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2002-2003 Huckabay Teaching Fellowship
Project Description

Course Title:      Critical Engagements with Service and Community:  Topics in Hunger and Food Security

 Project Rationale

Over the past ten years at the University of Washington, service and community-based learning activities have grown tremendously.  What was once the realm of a small number of committed faculty in a handful of disciplines, has developed into a campus-wide, largely centralized activity with annual service learning participation from over 1,000 students, dozens of departments and close to 300 sites.  As a part of the scaling-up strategy of the Office of Undergraduate Education, each year an increased number of UW faculty and students integrate community based learning activities into their curricula and on going efforts are being made to develop international service learning projects at the UW.  This trend toward service learning has even penetrated the proposals of Huckabay Fellows as they seek to develop innovative teaching methods (for example, see 2001-2002 Fellows C. Keating and D. Renfro).

            Yet, even as the method is invoked and championed, the very idea, effectiveness and impact of service learning, both on the students and the communities they are working in, is largely under examined.  The service learning pedagogy seeks to enrich classroom education through an infusion of ‘real world’ experience. However due in part to structural limitations (quarter system, limited student hours), instructor inexperience with the pedagogy, and community misunderstanding about the purpose and practice of service learning, the technique is often significantly under-utilized.  While the experience may have accentuated their coursework, students can often find themselves unclear of the broader meanings and implications of their service and walk away having had little opportunity to engage reflexively and critically upon their activities.  Without a critical engagement with the nature of service and how it relates to the issues at hand, students miss an opportunity to confront the challenging questions that are at the core of the service learning pedagogy.   ;

            This course project seeks to address this key component of service learning by placing the service/community activity and the associated student self-reflection at the center of the course.  Through this prioritization, a curriculum will emerge that engages learning on three levels: (1) the service experience as related to the topic of hunger and food security, (2) the institutional structures of service and community development, and (3) a critical reflection on the practice of service itself.  It is perhaps the third point, and its emphasis throughout the quarter, that makes this course unique in its engagement with challenging questions around service and the role of the university: Whose interests are being served?  Are students learning at the expense of agencies and their clients or vice versa?  Is service doing ‘good’, or could it be doing just the opposite?  How do different organizations address hunger and food security?  How can the university engage the needs of the local community? What are the links between the classroom and the community?

Course Format

The Huckabay Fellowship will be used by Britt Yamamoto in Spring 2003, under the guidance and supervision of Dr. Lucy Jarosz, to administer a 400-level Geography course that engages critical issues around service and community development through topics related to hunger and food security.

Students in the course will meet for two class sessions per week, each for 110 minutes, and simultaneously enroll in General Studies 350 for academic credit related to their service learning placement.  During the first class session, students will be presented with a detailed listing of community site placements and be asked to commit 4-6 hours per week at a site over the course of the ten week quarter.  This is double the time commitment generally asked of students who do service learning and is why students will receive general studies credits for their participation.  The increased time commitment is an effort to bring students in greater contact with sites.  In Winter 2003 Britt will work closely with the UW Carlson Center and community agencies to develop meaningful placements that both serve the students and the agencies.  These placements will be project oriented with 2-4 students working together as a team on specific tasks with tangible goals.  Furthermore, agencies will be selected as institutional representations (foundation, 501c3, government agency, grass-roots advocacy group, etc.) in order to teach students about the different institutional structures around hunger and food security. 

            Classroom activities will be structured in seminar format with a blend of lecture and discussion facilitation by Britt, visits from community agencies working with the course, and student-led class sessions.  Each class session will involve an activity around critical reflection and students will be required to submit weekly emails to be read by both Britt and one other student.  Due to the intellectual rigor of this course and the high expectations, prospective students will likely be asked to contact Britt prior to their registration.  In the interest of creating a smaller setting where there can be greater participation and attention from the instructor, class size will not exceed 25 students.  It is also expected, for recruiting purposes, that this course will be linked in some way to other Geography courses that deal with issues of development and inequality (for example GEOG 230, 330, 371, 430)

Course Goals

The goals of this course are (1) to foster a critical self-reflexivity in students vis-à-vis service and community development; (2) to provide students with an understanding of the institutional structures of development work; (3) to facilitate an understanding of the service activity within the context of hunger and food security issues; (4) to prepare students for participation and/or employment in the fields of service and community development. 

Project Implementation and Wider Impacts

In order for this course to be taught in the spring of 2003, preparations will commence during the winter of 2003.  At that time, Britt will work closely with Dr. Jarosz to develop reading lists, design course activities, draft lectures and outline terms of assessment.  Britt will also use the winter quarter to work with the Carlson Center on site development and building meaningful placements for students that are both linked to the course material and represent different aspects of community development.  

            Wider impacts of this course will be many.  First, Britt will share his experience in an academic paper for submission to either the Journal of Higher Education or the Journal for Service Learning.  Second, Britt will also present at the annual national Service Learning conference.  Third, the undergraduates in the course will be able to present their projects at both the Department of Geography Undergraduate Research Symposium and the UW Undergraduate Research event held in the spring.  Finally, this course will contribute to efforts at the UW to increase linkages between the classroom and the community. 

 Assessment

This course will be assessed from five perspectives.  First, students will provide feedback through the use of WebQ, an internet evaluation tool, which will allow them to provide anonymous feedback during the quarter so that Britt can change or redirect the course if necessary.  Students will also be asked to submit weekly assignments and it is anticipated that these will offer an excellent measurement of the effectiveness of the course. Second, sites will provide feedback to Britt at various points in the term.  A key component of the course’s success will be an open and weekly dialogue between Britt and each site.  Toward this goal, as an accompaniment to telephone conversations, the Carlson Center will work with Britt to develop a web-based evaluation tool that can be easily accessed and utilized by sites.  Third, Britt will keep a journal for the duration of the course and these writings will provide the basis for the regular meetings with Dr. Jarosz over the spring term.  Fourth, during the course Dr. Jarosz will each sit-in a class session and provide feedback to Britt afterwards.  Lastly, the third-party services of CIDR will be used throughout the development and instruction of the course. 

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