Ethical Community Engagement in Global Learning

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/1805/21362

This collected was created and is curated by the Working Group on Ethical Community Engagement in Global Learning. The working group is a partnership of the Office of International Affairs and the Center for Service and Learning.

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Talking Points for Engaging with Potential Community Engaged Global Learners
(2020-02-21) Eggenberger, Christina
Tips for engaging with students interested in Global Service Learning programs abroad. This document was created for students staffing a table at various college and university events but could be used by faculty in staff in similar situations or in general conversation.
Supporting University-wide Institutional Change in Ethical Global Community Engagement
(2019-10-28) IUPUI Working Group on Ethical Community Engagement in Global Learning
The ethical dilemmas inherent in international volunteerism generally are slow to enter conversations of comprehensive internationalization in higher education. As a result, pockets of activity to address shortcomings in current practices often remain disconnected and siloed within specifics projects and programs, rather than part of a coherent campus-wide strategy. In this session, we share progress made by our team to intentionally institutionalize ethical considerations into all aspects of our work.
Building our capacity for relational program planning in GSL: Lessons from an institution -community partner action research project
(2019-11-05) Price, Mary F.; Makki Alamdari, Sara; Luca-Sugawara, Carmen; Steele, Jeff; Leslie, Stephanie; Aguirre, Odette; Vuković-Čović, Sanja
The research on service learning notes the under use of program planning theory as an instrument to improve outcomes in Service Learning, not only for students but for our aspirational goals in host communities. Program planning, particularly, when focused on relationships, power and positionality, can further the ethical integrity of SL/GSL programs. In this session, our community-academic working group will discuss an ongoing action research project that brings together multiple NGO partners, student, faculty and higher education staff to examine their relational practices across four case examples and adapting three tools to support our learning and practice: Sandmann et al [2009] Service Learning Program Planning Model [SLPPM], Bringle et al’s (2010) Transformational Relationship Evaluation Scale (TRES) and our working group´s principles for ethical global community engagement [adapted from Lasker (2016). We will introduce our processes, findings and lessons learned.
Proactive Advising: An Ethics in Action Case Example
(2020-01-13) IUPUI Working Group on Ethical Community Engagement in Global Learning
A student is meeting with their advisor to talk about their goal of attending medical school. In discussing how they might prepare for medical school, the student shares that they are planning to pursue a medical mission trip abroad because they “have always loved traveling” and it would be a great way to help “really poor people” at the same time. The advisor is concerned by the limited lens by which the student is viewing the community he would be serving, and feels obligated to begin a conversation about their concerns. On the other hand, the student is only in their first year of college, so there is plenty of time for things to change before the student actually would need to apply. Should the advisor start a very difficult conversation, or just assume that the student will gain perspective as he moves throughout his college career?
Sense-Making with Students: An Ethics in Action Case Example
(2020-01-13) IUPUI Working Group on Ethical Community Engagement in Global Learning
A student has recently returned from a service trip abroad, and meets with her academic advisor to plan classes for the following semester. The advisor is anxious to hear about the student’s experience, but as the student begins to share stories, she reveals some information that raises red flags for the advisor. She begins sharing the pictures she took with members of the host community that she has posted on her Facebook page, and there is little evidence that the host community participated in planning the event in any way. The advisor also suspects that the student has been allowed to complete duties outside her scope of knowledge, and with little supervision. As the advisor pushes on these points of concern, the student becomes frustrated and defensive. She believes the trip did wonders for the community it served, and she is shocked that the advisor might suggest otherwise. The student is planning to apply for professional medical programs and she is certain that this experience will give her a “leg up” in the admission process. The advisor isn’t so sure, and wants to help the student reflect more critically on the experience without shutting down her enthusiasm for serving vulnerable populations.
Safe Space? An Ethics in Action Case Example
(2020-01-13) IUPUI Working Group on Ethical Community Engagement in Global Learning
As part of a conference devoted to exploring ethics in global health volunteer experiences hosted by your university, student leaders representing several health professions schools and pre-professional programs host a lunch conversation with the conference’s keynote speaker. The session is designed to support open discussion of: • personal or peer experiences of clinical and/or pre-professional global health volunteer trips, • stated and perceived motivations and gains from participation and, • Positionality of student leaders within student-led programs, including their sense of comfort/discomfort with specific elements of their program experience and the responsibilities they shoulder within and across programs. • Resources they’d like to have in order to increase their sense of efficacy when they are confronted with challenging situations. The student groups organizing this session have agreed to allow you, and a couple of other faculty/staff involved in the conference, to sit-in on this session to gain a more robust understanding of student leaders’ experiences and perspectives. The lead groups organizing the discussion are directly connected to and supported by your office. At the onset of the meeting, the keynote speaker and students state that students don’t need to worry about their frankness of their comments…it is a safe space. While most of the participating students are from university-recognized student-led volunteer and service-learning programs, the buzz about this event has been circulating through student peer networks. As a result, it happens that a 2nd year medical student, we’ll call her Josie, has come to the event in the hope of recruiting additional students for an upcoming trip a group of fellow students are organizing to Nicaragua the following month to offer care in a temporary “clinic.” This trip has been taking place for a few years. The more Josie shares about the experience, the more you realize it is not an approved international experience at your school. In addition, there are several dimensions of the experience that expose the students to risk. As a paid employee of the university, you have a responsibility to share the possible implications with the student of operating without approval and uphold university policy, and yet you also understand the need to honor the safe space agreement everyone entered into for this discussion.
Why the Hell are We Going? Ethical Concerns during Orientation: An Ethics in Action Case Example
(2020-01-13) IUPUI Working Group on Ethical Community Engagement in Global Learning
You are asked to provide a pre-departure orientation on ethical cross-cultural engagement to a student-led service-learning group a few weeks prior to their traveling to Central America. They are traveling under the auspices of an international travel entity of which you know very little. As you present the ethical considerations in cross-cultural engagement, you notice that some of the students, including the student leaders, are becoming uncomfortable. From the questions they ask, you realize that their partner organization is likely violating some of the ethical standards you have just presented. Your concerns include: • What are the dynamics at your university that have allowed this disconnect? • What, if anything, can you do in response to this disconnect? • How do you handle the student’s present discomfort and misgivings? Finally, one of the students asks, “If what you are saying about the ethics of cross-cultural engagement are true, why the hell are we going on this trip?”
Vetting Campus Exhibitors An Ethics in Action Case Example
(2020-01-13) IUPUI Working Group on Ethical Community Engagement in Global Learning
While visiting a campus event, an administrator notices a booth for a local organization that offers service programs in a variety of locations around the world. The administrator has worked with this organization before and has concerns about the group and the experiences they offer. As the administrator considers the situation, she notes several concerns. These include: 1) volunteers are operating outside the scope of their knowledge 2) host community members are not treated as equal partners in the project 3) the services the group provides don’t seem to meet the needs of the local community. Based on these concerns, the administrator reaches out to the event organizer and alerts them to the concerns. She also suggests that it would be helpful to have a review process for outside organizations that want to exhibit at the event. While the event organizers acknowledge their own concerns with this local volunteer sending organization, they aren’t sure that a implementing an exhibitor review process is practical for event staff.
When Partners Have Real Autonomy - Managing a Program Cancellation: An Ethics in Action Case Example
(2020-01-13) IUPUI Working Group on Ethical Community Engagement in Global Learning
You are the program manager for a medical student clinical rotation that occurs in a developing country. This program embeds US medical students, under the supervision of local physicians, into government-sponsored health care facilities for low income families. One month before the beginning of your program, you receive word from your local partner that the government has temporarily suspended the necessary approvals for foreign doctors and students to see patients in government hospitals and clinics. Though the government says the suspension is for the reevaluation of such programs, there are rumors that this action may be in retaliation to recent US foreign policy.
Conflicted Faculty Advisor: An Ethics in Action Case Example
(2020-01-13) IUPUI Working Group on Ethical Community Engagement in Global Learning
You are the faculty advisor for a university-recognized national undergraduate student organization that participates in global health volunteerism each year. Students state that they typically participate in the program because they are excited about immersing themselves in a new culture, learning new health care practices and systems, and helping locals gain access to medical care. As students begin preparations for this year’s trip, you come across a news report detailing some unethical practices uncovered by commercial global health volunteerism programs. Some of the students recall witnessing similar behaviors on previous trips. As you discuss ethical practices with students, you begin to question some of the activities that the national organization endorses and in which students have engaged. When discussing your concerns, students present you with questions about their roles in global health volunteerism; what responsibilities they have to the program, the community, and themselves; and how to ensure that participants recognize and engage in ethical behaviors. The students' inquiries prompt you to question your role and responsibilities as a faculty advisor. Do you have the time and capacity to offer the support and guidance they appear to need?

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