Student volunteering in the community: connections to their discipline and potential for creating future career aspirations.

Sharon Hutchings & Ann McCarthy

Student volunteering in the community

Aim of session:

To reflect on the Volunteering project Module evaluating and reflecting on how far it afforded students the opportunity to ‘live’ their sociology, to connect to their communities and hopefully make links that were truly felt beyond what our teaching could offer.

Outline

• Values in teaching and learning

• Volunteering project

• Moments of learning

• Questions

Values in teaching and learning – should we have them?

Absolutely for us - makes sense of my world and my practices

Where do ours come from?

Shaped by our learning experiences

Adult and community education /Placement and Work-Based Learning

Potential and power of learning

Need for change

Understandings and values that inform our practice

Critical pedagogy and experiential learning

Facilitating learning - Carl Rogers

Student volunteering in the community

Volunteering project – Aim for our students:

“… alongside the current political drive for the ‘Big Society’ we hope to build a platform for critical debate combined with your volunteering projects to deepen your understandings of sociology and the wider communities you are part of”.

Structure

• Term1 - Critical explorations of concepts - community and volunteering

• Term 2 - Team-work and volunteering projects

• Term 3 - Group presentations and individual reflective report

Student volunteering in the community

Student volunteering in the community

Diversity Dance workshop

Youth work

From cooks to interpreters!

Student volunteering in the community

Tea Dance

Two moments of learning

1. “Its not what I thought prostitution was like”

2. Edna and the “imaginary” water

The intention was to afford students the opportunity to ‘live’ their sociology, to connect to their communities and hopefully make links that were truly felt beyond what our teaching could offer

Student volunteering in the community

1. Her experience really disrupted her world and shattered what she described as her "pretty woman" imaginings of prostitution, 

2. We thought that a series of small quotes from Yasmin might just offer a taste of her experiences and developing thinking:

Student volunteering in the community

“Its not what I thought prostitution was like”

• "I hoped that by doing this volunteer project I would get an insight into the world that prostitutes live and, that if I understood them, I would hopefully be able to help them".

• "I had concerns about my own safety...“ "I felt like I had been thrown in at the deep end... I couldn't believe what I was  hearing".

• "I helped in an art workshop.... words that expressed their feelings like "Fuck the World"... "don't bite the hand that feeds you..." 

• "I was, however, slightly disillusioned as I felt that more emphasis was placed on just handing out the condoms and keeping the prostitutes safe... “

• “but POW has created this community… a place for support and comfort …it made me realise how important it is in any organisation to have a good and committed management team…”

• "I could never have imagined what the life of a prostitute was like from just reading a book"

Edna and the “imaginary” water

"She then began to twitch and complain about water dripping on her but I thought, as it was raining outside, she was hearing rain and thinking she was outside so I proceeded to move her wheelchair a little to put her mind at ease...However, whist doing this, I saw a drip of water on her shoulder and felt very guilty for not believing her". 

“I feel delighted that I didn’t give up and volunteer elsewhere because I've had a great experience volunteering … it has made me a stronger person as I now have more confidence when being put in difficult situations and making the most of them”.

Student volunteering in the community

Student voicesWorking at the refugee centre: “…it has provided me with a confidence and a sense of fulfilment …this learning curve has been a foundation in which to progress on in my degree and in life”.

Charity shop volunteer: “A skill we learnt was relating to people different to ourselves…there is no guarantee that you will work with people who are the same as you, this is imperative for teamwork.

Dance volunteer: “… I could apply it to life after my project”.

Homeless centre: “…I felt slightly apprehensive…unjust stereotypes…different next time”.

Student volunteering in the community

What we appreciated…Other communities beyond student community

First year students? absolutely yes!

Integrity evident in developing projects

Empowerment student relationship changed

New voices new language to voice new knowing

New opportunities new places of learning

Student volunteering in the community

Critical pedagogy - practices across Higher Education

Giroux argues that:

“…personal experience becomes a valuable resource giving students the opportunity to relate their on narratives, social relations and histories to what is being taught”. (Giroux 2010)

Echoed in recent HEA publication: Pedagogy for employability:

Evidence suggests that successful pedagogical approaches include experiential learning – an emphasis on exploration, learning by doing and reflection in authentic contexts – ideally mixed with rather than simply replacing existing approaches. (HEA 2012, p. 45)

Student volunteering in the community

Service learning

“I translate this effort into a form of experiential education that is “both an applied form of sociological practice and an educational pedagogy”(Stall 2010, p. 537)

Defining employability

“Employability is not just about getting a job. Conversely, just because a student is on a vocational course does not mean that somehow employability is automatic. Employability is more than about developing attributes, techniques or experience just to enable a student to get a job, or to progress within a current career. It is about learning and the emphasis is less on ‘employ’ and more on ‘ability’. In essence, the emphasis is on developing critical, reflective abilities, with a view to empowering and enhancing the learner”.

(Harvey 2003, p.4)

Student volunteering in the community

Thank you for your time.

Any Questions?

Student volunteering in the community

References:

• Giroux. H., (2010) Lessons From Paulo Freire. Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol. 57, Issue 9

• Pegg, A., Waldock, J., Hendy-Isaac, S., & Lawton, R. (2012). Pedagogy for employability.HEA

• Rogers, C. and Freiberg, H. J. (1993) Freedom to Learn (3rd edn.), New York: Merrill.

• Stall, S. (2010), Civic Sociology. The Sociological Quarterly, 51: 537–549

Student volunteering in the community

“Experience is a starting point, an object of inquiry that can be affirmed, interrogated, and used to develop broader knowledge and understanding. Critical pedagogy is about offering a way of thinking beyond the seemingly natural or inevitable state of things, about challenging common sense." (Giroux 2008)

Student volunteering in the community

“…teaching, in my estimation, is a vastly overrated function” (Rogers 1989)

“goal of education, … is the facilitation of change and learning”. (Rogers)

Two essential components for purposeful learning, ours and students are:

experiences and relationships

Student volunteering in the community

What would we do differently?

Support supervision and debriefing

CRB checks plan well in advance

Group work troublesome at times

Organisational constraints systems and processes - fit

Managing expectations students and organisations

Who benefits? problematic

Student volunteering in the community