepers, developers, and a broad array of people wth a range of
extraordnary and ordnary experences and vews on ther cty . The terms
for learnng, therefore, depend on the styles, stes and crcumstances n
whch students encounter these teachers as well as students’ wllngness to
dscover the potental for learnng n every stuaton .
Learnng on other people’s terms sounds smple, but t s dfficult to
practce and to teach . For undergraduates whose prevous experences are
shaped by professonal educators, learnng to value local knowledge can be
a dauntng process . From the first day n the IHP Ctes program, students
are asked to abandon ther expectatons of famlarty . From the lengthy
eght-hour day, the hghly structured program, the nonlnear flow of nfor-
maton, and the unpredctable and dynamc range of voces, t s a challenge
unlke the unversty envronment . Our ntenton s for students to develop a
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self-awareness and wllngness to communcate wth strangers, to change the
tempo of nteracton, to learn through sensory processes, and to relnqush
ther expectatons for smple answers . In the process, they develop sklls to
move through the cty attentve to the socal and physcal envronment . All
of these elements are part of learnng on other people’s terms .
Observaton and recordng, communcaton and analyss, group work:
each of these sklls and methods s present wthn the structure of a mult-
cty learnng cycle that draws on tradtonal academc as well as experental
methodologes . Buldng on students’ famlarty wth tradtonal academc
learnng offers an mportant startng pont for learnng on other people’s
terms, and urban topcs are typcally ntroduced by local experts who are
brought nto a classroom settng . Ths ntroducton s followed by a field
exercse whch students undertake n small groups, and finally a report-
back or dscusson sesson facltated by faculty . Drawng on experental
learnng methodologes (Ctron and Klne 2001; Kolb 1984; Lutterman-
Agular and Gngerch 2002), the cycle of learnng emphaszes a contnual
ntegraton of experence, reflecton, analyss, and synthess .
The IHP Ctes learnng cycle s llustrated n the followng example . Stu-
dents are ntroduced to local polcy on urban envronmental management n
Sao Paulo by a guest lecturer, for example a cvl servant n the cty’s publc
works department or an academc from a local unversty . Then, through vst-
ng a landfill and conversng wth the manager or engneer at the ste, students
dscover the sgnficance of leachates and methane and hear about the effec-
tveness of santary landfills . They hear about the benefits of the faclty to the
larger communty . Whle stoppng n the neghborng town for lunch, stu-
dents have an nformal conversaton wth resdents who dscuss the problems
they face lvng near a landfill, ncludng pollutng trucks and a contamnated
water supply . They learn about thwarted efforts n ths poor neghborhood
to organze and protest the expanson of the landfill . Afterward, students ds-
cuss what they have learned through ther observatons, conversatons, and
reflectons . Integrated nto the dscusson are daly observatons of nformal
recyclers or scavengng practces seen n the cty’s streets as well as nsghts
and prejudces gleaned from conversatons wth host famles . A lesson on
nequalty s made meanngful, for example, by recognzng how margnal-
zed people suffer the consequences of urban waste whch s largely produced
by prosperous urban resdents . The dscusson contnues over the semester as
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new knowledge s ganed and appled through comparatve assessment .
Through ths learnng cycle, urban waste, a topc of seemngly lttle rele-
vance, becomes clearly connected to the perpetuaton of socal nequty and
ssues of socal justce, urban polcy and poltcal turmol, and envronmental
sustanablty . Readng the cty becomes not only a process of learnng how
systems work but of understandng how humans, as ndvduals and groups,
act and react wthn and to those systems .
Ths desgn offers a learnng envronment where students encounter
multple sources of knowledge and conflctng truths, developng more
questons than answers . Furthermore, focusng on specfic ssues lke waste
(or housng or transportaton) s an empowerng way for students to begn
a conversaton wth a range of urban actors by communcatng about top-
cs that are generally accessble . By workng wth host nsttutons and orga-
nzatons, the program s able to enter dfferent urban communtes, thus
drectly addressng specfic urban ssues people are facng . Repeated expo-
sure to nformal and formal learnng opportuntes helps teach students
how to respectfully and productvely brdge cultural and other dfferences
to engage n conversaton . In varous ways, IHP creates an envronment of
ntellectual opportuntes that requres students to be nteractve and self-
drected n ther learnng .
There are a number of observaton, communcaton, mappng, and
analytcal sklls that we teach wthn the cycle of learnng . Observaton and
recordng whle recognzng one’s prejudces are seemngly smple tools, yet
deceptvely dfficult n ntercultural contexts . We have developed several
exercses to mprove these sklls . In an anthropologcal exercse, students first
observe and descrbe an urban scene, then examne how ther nterpretaton
compares to that of a local person, and finally consder the scene n broader
analytcal context . In a mappng assgnment desgned to develop an urban
plannng lens, students lterally map the socal and physcal nfrastructure
n a cty block . In an excurson wth a multdscplnary focus, groups of stu-
dents walk along a famlar route to search for patterns and events that reveal
the presence of the state, evdence of socal roles, or the overlap of formal
and nformal economes . Students dscover that observaton nvolves all the
senses, that t s an act of corporeal awareness as well as a process of meanng-
makng whch requres communcatng wth the cty’s resdents . Through
communcaton wth varous urban actors, students begn to understand the
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cty from the perspectves of ts dverse nhabtants . Akn to the qualtatve
methods used n ethnographc fieldwork (Robben and Sluka 2007), students
observe and partcpate n the socal world around them—confrontng ssues
of cultural translaton, cultural relatvsm, and ther own postonalty—n
order to understand how people make sense of ther urban worlds .
Usng multple modes of communcaton for reflecton and analyss s
a near-daly aspect of the program . Vsual and oral modes supplement the
more famlar wrtten form of communcaton that s typcally emphaszed
n unversty courses . The expectatons are set up n the pre-departure assgn-
ment—a descrpton and analyss of an ssue of publc debate from students’
home or college cty . In addton to preparng an essay descrbng and analyz-
ng the stuaton, the assgnment requres students to dstll the man ponts
nto a poster presentaton . The poster sesson s comprsed of short oral pre-
sentatons to a small group facltated by the faculty and then summarzed
back to the larger group . Thus the concept that content and form together
produce effectve communcaton s ntroduced . Furthermore, presentatons
are requred n every cty n order to provde students the chance to develop
and practce oral presentaton sklls . Through the semester, there are mul-
tple opportuntes to experment wth conventonal and nventve modes of
communcaton through presentaton .
As students are requested to leave ther computers at home, even wrtng
papers becomes a new form of mental processng . Wthout the convenence
of delete, cut and paste functons, or the ready resource of the nternet,
students work wth the materal at hand . “What s the nformaton I have
learned?” and “what does t mean?” become the leadng questons, rather
than “where s the nformaton that I want?” Most students also develop a
conscousness about ther own process of thnkng n the course of wrtng
essays longhand . It may be n how they plan and execute the work, t may be
n how they thnk through language . Usually t hones a skll that contrbutes
postvely to ther wrtng when they (happly!) return to the computer .
Students work n small groups for dscusson, research and presenta-
tons . Just as students must spend much of ther tme experencng the cty
and learnng on other people’s terms, they must also come together, n an
teratve process, to make sense of what they have experenced . On ther own
tme, and n the structured envronment of the courses and cty program,
students share ther confusons, questons and nsghts . In the process, they
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teach each other . Ths s partcularly mportant snce the IHP Ctes program
attracts students from unverstes across the U .S . and does not requre stu-
dents to have a background n urban studes . Students wth backgrounds
n poltcs and economcs are encouraged, for example, to partcpate n
explanng concepts lke neolberalsm or development to classmates . We
have watched students become empowered through the slow but powerful
recognton that they have expertse to share, and that such expertse can
come through nterdscplnary engagement .
Designing Programs to
Challenge Preconceptions
In recognzng that students travel wth “magnatve geographes” (Sad
1979)—preconceptons of people and place—t s crtcal to desgn a program
that helps students queston ther expectatons of ctes and urban lfe . Socal
scentsts (Gans 1967; Hannerz 1980; Massey and Denton 1993; Portes and
Jensen 1987; Smone 2009) examnng neghborhoods and socal networks
n ctes have demonstrated that people lvng n metropoltan areas typcally
develop relatonshps wth others of smlar socal backgrounds . Students also
tend to socalze and congregate n famlar places as they travel . The IHP
Ctes program s organzed to ensure that students cross the socal and phys-
cal boundares of ctes and relate those experences to broader frameworks
for analyss . Drawng on nterdscplnary perspectves, the structure of the
program exposes students to the myrad ways that ctes are organzed and
the dstnctons between polcy, plan and lved experence . They begn to
understand how ctes work dfferently for dfferent people . To do ths, the
program ncorporates two major desgn elements: course syllab desgned by
“travelng faculty,” who accompany the students for the duraton of the pro-
gram, and cty programs desgned by “local faculty,” who lve n the cty . The
program draws members of both groups from numerous dscplnes, nclud-
ng Anthropology and Urban Plannng as well as Economcs and the Arts .
Each cty program establshes a cycle of learnng over a four (some-
tmes five) week perod . Ths cycle repeats n form from cty to cty wth
place-specfic content . Cty programs progress as follows: The first week
quckly grounds students n the new cty through a seres of urban explora-
tons and ntroductory lectures . Guest lecturers provde an ntroducton to
socal, poltcal, economc, and plannng contexts n the cty and country,
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whle urban exploratons expose students to the sounds and sghts of cty lfe .
Durng the second week, the program actvtes expand on the development,
socal, and envronmental ssues that arse n each cty, ncludng housng, spa-
tal dvsons, waste, water, mega-projects, and transportaton . The thrd week
bulds further on those themes, gvng students several days to delve more
deeply nto specfic topcs of partcular nterest to them . Guded by faculty,
students dstll ther findngs and develop an approprate mode for leadng
the larger group through ther research, conclusons, and next set of ques-
tons . The fourth week s an opportunty for reflecton, comparatve analyss,
and consderaton of the partcular cty n the global context . At the conclu-
son of the term, the students spend a week reflectng on the personal and
academc learnng of the semester, culmnatng n a publc presentaton .
Layered onto the cty programs are four courses conducted by the trav-
elng faculty that offer theoretcal and methodologcal tools grounded n
academc dscplnes . The IHP Ctes program examnes a cty through sev-
eral lenses: Urban Poltcs and Development, Culture and Socety of World
Ctes, Urban Plannng and Sustanable Envronments, and Contemporary
Urban Issues . Faculty desgn course syllab around the core concepts and
methods of ther dscplnes, and teach the materal by applyng t to cty-
specfic contexts . Requred and recommended readngs are drawn, when-
ever possble, from local academcs and based n locaton-specfic examples .
Assgnments emphasze learnng from the prmary sources of the cty, and
courses often overlap n order to emphasze the nterdscplnary nature of
the nvestgaton . Faculty members renforce ther role as facltators and
resources by constantly respondng to the unscrpted learnng that comes
from observng, experencng, and nterpretng the cty . As they teach n ths
way, they subvert the very dea of an academcan, an expert who knows the
answers, by focusng on the voces of urban resdents and on the understand-
ng produced by students themselves .
Local and travelng faculty together structure the learnng envronment
for students and partcpate n the learnng process . At each stage, the teach-
ng team s workng wth the students to construct the platform that supports
the experental learnng cycle as students reflect on ther experences, con-
ceptualze them, and apply them to the next phase of learnng . Local faculty
provde depth and nsght nto each country to facltate analyss and nter-
pretaton . Travelng faculty break down dscplnary slos and help students
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develop a holstc and nterrelated understandng of ctes across a semester .
As anyone who has coordnated a study abroad semester knows, pro-
grams do not always work out as smoothly as we would wsh; however, even
dfficultes can produce occasons for developng greater understandng . We
often find ourselves creatng learnng opportuntes n unpredctable and
dfficult crcumstances, such as durng publc strkes or when the publc bus
breaks down, not nfrequent experences n many world ctes . When the
cty becomes the classroom, faculty must consder how to respond wth flex-
blty and creatvty to urban ssues as well as to students’ concerns . Wth
cty programs and course syllab dependent on numerous movng parts,
facltatng learnng often means encouragng students to actvely and self-
crtcally engage wth whomever they are nteractng, wherever they are n
the cty . Students become actve partcpants n, rather than consumers of,
ther educaton . In the process, students’ preconceptons about other people
and places are challenged and begn to shft .
Comparative Study
Within and Across Cities
The IHP Ctes program s desgned to take advantage of the under-
standngs that grow from makng dfferent types of comparsons . On the
one hand, ntercultural comparsons are made from personal mmerson,
nformed and nterpreted by observatons through the eyes and words of
others, and layered wth the lenses of the academc dscplnes . On the other
hand, comparsons are also made across spatal and urban contexts .
The process of makng comparsons begns when students meet for the
orentaton launch n the Unted States . Our selecton and exploraton of a
U .S . cty s based on the ntenton of mmedately takng students outsde of
famlar zones, and relatng ther experences to broader analytcal questons .
Two orentaton ctes, New York Cty and Detrot, launch the Sprng
and Fall programs respectvely . Seemng oppostes, New York, characterzed
as a global cty (Sassen 1991), and Detrot, characterzed as a shrnkng cty
(Shrnkng Ctes 2004), each defy students’ preconceved notons . Some
students lve n New York, many have vsted as toursts wth ther famles,
but few have tred on a fur coat whle learnng about local commerce from
a shopkeeper n the Russan enclave of Brghton Beach, or have understood
transnatonal remttances by vstng Alanza Domncana, a communty-
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based organzaton n Washngton Heghts . In the process, students have
the opportunty to relate academc dscussons of NYC as a global cty to
ther experences vstng a cty of mmgrant neghborhoods .
Whle few students have vsted Detrot, all recognze t as the symbolc
heart of the Amercan ndustral era . In ths cty, students are confronted
wth a post-ndustral shrnkng cty n whch government has wthdrawn
more and more cty servces, and resdents have become ncreasngly creatve
n the ways that they make do . Faculty challenge students to dscuss ssues of
extreme dsnvestment, extraordnary local ntatve, sngle-ndustry cathar-
ss, and underlyng racsm, pushng them to communcate about topcs that
are seemngly outsde of ther concerns as resdents of predomnantly mddle
class communtes and wealthy natons .
Whether the program begns n New York Cty or Detrot, students are
asked to toss ther preconceptons nto the ar . Stark dfferences are uncovered
rght here at home just as unexpected smlartes are found across the globe .
Durng the orentaton cty program, students meet the people who are makng
neghborhoods and nsttutons work, and they are thus provded wth a start-
ng pont for communcatng wth teachers n unlkely places and postons . As
they go on to study nternatonally, they carry wth them the bascs of learnng
to unlearn as well as a common platform to begn to thnk comparatvely about
ther homes ctes, the launch cty and the ctes they wll study .
Communcatng across perceved socal and physcal boundares s a
major step n the experental learnng process . Drawng on the strength
of experental methodologes and nsghts, the program sustans the chal-
lenge across several ctes, and n the process, students’ assumptons are
regularly questoned, and ther sklls of observaton, communcaton and
crtcal thnkng are contnuously engaged . Just when students begn to
be comfortable, they move to the next cty and begn the learnng process
agan . Repetton and comparson of topcs and ctes through the semester
renforce the learnng cycle . As they become more adept, ther ablty to
make sense of partal knowledge grows, as does ther ntatve and creatv-
ty explorng and explanng ther dscoveres .
We choose to study n ctes that represent the nfluences that are shap-
ng the 21st century global cty: mgraton, rapd expanson, neolberalsm,
nterdependence, ncreasng nequty . In ths era of globalzaton, these are
places where socal nnovaton, poltcal nteracton and economc nter-
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