Digital Commons Network^™

Searching For The Meaning Of Youth Civic Engagement: Notes From The Field, Molly W. Andolina, Krista Jenkins, Scott Keester, Cliff Zukin

Civic Engagement

This article reports on the early lessons from a multiphase, multimethod study of youth civic engagement. It uses insights from expert discussions along with a series of focus groups to explore how young adults approach politics, volunteerism, community, civic duty, and generational identity. The study finds many of the distinguishing characteristics of today's youth to be subtle and nuanced, which poses unique challenges for qualitative research of the generation. The important implications of language are discussed in detail.

The New Student Politics Curriculum Guide, Keith Morton, Sandra Enos, Sarah E. Long

Curriculum

The New Student Politics: The Wingspread Statement on Student Civic Engagement (2002) can be assigned as a text in a political science service-learning course that has as an explicit course objective the exploration of contemporary conceptions of citizenship, or a sociology service-learning course that focuses on community building and social transformation. Additionally, the text can be incorporated in service-learning courses across the disciplines with the aid of The New Student Politics Curriculum Guide. The Curriculum Guide is designed to provide a structure for engaging students in reflection on their community service experiences in a way that allows for the …

Good Friday In Omaha, Nebraska: A Mexican Celebration, Maria S. Arbelaez

History Faculty Publications

Mexicans and Mexican Americans in Nebraska commemorate Holy Week with a popular display of religious fervor. In semblance with the old religious traditions in Mexico, the Mexicanos, old and new residents, parade through the Omaha streets following the Way of the Cross on Good Friday. Processions, rituals, and plays are not only a yearly Catholic ritual in the streets of Omaha but an essential part of Mexican American and Latino cultural identity. Palm Sunday and the Way of the Cross are but a few of the constituent elements of the growing manifestations of Latino popular culture in the state. The …

Inducing Voluntary Community Service In Undergraduates: The Relative Contributions Of Prior Experience, Coursework, And The Dispositions Of Empathy And Moral Development, Susan M. Hudec

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

In the past twenty years, higher education has been criticized for what is perceived to be a failure to create better citizens. As a result of this criticism, a variety of pedagogical and curricula innovations have been attempted. One of these innovations is service learning, a form of experiential learning, which engages students in activities that combine fulfillment of community needs and opportunities for promotion of student learning and development (Kendall, 1990). This study hypothesized that moral development and empathy would increase over the course of the required service learning experience in the first semester of college and that required …

Writing Toward Democracy: Service-Learning And Composition, Glenn C. Hutchinson Jr.

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

This study will show how encouraging students to write toward democracy could help them to become better writers and citizens. Service-learning can help students learn to write through active inquiry, collaboration with different discourse communities, and consideration of their roles as citizens. However, service-learning must meet three challenges in order to be successful.

First, I will argue that freshman composition's subordinate status as a service course to the university can inhibit a pedagogy of service-learning. Even though service-learning may be a useful term to name this pedagogy, I propose that we find a different name in order to emphasize student …

Teoretické Interpretace Transformace Ve Středni A Východni Evropě (Theoretical Interpretations Of Central And East European Post-Communist Transformations), Petr Pavlinek

Geography and Geology Faculty Publications

Post-communist transformations have been approached and interpreted differently by different academic disciplines and their respective subdisciplines. This paper provides a critical review of traditional and alternative views of changes in Central and Eastern Europe since the collapse of state socialism. In particular, it focuses on neo-liberal and neoclassical economic interpretations and neo-marxist state to private capitalism thesis as examples of traditional interpretations of post-communist transformations. Alternative views critically reviewed in this paper are based on evolutionary and institutional economics, the analysis of networks of economic embeddedness, the Marxist analysis of production processes, and regulation theory. The differences between these traditional …

Service-Learning In California: A Profile Of The Calserve Service-Learning Partnerships (1997-2000): Executive Summary, Mary Sue Ammon, Andrew Fureo, Bernadette Chi, Ellen Middaugh

Partnerships/Community

Responding to the National and Community Service Act of 1990, the California Department of Education developed the CaiServe Initiative to support K-12 service-learning partnerships that would enhance student academic achievement and civic responsibility, increase teacher effectiveness and satisfaction, heighten school district awareness of service-learning, and provide authentic service to the community. The 1997-2000 local evaluation process was designed to assist CaiServe partnerships in the collection of participation and impact data for their local service-learning activities. The data collected were also to be used to develop a statewide profile of service-learning participation and impact across CaiServe's funded partnerships. The profile report …

Campus-Community Partnerships: The Terms Of Engagement, Robert G. Bringle, Julie A. Hatcher

Partnerships/Community

The emergence of service-learning in higher education and the renewed emphasis on community involvement presents colleges and universities with opportunities to develop campus-community partnerships for the common good. These partnerships can leverage both campus and community resources to address critical issues in local communities. Campus-community partnerships are a series of interpersonal relationships between (a) campus administrators, faculty, staff, and students and (b) community leaders, agency personnel, and members of communities. The phases of relationships (i.e., initiation, development, maintenance, dissolution) and the dynamics of relationships (i.e., exchanges, equity, distribution of power) are explored to provide service-learning instructors and campus personnel with …

Building Bridges And Crossing Borders: Using Service Learning To Overcome Cultural Barriers To Collaboration Between Science And Education Departments, Kevin Carr

Service Learning, General

Science faculty and teacher education faculty need to coordinate in order to prepare teachers to teach science. This article describes several successful and unsuccessful collaboration efforts between scientists and educators that took place during the creation of an interdepartmental service learning project, Science Outreach, at George Fox University.

Service-Learning, 1902, Julia Garbus

Service Learning, General

"We are all segregated in the prison of class," mused turn-of-the-century literature professor Vida Dutton Scudder. "More than we recognize, our inner life is shaped by the traditions of the group to which we happen to belong; and until we escape from such prison, at least through imagination, or better far through personal contacts, our culture is bound to remain tragically cramped and incomplete" (On Journey 67-68). In innovative literature courses, Scudder offered college students escapes from their class prisons through "imagination." She facilitated "personal contacts" by encouraging students to work with people of other classes and races in inner-city …

Meeting Ncate Standards Through Service-Learning: Professional Knowledge & Skills, National Service-Learning In Teacher Education Partnership

Service Learning, General

Community service has a long-standing tradition in the mission and purpose of California Lutheran University. Believing that the adoption of academic service-learning as an innovative and effective instructional strategy can enhance and enrich the teaching and learning experiences of both Faculty and students, in 1994, the School of Education included service-learning as a required assignment in several courses in the Teacher Preparation Program.

Repercussions Of The Dawes Act: Leasing, Citizenship And Jurisdiction On The Omaha And Winnebago Reservations, 1887-1896, Matthew J. Krezenski

Student Work

The General Allotment Act, or Dawes Severalty Act, passed in 1887, had terrible repercussions for the Native American. Although the negative effects of the Act were widespread across the entire country, the separate impacts on individual reservations varied. On the Omaha and Winnebago Reservations in northeastern Nebraska, the Indians faced an entirely new range of problems after allotment, problems which continue to complicate the lives of residents even today. Whites not only purchased “surplus” lands, but also sought to appropriate the allotted land through dubious leasing schemes. The citizenship clause in the Dawes Act was particularly perplexing. Ostensibly, the Act …

Community Perspectives In Higher Education Service Leaming And Volunteerism, Andrea Vernon

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

This study is a qualitative analysis measuring community perceptions of college student volunteers and service learners. The purpose of the study was to examine college student service learning and volunteer activities from the community perspective through data gathered from community agency personnel who work directly with college student volunteers who are serving to meet the needs of youth.

Personnel from 15 community youth service agencies in seven Montana communities were interviewed to determine (a) how agencies ensure and measure the quality and effectiveness of college student volunteer service, (b) the impacts that college student volunteers have at the youth service …

A Meta-Analysis Of Service Learning Research In Middle And High Schools, Amy E. White

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

This study examines the relationship between service learning innovations and improved academics, self-concept, and social or personal growth in middle and high school students. Meta-Analysis is employed to arrive at effect-size estimates for each construct. A historical overview of service learning is presented and a detailed description of the study selection process is provided. The data revealed a moderate relationship between service learning participation and academics, self-concept and social or personal growth in middle and high school students. The findings are presented, and some appropriate conclusions are drawn. A discussion of the implications of these findings and recommendations for future …

The Miss America Pageant's Influence On The Self-Construction Of Its 1985 Contestants, Debra Deitering Maddox

Student Work

The author was a contestant in the 1985 Miss America Pageant, choosing to research how participants of that event made sense of their participation and how that participation affected their construction of themselves. Eleven state representatives were interviewed, including the winning Miss America and her 2nd and 4th runners-up. Interviewees were chosen upon consideration of region represented and final placement. This qualitative study utilized a semi-structured style of interviewing and protocol of 15 questions. Contestants’ narratives were analyzed within the frameworks of objectification theory and patriarchy. Results indicated that making sense of the Miss America experience could be a lengthy …

Investigating Trust In The Mentoring Relationship: The Beginning Teacher's Perspective, Nancy Ann Edick

Student Work

The focus of this dissertation was to investigate the beginning teacher's perspective on trust in the mentor-beginning teacher relationship. This was a qualitative study rooted in grounded theory modified to accommodate the use of received theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). The investigative framework was based on two received theories, and each theory formed the foundation for the following research questions: (1) Gabarro's (1978) theory predicts that work place trust in an associate will be affected by her perceptions of the associate's character, competence, and judgment. Is this true in the case of the beginning teachers as they do or do …

The Community Is Their Textbook: Maryland's Experiment With Mandatory Service For Students, Suzanne Goldsmith

School K-12

At its best, service learning enriches both students and their communities. But creating good programs isn't easy.

Service Learning: Discovering Effective Communication Strategies By Emphasizing The Community's Perspective, Elizabeth Oppe

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Service learning is a broadly defined term that may encompass a spectrum of projects and course work ranging from acts of charity to activism for social change. "The aim of service learning is always to heighten awareness in our communities that we have the capacity to both learn from and serve each other... and work toward a more just and egalitarian society" (bttp://www.invcol.pdx.edulic.htm). Another description of service learning from Brevard Community College's The Power (1994) explains that, for many community organizations, students augment service delivery, meet crucial human needs, and provide a basis for future citizen support. The Power depicts …

Fact Book 2001, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

Fact Book

The Fact Book has been designed to present a variety of information and data about the University, in a concise, easily-used format. This year we have changed the Fact Book by adding several additional items of interest and changing the format of the data being submitted. We have included details regarding student and faculty information broken out by college, rank, level, gender, age and ethnicity for both spring and fall semesters. I hope this will provide you and your staff with the necessary details regarding the activity of this institution.

The Sanctification Of Fear: Images Of The Religious In Horror Films, Bryan Stone

Journal of Religion & Film

Horror film functions both as a threat and a catharsis by confronting us with our fear of death, the supernatural, the unknown and irrational, ''the other" in general, a loss of identity, and forces beyond our control. Over the last century, religious symbols and themes have played a prominent and persistent role in the on-screen construction of this confrontation. That role is, at the same time, ambiguous insofar as religious iconography has become unhinged from a compelling moral vision and reduced to mere conventions that produce a quasi-religious quality to horror that lacks the symbolic power required to engage us …

The Catholic Imagination In Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz, Christopher Garbowski

Journal of Religion & Film

The author examines Martin Scorsese's rockumentary The Last Waltz of 1978 as an encounter between the communitarian focus of the Catholic imagination (cf. Greeley Catholic Imagination) and the more individualistic ethos dominant in contemporary society (cf. Taylor Ethics of Authenticity). He claims the encounter not only shapes Scorsese's fiction films but also exhibit's his notion of the filmmaker's mission. The subject matter of the film lends itself to this examination because a rock band balances between the individuality of its performers and the communality of its form. Moreover, overt religious values and themes of the film are explored in relation …

"...And Justice For All": Community Service-Learning For Social Justice, Rahima Wade

Special Topics, General

Community service-learning, the integration of school or community-based service activities with aca­demic skills and structured reflection, is a growing movement in the field of education nationally. With funding and initiatives at the federal, state and private organizational levels, service-learning programs have proliferated in the nation's K-12 classrooms, as well as in colleges and universities.

Need To Update Your Information Technology? Try Service Learning, Robin A. Alexander

Partnerships/Community

While the need for information in the nonprofit sector is great, shortages of time, staff, money, and expertise make it hard to use information technology effectively. The result is often a vicious cycle in which staff time is spent compiling information manually when a simple database could dramatically speed the process. But there's no time to create it.

At A Glance: What We Know About The Effects Of Service-Learning On College Students, Faculty, Institutions And Communities, 1993- 2000: Third Edition, Janet Eyler, Dwight E. Giles Jr., Christine M. Stenson, Charlene J. Gray

Higher Education

"At A Glance" summarizes the findings of service-learning research in higher education over the past few years and includes an annotated bibliography. It is designed to provide a quick overview of where we are in the field today and a map to the literature.

At A Glance: What We Know About The Effects Of Service-Learning On College Students, Faculty, Institutions And Communities, 1993- 2000: Third Edition, Janet Eyler, Dwight E. Giles Jr., Christine M. Stenson, Charlene J. Gray

Bibliographies

"At A Glance" summarizes the findings of service-learning research in higher education over the past few years and includes an annotated bibliography. It is designed to provide a quick overview of where we are in the field today and a map to the literature.

Cultural Aspects Of Preschool Education: Ojibwa, Odawa And Potawatomi Indian Children's ''Ways Of Knowing And Communicating'' In Early Intervention And Head Start Programs, Lois M. Bissell Jircitano

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

This research investigated what Anishinabe cultural values and beliefs are transmitted in the Head Start and Early Head Start oft he Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan, and how Anishinabe values and beliefs affect instructional communications, teacher/student relationships, and the learning styles used by Native teachers in the educational process of Anishinabe children in the preschool situation. The study used an ethnographic approach to identify what informants would describe was their culture among the four Inter-Tribal Preschool programs. Observations completed in the classroom, home and community environment sought to discover how parents, teachers, children and staff in the preschool process use the …

Faculty Senate Minutes August 2001, Uno Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Minutes

These are the official minutes of the Faculty Senate Meetings at the University of Nebraska - Omaha (UNO) for Academic year 2001-2002. The Faculty Senate supports faculty governance and believes that shared governance is essential to creating productive and rewarding environment for faculty and students. The Faculty Senate is a representative body of members elected by the faculty of the various academic departments and units of UNO. The Faculty Senate features representation from each academic college, Criss Library , and Omaha-base University of Nebraska – Lincoln (UNL) colleges.

The Impact Of Boot Camps And Traditional Institutions On Juvenile Residents: Perceptions, Adjustment, And Change, Doris Layton Mackenzie, David B. Wilson, Gaylene Armstrong, Angela Gover

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Experiences of 2,668 juveniles in 26 boot camps were compared to 1,848 juveniles in 22 traditional facilities. There were no reported differences between juveniles' anxiety and depression in the two types of facilities during their first month of confinement. Overall, juveniles in boot camps perceived their environment to be more positive (i.e., therapeutic), less hostile (i.e., dangerous), and as providing less freedom (conversely more structure) than juveniles in traditional facilities. Relative to others in the same facility, youth who viewed their facility negatively experienced more stress (i.e., anxiety, depression). Scales measuring changes over time found that youth in boot camps …

Learning With A Purpose: Academic Service-Learning Curriculum, Dale Rice, Kathy Hurst, Joanne Caniglia

Curriculum

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Professional Development Program is authorized under Title II of P. L. 103-382. It provides institutions of higher education the opportunity to partner with K-12 teachers and administrators to assist with professional development through sustained, high-quality professional development activities in mathematics, science, reading, and other areas of the core academic curriculum.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Professional Development project shared here was undertaken by Eastern Michigan University and Romulus Community Schools to provide Romulus teachers professional development to integrate the teaching methodology of academic service-learning into their mathematics and science curriculum. The goal was to increase academic achievement …

Technology As A Mirror, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

IN CYBERSPACE instructors are more exposed, vulnerable, and less able to retain a veil of superior knowledge and expertise that has given scholars a sense of identity. We can, however, deepen our understanding, authentically practice the disciplines that we love, and enter new relationships to the learners who entrust themselves to our care. This I learned from faculty I consulted at the University of Vermont. And this is how technology can influence--and further--the aims of education.