| Engaged Pedagogy and Civic Engagement |
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Swasti Bhattacharyya, Buena Vista University
Civic Engagement Projects in the Religious Studies ClassroomAs an applied ethicist, I am concerned with both the content of what students learn and how they choose to apply, or not to apply, their knowledge. An overarching yet somewhat unassessable goal I have set for my students is for them to become actively engaged in the world in which they live: for them to be engaged citizens. Through a Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion grant project, entitled “Pedagogies for Civic Engagement,” I was given the opportunity to explore how a classroom context could encourage students to become more civically engaged. As part of my participation in this grant, I designed a “Civic Engagement Project” (CEP) for an environmental ethics class (PHIL 340).
In addition, individually each student was required to:
This CEP assignment was introduced at the beginning of the semester, when we had a brief discussion regarding the purpose behind the project and the general idea of civic engagement itself. Throughout the semester, students were encouraged to think of topics, types of projects they would like to create, and the groups they would like to form. During the tenth week of the semester, the students formed groups, selected specific topics and intended audiences, and began designing their projects. They utilized the course material and additional research to develop their presentations. The topics of the final CEPs included how to reduce one’s carbon footprint, the importance of trees and other vegetation, production and use of energy (with specific focus on coal mining), puppy mills, how nitrates and phosphates threaten wetlands and create dead zones (specifically in the Gulf of Mexico — this was, of course, before the current BP disaster), and sustainability. The CEPs themselves varied: panel discussions consisting of faculty and community experts, a signature drive on a letter to members of the Iowa State House and Senate, a tree planting event, presentations to various audiences — one group created a presentation for a local high school senior science class — and a meditation/trash pick-up event. Most of the student journal entries indicated that the CEP assignment made them aware of their responsibility and their ability to act on the issues important to them. A number of students expressed sentiments similar to the following: “The most important element I learned from this assignment was that making an impact in the community and educating others is not very hard... with all the problems in the world and the need for people to be educated, I would think that more groups would try to help the community and campus by doing a project like we did.” Through this assignment, the students had the opportunity to take a stand on an issue, to present it, and to see that, through their willingness to educate themselves and others, they can influence how people think and act. They saw how they could make their voice heard and that people actually listened. Their comments indicated that they recognized that they were learning about something important, they had an increased awareness of their own actions, and, for many, they gained perspectives that would serve them in the future, both in and out of the classroom. There are two primary reasons I designed the Civic Engagement Project. First, it fulfilled a pedagogical commitment I have had for a number of years. During my first year of teaching in a full-time, tenure-track position, a colleague said to me, “Swasti, just because you lecture it, does not mean they are going to get it.” The truth of these words, and the discussions that followed, transformed the way I teach. Through subsequent research, conferences, and faculty development workshops, I have become convinced of what much of the literature is saying regarding “learning centered,” “engaged,” “embodied,” and “transformative” pedagogies. In the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) data, for example, Bain, Brookfield, Lakey, Wagner, and many others indicate that there is a clear correlation between the degree of student engagement and student learning: the more students are involved in their learning process, the more they actually learn and retain. While I still prepare copious notes and mini-lectures, my focus in the classroom is now on creating an environment in which the students have the opportunity to engage the material critically, to present the ideas expressed in it accurately, to discover their own questions and articulate their own answers, and ultimately to have a transformative learning experience. David Concepción and Juli Thorson Eflin define a pedagogy as truly learning-centered “when its primary attention is to the experience students have; learning-centered pedagogies think most about how they will get students to do things that are valuable for the students to do” (188). They indicate how carefully designing assignments that inspire students to ask questions rather than merely requiring them to list answers may better prepare them to be critical thinkers, to have a deeper understanding of issues, and to actively engage the world in which they live. Being part of the learning process that enables our students — and us — to be productive, involved citizens in our democratic society is the second reason I designed the CEP assignment. In our application for our Wabash grant, for example, we acknowledged the following: “Contemporary conversations around higher education and civic engagement highlight the importance of fostering students’ critical thinking as future citizens, providing public spaces for open discussion and exchange of ideas, and promoting civic engagement by involving students in activist pedagogies and/or service-learning.” Through the CEP assignment, students not only had the opportunity to learn particular content regarding their selected topics; they were also participating in a process of becoming engaged citizens through the projects themselves. They were taking public stands in a carefully articulated, well-grounded manner, educating their peers and members of a broader public, and encouraging others to take some kind of action as well. For several students, this proved to be a transformative experience. According to the theorist Jack Mezirow, “transformation theory” focuses “on how we learn to negotiate and act on our own purposes, values…rather than those we have uncritically assimilated from others — to gain greater control over our lives as socially responsible, clear-thinking decision makers. As such it has particular relevance for learning in contemporary societies that share democratic values” (8). The CEP assignment was grounded in just such an idea. The students were not just memorizing facts or reading about how to do something; they were actually doing it. Through this experience, the students worked together, established their own values and the purposes of their respective projects, developed their arguments, and chose how to present it. They were participating in a democratic process. A few of the projects even directly engaged the political system. For example, a “puppy mill bill” was before the Iowa State legislators, and the students ran an information and signature campaign calling for the passage of this bill. And the end result was a letter, signed by over sixty individuals, to their local House Representatives and Senators. As I design each of my classes, I ask myself, “In twenty years, what might a student remember?” In a lower-division “Religions of Asia” course, is it of utmost importance that they memorize the four stages or goals of life, each element of the Eightfold Path, or the particular teachings of Honen or Shinran? These are facts and ideas they can look up if forgotten. However, if they come to appreciate that there are a variety of religious worldviews and that it is worth their time and energy to try and understand their colleagues, neighbors, or friends who view the world differently than they do, this is good. Additionally, in my ethics courses, if students become more conscious of the decisions they are making in their daily lives, and take greater responsibility for these decisions, this is good. A number of students seem to have an “all or nothing” attitude: “If we cannot have world peace right now, then forget it.” However, if through their academic studies they come to realize that one does not have to change the entire world to make a real difference, this too is good. If, through their college career, students learn to critically and accurately understand the material before them, and to clearly articulate their own questions and ideas regarding this material, this is very good. A student with these experiences will not only have the necessary skills to be responsible, actively engaged citizens; they will also have the ability to transform themselves and the world around them (on this point, see Tony Wagner’s 7 Survival Skills). From all of the above, it is obvious that I believe in “student-centered learning,” “embodied,” “engaged,” and “transformational” pedagogical strategies. However, I must confess that I do struggle. There are certain ideas, facts, and concepts that I want students to know coming out of particular courses. So I sometimes struggle to find the balance between focusing on their questions, perspectives, and experiences and what I want them to know. There are times, if particular issues or ideas have not surfaced from the students themselves, when I will explicitly bring them up and insist that students learn them. But I also have to remind myself that, just because I want them to know something or even if they get an “A” on a test I set for them, it does not mean they have actually learned it. As I listen and watch my mentors utilize more learning-centered pedagogical strategies, I admire their ability to trust the process and the students. I continue to work toward that same level of trust. Even with the challenges that accompany these pedagogical strategies, students seem to appreciate what they learned in the course. Often it was in the challenging and uncomfortable situations that transformative learning occurred. When students are transformed by what they confront in a classroom, when they have their own experiences of struggling through difficult ideas and making a difference, then these experiences can accompany them out of the classroom into the world. I remain committed to learning more and implementing these strategies in my classrooms because, ultimately, learning-centered, engaged, and transformational learning environments break down the separation between the “classroom” and the “real world.” During a “Transformational Teaching” presentation at the 2009 Peace and Justice Studies Association conference, George Lakey emphasized how the immediate situations within the classroom provide the students with opportunities to engage the process of living. According to him, the “vividness and immediacy of transformational learning experience invites application.” Through the CEP assignment discussed in this article, students were no longer simply reading a text, or talking about a particular issue; they were actively applying what they read in a meaningful project of their own design. The students’ classroom experience not only had them developing and demonstrating skills necessary for the real world; it had them engaging that real world directly. |
Swasti Bhattacharyya is associate professor of religion at Buena Vista University. She teaches courses in various world religions, applied ethics, and nonviolence, peace, and justice. She has published in the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, contributed chapters to several books, and is the author of Magical Progeny, Modern Technology: A Hindu Bioethics of Assisted Reproductive Technology (State University of New York Press, 2006). Her current project focuses on the living legacy of Vinoba Bhave and sarvodaya. Bhattacharyya serves as cochair of the AAR Bioethics and Religion Group and as a member of the AAR Teaching and Learning Committee.