February (January 18-February 17, 2001)

• ïContinue monitoring and facilitating pilot projects
• ïProvide instructors and organizations with assessment materials
• ïEvaluate Assessment materials in terms of the goals of the project
• ïDisseminate information about the project
• ïContinue planning for sustainability

Work Done

In order to meet the above goals for the month, I:

• Met or corresponded via email with participating instructors and community organizations to ascertain how projects were going and if I could provide additional support
• Assembled evaluation and assessment materials for the *website and sent relevant materials to participants
• Worked on evaluation instruments for the methodology itself, with set goal to have instruments in progress and available for review by mid-March.
• Began modifying instruments to reflect goals of projects and adaptability for participants (to be available by mid-March)
• Coordinated and presented at the University of Arizona's Southwest Project on "Service Learning and the Southwest Project," including an overview of my own project (see http://www.u.arizona.edu/~danika/SWPresources.html).
• Presented at the University English Department's statewide "Fundamental Controversies/Spring Conference" on my methodology with panelists of participants from the local project
• Pitched proposal for sustained center to a group of faculty from various disciplines and from a sister college (Arizona International College)
• Continued working on *web and print materials for local project and final product

 

Accomplishments:

Developing materials

I have received positive feedback from the community organizations regarding the "issue" resource pages. Many of the organizations have made great suggestions for additions and I am working those in and hope to see those pages grow as the projects are developed. I have envisioned those pages as a "historical record" of sorts regarding local coalition and action building as well as a way to track local issues in relation to other issues. I hope to add critical analyses of those issues later (but not necessarily as part of this particular phase of the project).
 

The instructors' use of the resources has been a bit difficult to track. The feedback I have received has been positive and instructors are providing the web addresses for their students. I have disseminated some of the resources at various other venues (such as at the Southwest Project and Spring Conference, as well as over various listservs), and have found the response to be that instructors find those links extremely valuable in pulling together course content.
 

The feedback on the project site itself, as a whole, has been very positive. I have been surprised to find that many people who have not been able to participate directly in the pilot project are utilizing the website and following the project's progress from the webpages. This indicates to me that the website will play an essential role in the methodology itself in terms of providing information, ideas, resources, and contacts to people.
 

Monitor Pilot projects

I have been in contact with the most active of the project participants and have been apprized of their project parameters and how they feel it is going. For example:

• Zoe Hammer-Tamizuka (graduate student researcher) is partnered with the Prisons Concerns Committee of American Friends Service Committee (Caroline Isaacs). They have worked out a research plan for Zoe's dissertation that will complement the work they need on a current project to analyze the implications of privatized immigrant prisons in the state. Zoe will help coordinate education programs regarding this situation throughout the state at the same time that she is utilizing and shaping her research for academic conferences, publications, and dissertation work.
• Curtis Ferree (English instructor) has worked with local labor representatives from the workshop group (Leith Kahl) to develop a unit that will include community presentations to his class on the issue of mining labor. He developed his unit with the input of community members in terms of literary readings/films related to the issue and for ways of framing the current context of the situation.
• Danielle Mitchell (English Instructor) has developed an approach to her Business Writing course that has students working with nonprofits analyzing the nonprofit sector's role in social change. She was able to provide contacts from this project and will work closely with those organizations as students develop their research projects. For example, one student is working with Pan Left productions (Jeff Imig), and Danielle will work directly with him to ensure the student is conducting an appropriate project.
• Elaine Mariolle is working with Marv Waterstone's Geography course to develop projects related to local geography related initiatives (such as the Rio Nuevo project). She has had several meetings with him and they are discussing ways to effectively integrate the projects into the students' work.
• I am working with Karin Uhlich to develop a "Day Labor" curriculum to implement next fall, integrating research and advocacy, historical and analytical materials to contribute to the work being done to understand day labor in the community as well as to allow students to analyze larger economic systems as they formulate responses to controversial issues.
• I am also working the Public Health program's Native American Service Learning Project-a contact I have just made through my Southwest Project presentation to develop a connection between their service learning program and the distance education course in Business Writing that I have developed this year.

What I am most inspired by in watching these projects unfold is the developing potential of each. My hope at the beginning of this methodology was to have at least several actual partnerships enacted and followed through on, and to set in motion the possibility for sustainability and expansion. I feel like several of the project partnerships are nicely contained semester long activities and many others promise to be long lasting relationships with very innovative possibilities for impacting course structures and program deliveries (the public health partnership above could prove to have significant potential and implications for both programs and the communities they serve).
 

Research and Theory Development

I finished my comprehensive exams for the PhD program this month, and in the writing, synthesizing, arguing, and oral defense conversations that came out of that process, I have found that my theoretical framework and direction has proven to be productive and rich. I have been doing the difficult work of complicating and critiquing the critical theory that I work with through the work of the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. One of my early academic papers on service learning was based on the work of Levinas, and in the comps process, I finally was able to focus a great deal of intellectual energy on contemplating what this theory means for institutional change, working in communities, and addressing social/political issues.
 

The intensity of the theoretical work I have been doing recently has, unfortunately, slowed me down on some of my practical tasks, however, the work has proven absolutely essential in terms of revisioning what I hope to accomplish with this methodology in general and at the local level.
 

One of the major benefits of my evaluation of what has occurred in the project over the past months (since the beginning of the semester), is my recognition that institutional structures are ubiquitous. For example, one of the elements that has most frustrated many of the instructor participants is the actual course structures on a program level that make integrating certain types of activities difficult. My analysis of this situation has led me to an added element of the project (through the evaluation process and in terms of sustainability considerations). A significant goal over the next couple of months will be to include "alternative" course structures in the methodology. That is, I will be proposing actual models of course structures that do not mimic current structures, but do address the specific course goals of those programs. I am most able to do this in the composition program (first year composition and business writing, specifically), but will be working with other instructors to develop models for other disciplines as well. I don't think I originally considered what an obstacle to this work the actual course structures would prove to be. I have recognized that a valuable part of the methodology would be to provide ways to think about not only curricula, but the way a course is itself structured as we create service learning opportunities.

Avenues for Sustainability and Dissemination

I am currently brainstorming the proposal for a permanent center, (the "Outerversity") with faculty, students, and community organizations as well as several grantwriters. I have committed myself to seeing this center become a reality and plan to have operational parameters hammered out by this summer. I have several colleagues who have committed to working with me on this project. In my comprehensive exams, I had the opportunity to articulate the proposal within a theoretical framework and the committee was most enthusiastic about the project. The benefit of the structure I have suggested is that it works in partnership with existing institutions, albeit separate from them, in order to facilitate alternative connections, resource sharing, and the development of new community projects.
 

I am still revising two articles to submit for publication in the next couple of months, but have not submitted for any additional conferences. I will be a workshop facilitator at the Sex, Race, and Globalization's spring conference on "Collective Action," and will have the opportunity in those workshops to disseminate my project materials. I will be participating, as well, in a March conference hosted by the Sociology program tying community organizing to academic work. This should be a significant site of networking and dissemination. Ed Zlotowski will be the keynote speaker for this event.

TO DO

• Continue assessment of the project
• Complete and publish revised instruments for project participants
• Hold final workshops
• Gather write up and evaluation materials from participants
• Continue developing local and final product materials.

I'm not sure I have additional reflection other than that which is incorporated in the materials above. I have found myself disappointed at times with the participation level and discouraged now and then that I have had to focus energy on theoretical work at the expense of attending community events and nurturing my community relationships. However, I forget that the workshops were intended to get balls rolling and that the people involved are committed and active members of their particular communities. I am always gratified and surprised a little when I get updates from various participants and realize just how much they have accomplished in the last couple of months. I am also inspired by the possibilities that this project has opened up and very much looking forward to pursuing and nurturing those potential projects.
 

I am most happy about my own progress in terms of thinking about alternative approaches that do not ignore the institutional structures that already dominate. This approach to thinking through my project and future directions has made those alternatives clear possibilities rather than optimistic "what ifs...."
 

My goal over the next month is to get back on the groundwork and do more of the face to face facilitation that I did at the beginning of the project along with focusing on producing materials that will be extremely useful, not only in the local context, but more importantly as a reproduceable approach to integrating community and academic work, bridging institutions for the benefit of both.