Community-Based Transformational Learning: An Interdisciplinary Inquiry into Student Experiences and Challenges

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Description

Rooted in the work of community school collaborations, this text focuses on connecting the rigors of the classroom with the ambiguity of lived community experience. Community-Based Transformational Learning (CBTL) draws on the increasing evidence that course-learning conducted in an applied, community setting, can positively transform students professional and personal identity and creates new ways of thinking and working in university courses and pre-professional experiences. To illustrate the different ways to successfully implement community-based learning, examples are provided of experiences integrated in courses across multiple disciplines across an American university whose mission is focused on teaching. Topics covered include refugee and immigration transition issues, incarceration and health needs with international examples of community experiences from Jamaica, Korea and Belize. Qualitative and quantitative data depict how these experiences impact students and each chapter presents how community engagement has been established as an effective approach in the different disciplines, including computer science and sports management. The authors demonstrate how CBTL experiences can be transformative when students are provided a chance to connect the academic commitment to community aims, but also provides suggestions for overcoming challenges and pit-falls in developing these experiences.

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A much-needed interdisciplinary exploration of the promises and challenges of engaged pedagogies in diverse geographies and digital communities. Especially energizing and instructive for faculty working together to ensure a standard of engagement across their university, including an institutionalized commitment to sustainable, reciprocal, and just practices for community-based transformative learning. * Emily Nemeth, Assistant Professor of Education, Denison University, USA *

Author Bio

Christian Winterbottom is Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of North Florida, USA. Jody S. Nicholson is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of North Florida, USA. F. Dan Richard is Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Office of Faculty Engagement at the University of North Florida, USA.