|
U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
|||
|
|
|||
| Volume VII, Number 2 |
March, 2002 |
||
|
U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
|||
|
|
|||
| Volume VII, Number 2 |
March, 2002 |
||
|
Department of Administrative &
Policy Studies “For many students, the significance of our work has extended well past the time that we spent together in the seminar and in the field project,” observes Maureen Porter, assistant professor of Administrative and Policy Studies in the School of Education. Established in 2000 and led by Porter, LINCS (Learning Integrated with Needed Construction and Service) demonstrates how service can foster strong ties between very different communities: in this case, Pitt students and Peruvian villagers. A nine-month, bi-annual program, LINCS has attracted about 75 Pitt students from diverse disciplines over the past several years. The current group of students in the course are familiarizing themselves with ethical and leadership issues and the culture of the region, as well as learning a bit of Quechua and Spanish. “I see making the link between experiential education (applied work) and theories as being central to how we want to prepare students,” Porter explains. “The point of why this works is that the course sequence provides experiential education in our areas of theoretical strength. Service-learning, in short, has given real substance to a range of theoretical issues within the field of education, anthropology, and development.” Students themselves relish the opportunity to immerse themselves in a culture and a community that is different from their own. The LINCS program, Porter asserts, exemplifies service-learning as scholarship. She has been able to combine research, service, and teaching through international service-learning. In her research methodology courses on ethnography and qualitative data analysis, Porter emphasizes building collaborative relationships with partners in the field. “Extending this to create service-learning partnerships,” she said, “was a natural way to build on the kinds of field work relationships that we all value.” Porter continued, saying “service-learning exemplifies the kind of reciprocal and respectful relationships that we as scholars want to establish with people in the community as we do research, community development projects and outreach or arts programs together.” Porter and Michael Sandy, director of the Global Service Center, led the University’s first international service-learning program in 1998. “[Sandy] has been the lynchpin for the whole Pitt community, attracting first-year students, as well as doctoral students and faculty,” Porter said. She pointed out that Sandy, who previously concentrated on local and regional service through the Student Volunteer Outreach, has established the Global Service Center as “one of the distinguishing centers at the University that makes us an international player in service-learning. Few other universities have such a strong institutional commitment to both domestic and international service.” Photo: Pitt students Cara Ciminillo and Jamie Phillips lay bricks with Peruvian villager. | |||||||||||||
|
A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh |
||||||||||||||
|
Center for Instructional
Development & Distance Education |
||||||||||||||
