ERIC Number: EJ1095273
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: N/A
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0024-1822
EISSN: N/A
Bearing Witness: Seeing as a Form of Service
Dunn, Deborah
Liberal Education, v100 n2 Spr 2014
In this article, Deborah Dunn reflects on the need to rethink the concepts of service learning. Students are well acquainted with the basic concept of service learning and community engagement, as some form of service or engagement is often required for them to graduate both high school and college these days. The lack of authentic meeting with others in the traditional service-learning models have fallen short in shaping students and the larger society. Dunn suggests that there must be a new seeing, for example: (1) seeing as interpreting, which involves thinking, planning, and learning; and (2) seeing for the sake of others, which involves affirming the humanity and worth of the other, an acknowledgement. Also, students need to learn what bearing witness means. It requires the witness to own a stance in relation to what one has seen. Bearing witness must join one to a body composed of both participants and other witnesses. Service learning programs need to help students to feel compassion, to serve others, to enact certain civic virtues. This will require service learning and community engagement courses, as well as international travel programs to rethink how they cultivate these values and rhythms.
Descriptors: Service Learning, Experiential Learning, High School Students, College Students, Consciousness Raising, Student Attitudes, Social Justice, Foreign Countries, Social Problems, Student Participation
Association of American Colleges and Universities. 1818 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20009. Tel: 800-297-3775; Tel: 202-387-3760; Fax: 202-265-9532; e-mail: pub_desk@aacu.org; Web site: http://www.aacu.org/publications/index.cfm
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education; Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: South Africa; United Kingdom (Northern Ireland)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A