Participation Type
Paper
Session Title
Session 8.08 Health, Mental Health, Poverty and Activism
Presentation #1 Title
Helping and Shaming the Homeless: Experiences from a Service Learning Course in Appalachia
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Service learning courses have to simultaneously cater to the needs of institutions that offer volunteer opportunities, communities and individuals who use the services delivered by these institutions as well as students who stand to gain from expanded learning opportunities that transcend the borders of the classroom. In this way, students who volunteer at these places also become agents who performatively reinforce institutional ethical values through their service work. In an Appalachian context, these types of courses offer tremendous opportunities for tackling problems plaguing communities without many resources. However, if the students' ability to engage with local problems and produce knowledge becomes partially realized and framed through the institutional imperatives of the organization in which they volunteer, it is important to not only investigate the extent to which these establishments empower or disempower communities but also what types of epistemologies they tacitly promote. It is by examining the experiences of freshmen composition students, volunteering at a homeless shelter in Appalachia, that this paper will seek to highlight how codified institutional practices can unwittingly further disempower community members in need of help as well as contradict the ethical imperatives espoused by the service learning course. The paper will further suggest strategies for confronting problematic institutional practices in a way that safeguards the deontological exigencies of a service learning class while providing meaningful help to the communities and organizations that make such forms of pedagogy possible.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Mich Yonah Nyawalo is an Assistant Professor of World Literature at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor’s and Master of Arts degrees in English (with specializations in literature, sociolinguistics and cultural studies) at West University and Gothenburg University (respectively) in Sweden and completed his second Master’s as well as a Ph.D. in comparative literature with a focus on media and globalization studies at the Pennsylvania State University.
Helping and Shaming the Homeless: Experiences from a Service Learning Course in Appalachia
Harris Hall 236
Service learning courses have to simultaneously cater to the needs of institutions that offer volunteer opportunities, communities and individuals who use the services delivered by these institutions as well as students who stand to gain from expanded learning opportunities that transcend the borders of the classroom. In this way, students who volunteer at these places also become agents who performatively reinforce institutional ethical values through their service work. In an Appalachian context, these types of courses offer tremendous opportunities for tackling problems plaguing communities without many resources. However, if the students' ability to engage with local problems and produce knowledge becomes partially realized and framed through the institutional imperatives of the organization in which they volunteer, it is important to not only investigate the extent to which these establishments empower or disempower communities but also what types of epistemologies they tacitly promote. It is by examining the experiences of freshmen composition students, volunteering at a homeless shelter in Appalachia, that this paper will seek to highlight how codified institutional practices can unwittingly further disempower community members in need of help as well as contradict the ethical imperatives espoused by the service learning course. The paper will further suggest strategies for confronting problematic institutional practices in a way that safeguards the deontological exigencies of a service learning class while providing meaningful help to the communities and organizations that make such forms of pedagogy possible.
