Transforming health systems through collaborative leadership

148 Pages·2013·4.46 MB·English

5th INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM SERVICE-LEARNING 2013
Service-Learning across the globe:
from local to transnational
PAPER SERIES
Paper Series
th
5 INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM: SERVICE LEARNING 2013
Service-Learning across the globe: From local to transnational

Antoinette Smith Tolken and Jacob du Plessis (Editors)

Sponsored by:

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Copyright © 2013 by Division for Community Interaction, Stellenbosch University
ISBN: 978-0-620-59299-4
All rights reserved. No portion of this monograph may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission of the Division
for Community Interaction, Stellenbosch University

Paper Series editing and proofreading contributions:
Julie Steicher
Cover Source:
Chinese Ink Brush Painting by Bonnie Kwan Huo; Stellenbosch University Ou Hoofgebou and University of Indianapolis Goodhall
Building.
Cover Design and Layout: SUN MeDIA Stellenbosch
Major funding support to make this publication possible:
Prof Julian Smith: Vice Rector, Community Interaction and Personnel, Stellenbosch University.
Contents
Editorial .................................................................................................................................................................... i
Contextualisation
University of Indianapolis Press & service-learning: Innovative and cutting-edge practice ....................................... 1
Wiegand M and Lin PL
Institutionalisation
Elements needed for service-learning in an international higher education institution .............................................. 9
Swanzen R
The Student-Ability Enhancement Model (ATAS) of the Ningbo Institute of Technology
(Zhejiang University, China) ...................................................................................................................................... 21
Jin W and Zhu S
Responsive leadership as service for curricular engagement at South African universities:
narratives from academics ........................................................................................................................................ 29
Bender CJG
Curriculum design in different disciplines
An appraisal of integrating service-learning into the P3 Practice Teaching System while grounding it
in Chinese educational philosophy ............................................................................................................................ 37
Yang J and Cai L
Fringe Activism and Guerrilla Bricollage: Four constructed studies into service-learning ......................................... 47
Shall S
Designing a simple service-learning project for an MBA Operations Management class ......................................... 55
Jordaan J
Conceptual frameworks and paradigms
Ubuntu – interconnecting the African spirit with service-learning in Pharmacy ......................................................... 65
Van Huyssteen M and Bheekie A
Community-academic service-learning programme models for success and sustainability ...................................... 73
Crandell CE, Pariser G, Wiegand MR and Brosky JA
Transforming health systems through collaborative leadership: Making change happen! ........................................ 79
MacPhee M, Paterson M, Tassone M, Marsh D, Berry S, Bainbridge L, Steinberg M, Careau E and Verma S
Interprofessional education and practice: two community-based models ................................................................. 89
Waggie F and Laattoe N
A framework for effective practice in community engagement in higher education ................................................... 99
Wilson L
Collaborations and partnerships
International teaching practicum with a difference: When Australian teacher education partners with
South African communities and schools ................................................................................................................... 107
Parr G and Rowe C
Students, academics and community as voyagers on a service-learning journey .................................................... 117
Venter K
Author Bios .............................................................................................................................................................. 127
Service-learning Across the Globe – Paper Series ISSL 2013
Preface
The starting point of the ISSL journey was in 2004, when co-founders Phylis Lan Lin (University of Indianapolis) and
Antoinette Smith-Tolken (Stellenbosch University), were introduced by the International Office directors in their
respective institutions namely, William (Bill) Ayres and Robert Kotze. In this year, both universities were strengthening
their international relations. However, this significant meeting that resulted in a remarkable journey of collaboration and
institutional partnership was preceded by historical events in both countries that will be elaborated on.
The democratisation of South Africa (SA) in 1994 through new policy directives and legislation resulted in a
comprehensive restructuring of all social institutions affecting public life in this country. The high levels of social
inequality and related challenges faced by the majority of the SA population also necessitated the restructuring of higher
education. The White Paper on The Transformation of Higher Education (Department of Education, 1997) in South Africa
mandated universities to ‘demonstrate social responsibility … and their commitment to the common good by making
available expertise and infrastructure for community service programmes’. During 1997 and 1998 the Ford Foundation
awarded a grant to the Joint Education Trust (JET) to conduct a survey of community service in South African higher
education (SAHE) and building on the results of the survey, a further allocation of funding was made to form the
Community – Higher Education – Service Partnerships (CHESP) initiative. The CHESP initiative was strategically
positioned to work with national higher education stakeholders, firstly to inform a policy framework and later after this
was completed, to support the development of service-learning (SL) courses at universities from 2001 onwards (Lazarus,
Erasmus, Hendricks, Nduna and Slamat 2008).
Antoinette was appointed in 2001 as the Assistant-director: Community service at SU as part of the University’s
commitment to answering the call for universities to become relevant to the communities where they exist, together with
their Strategic Framework instituted in 2000 (SU, 2000). In this strategic planning the University committed itself to
prioritise community service as a third core function.
Antoinette recalls her thoughts at the time: “My knowledge of SL was very limited. At first I travelled to several
universities in the country who could assist me in gaining knowledge about the subject. I read every piece of information
I could find as I was placed in an institutional position where I had to help the institution put together a plan and a policy
for ‘community interaction’ (the term that was later accepted at Stellenbosch University). I came across the JET report
that was released after its initial research on the phenomenon of community service in SA (Perold 1998). I contacted the
then director Joseph Lazarus and I was invited to join the CHESP initiative. Together with other universities, I learned
more about SL and which university processes were necessary to institutionalise CE. I began building alliances within
the institution amongst others Robert Kotze from the International Office and Rona Newmark from the Department of
Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education”. In 2003, initial conversations between Robert and Antoinette (then
Acting Director: Community Interaction at SU in a unit called University Stellenbosch Service-Learning and Community
Interaction - USSC) explored the viability of offering a SL study abroad program at SU. “I also visited universities in the
USA to gain a better understanding of CE and SL in other parts of the world. On one of these trips abroad the
international office sponsored my trip to visit the University of Indianapolis (UIndy) during which I met Bill Ayres. I
realised that UIndy had the advantage of practicing SL for a long time while SU was still finding its feet in establishing a
foundation for CI”. We decided in principle to pursue an inter-institutional relationship based on our mutual interest in SL.
In the United States of America (USA) a longstanding role of universities was to develop good citizens resulting in
different types of community-university relationships and engagement and amongst others SL (Thomson, Smith-Tolken,
Naidoo & Bringle 2010). CHESP utilised expertise from SL scholars from the USA to inform their work in SAHE. Through
CHESP, Robert Bringle, then from Indiana University Purdue University Indiana (IUPUI), held a workshop at SU
attended by thirty scholars from all the faculties in the University. Ten of these scholars showed interest to develop a SL
module as part of a pilot project to determine the viability of SL for the institution. In 2005 a capacity-building program
was launched at SU with sponsorship from CHESP. Antoinette reflects: “I just returned from the USA where I attended
the annual National Outreach and Engagement Conference for the second consecutive time in 2004. It was during this
time that I met Phylis Lan Lin during my second visit to the USA” she recalls. The University of Indianapolis Press was
just established (2003) and were exploring connections to generate publications against the background of a regional
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Service-Learning across the globe: From local to transnational
initiative in Indiana that led to the establishment of the Indiana Campus Compact and strengthening their relations with
other universities and national organisations. By then SU had appointed Prof Julian Smith as the Vice-Rector who will
take responsibility for the proliferation of community interaction. A policy and plan for community interaction (CI) was
completed and provided a foundation for institutionalising CE and SL.
Against this background Rona and Antoinette visited UIndy again and the ISSL 2005 was discussed and planned. The
idea was to bring together a small group of around thirty people and this was also the reason that it became a
symposium and not a conference. Stellenbosch would host the first one and then alternate with Indianapolis. An
institutional agreement to this end was signed between the leadership of the two institutions and the ISSL was born.
Editorial
Writing about the past can take a historical character where the sequence and the content of the events are merely
described. Through critical narrative reflection past events and experiences can be documented and reflected upon,
guided by the interpretation of the narrator. Through reflection the underlying meanings through which ISSL came to
fruition and what motivated its continuance and sustainability was the focus of the preface. With this editorial we aim to
engage reflectively on the ideas, questions, themes, intersections, variants that evolved over time since the inception of
the ISSL, and not in a sequential order, but rather conflated within the reflection. We will use a reflective narrative style
to revisit the birth of the idea of the ISSL, the trajectory it took from local to transnational and what informed this, and
how SL evolved alongside this conceptually and theoretically. Our thinking is guided by a constructivist approach in
which the production of knowledge, the innate meanings and differential understandings of SL across the globe (also the
title of the paper series) becomes a core feature for reflection. We would argue that a narrative approach becomes
relevant in a transnational context and which will be illustrative of the poster sessions, storytelling, seminars, workshops
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and research presentations of a global family gathering together on the African continent for the 5 ISSL, to share their
experiences with and amongst each other.
We encourage the participants of this symposium to be open to the challenge of critical self-reflection; to listen truthfully
to the experiences, insights and wisdom of scholars from across the globe, unfiltered by own contextual and possibly
limiting understandings. It is by listening and finding similarities, but especially also subtle differences, that we might find
innovate and creative pathways towards a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by
engaging in the transnational domain.
The ISSL journey from local to transnational
Introduction
The 5th International Symposium Service-Learning (ISSL) – From Local to Transnational brings together scholars
from eight countries to share their ideas, stories, practices and knowledge. The focus of this this symposium is to
develop theoretical and conceptual frameworks globally to proliferate the practice of service-learning (SL) in different
contexts. This purpose will guide our reflection.
Symbolism of ‘local’ and ‘across’
Reflecting about the inception of the ISSL brought the realisation that the collaborative relationship that evolved between
the University of Indianapolis (UIndy) and Stellenbosch University (SU) were driven by firstly institutional strategy and the
people who were charged to operationalise that strategy. The symbolism of ‘local’ was demonstrated by the two
universities’ strategy to better connect with their communities, and they were driven by a quest for knowledge that could
enrich and advance what they do in their own communities. The symbolism of ‘across’ features the different dimensions
in which the crisscrossing of ‘across’ evolved. The first crossing between universities and communities happens within
universities realising the importance to be relevant to communities but also driven by the need to expose students to real
life situations in order to connect theory and practice. Such connections typically happen within a disciplinary context, but
are also driven by the type of society and country in which these connections take place. However, SL in the disciplines
alone tends to focus on the need in the community for their discipline-related services, which fragments and limits the
addressing of needs in the community with which they engage.
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Editorial
When these connections are formed from an institutional basis, the consequence is focused interaction of all the
resources of the university with different communities in whether they are based on interest, geography or association. A
further consequence is that on institutional basis, there could be a move to interdisciplinary work. Institution-based
engagement however proofed not to be as easy as it seemed logic. Resistance to change and lack of leadership to drive
such initiatives are easier said than done. Knowledge to address this challenge is needed and in SA was addressed by
an initiative in SA namely Community Higher Education Service Partnership (CHESP) fulfilling the same role as Campus
Compact in the US, but on a smaller scale.
This second crossing is the result of our own lack of knowledge which creates the opportunity to learn from others in
neighbouring or national institutions (local to national). In SA, as in the US, initial funding were mobilised to initiate
processes in universities and SL courses proliferated coupled with research initiatives and capacity-building processes
nationally. National processes made a natural progress of sharing theory, concepts and practice across country
boundaries.
Around 2004-5 international education was a prominent phenomenon and SL was seen as an opportunity to not only
study abroad, but for students to immerse themselves in the culture and lifestyle of other countries, while sharing their
knowledge. These intercultural connections symbolises the third crossing that was characterised by the realisation that
one culture cannot simply transfer their understanding on another culture. A differential understanding of cultures and
communities was necessary to make the connections across country borders successful and meaningful. Antoinette
recalls her reflection of the 2005 symposium at the welcome event of the ISSL 2007 in Indianapolis:
“This event [ISSL 2005] illuminated the importance of such interaction in search for new knowledge about the theory
and practice of service-learning. It brought to the fore the quality assurance, logistics, ethics and many different
aspects of institutionalising service-learning that tends to lie on the periphery of the field. The different interpretations
of the term service-learning almost created a hybrid transnational best practice. For Stellenbosch University it
marked a new dispensation of positioning itself as an institution that made a paradigm shift towards academically-
based service-learning within the approach of integrating teaching, research and community interaction”.
The sharing of knowledge and awareness of cultural diversity brought about two distinctive pathways that led to the
combined quest to contribute to the internationalisation of SL. The first was a consciousness of the character of the
country and the culture(s) in which SL is practiced. The second was to build SL around the culture, but at the same time
drawing from international theory and practice and customising it to local contexts. Another part of the reflection at 2007
symposium:
“Recently, our new Rector/Vice-Chancellor was installed. He introduced his vision for our University as “building a
pedagogy of hope” quoting the author Paulo Freire. He urged our University to be one of meaning and significance
who rethinks the implication of democracy for the curriculum. The agenda of creating socially responsive knowledge
needs to furthered, creating both more wealth, at the same time creating hope for the poor and destitute to access
the created resources. How is service-learning aligned to do this rethinking and how can this conference make a
contribution to this call? I am convinced that the universities presented in this room can become the incubators of a
pedagogy of hope? I challenge you to assess the relevance of your work not only for student learning and
competence, but the relevance it has to the international development agenda as espoused by the Millennium
Development Goals of which the eradication of poverty and related ailments, the strive for world peace, and the
improvement of quality of life are just a few”.
Multidisciplinary models for SL were generated and enriched the practice of the different countries and even continents
as the ISSL progressed and grew. The internationalising of SL symbolises the fourth crossing and a movement to an
international focus. What evolved from this crossing, was taking the ISSL to two other continents namely Greece in
Europe (2009) and to Ningbo in China (2011). Phylis Lan Lin articulates the implications of this crossing in the 2011
proceedings:
“While service-learning has been institutionalized in some areas, such as South Africa and the United States, and
also in Taiwan and Hong Kong (Taiwan Normal University and Lingnan University are two of the leading universities
in Asia, and Lingnan University is also a member of Campus Compact), service-learning on Mainland China, for
example, is a burgeoning enterprise. Holding this conference at NIT means there will be a growth in awareness of
service-learning in higher education institutions in China.”
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Service-Learning across the globe: From local to transnational
The meanings that underpinned the continuance of the ISSL were the real drivers of the sustainability of this series of
symposia. One tends to think it is driven by organisation, planning and creative ideas, but those elements were mere
products of underlying meanings and understanding that was developed over the years with SL being the common
denominator that stimulated the being, thinking, sharing, conceptualising, theorising and practicing.
The legacy of the ISSL and focus of ISSL in 2013
The legacy of these symposia that were held the past eight years on four continents across the globe, namely Africa,
Asia, North America and Europe, continues with the fifth one in 2013. Scholars from eight countries will come together to
share their ideas, stories, practice and knowledge. When it is taken into consideration that SL is not only practised on the
four continents but also in Australasia and South America, it is safe to deduce that SL may become a movement
worldwide.
Research is the key to develop any practice into a field of enquiry. Academic books, journal articles and journal special
editions on SL have proliferated over the last twenty years (SJHE; Education as Change 2007). Through the ISSL a rich
body of knowledge was produced by capturing the presentations into chapters of four book publications that have seen
the light as a result of these symposia (Wiegand & Lin elsewhere in this publication). With the fifth symposium underway,
the University of Indianapolis Press presents a tangible record of the excellent presentations and papers that
characterised the symposia. Many of the presentations at the ISSL were also reworked in publications in peer-reviewed
journals and other books. This paper series is a continuance of the legacy and a contribution to add to the existing body
of knowledge.
ISSL 2013 will take the legacy a step further by focusing on the global context of service-learning and through the notion
of thinking global and acting local. The guiding questions of the ISSL 2013 emphasise the quest to develop theoretical
and conceptual frameworks globally and proliferate the practice of service-learning in different contexts. The questions
guiding the symposium and this paper series are:
 How can what we do locally be shared across the globe?
 How can we develop a global service-learning (or community-engaged learning) language?
 Which theoretical and conceptual frameworks underscore such global practice of service-learning?
 How can research contribute to understanding service-learning in different contexts?
 How can we develop students’ and faculty’s consciousness of the global-local nexus?
 Which graduate attributes will be strengthened by global academic citizenry?
 How do we contribute to local development agendas and how can we feed in to international development
agendas?
Developing SL as a field of enquiry is eminent to informing the fostering of service-learning where it is still unknown and
strengthening current theory and practice. Students and faculty are the key role-players in the proliferation of service-
learning. They must be enabled to become engaged scholars and citizens who consciously align their learning and
research to addressing the most pressing challenges of society as portrayed in local and global development agendas.
Service-learning transcended community service to become a scholarly action which has the potential to be a vehicle to
produce graduates and faculty who embrace engaged citizenship in their local environment.
When reading these papers, we identified the overarching theme characterising each individual paper. It is important to
note and interestingly so, that the themes that emerged through all the ISSL symposia, were then also the ones that we
used to group the fourteen papers of the series together, and also in a similar chronology. This ordering happened
unconsciously and even serendipitously, and therefore not intentionally. This thematic positioning of papers allowed for a
more conventional ordering and typology for describing what each of these papers are focusing on, but at the same time,
allowing us to identify and reflect on the meanings and understandings that underpin each of these papers. Therefore,
after grouping the papers together, the following themes emerged and which is also presented in this particular order
and mirroring the themes that emerged via the ISSL symposia over time:
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