RESEARCH IN THE SERVICE OF CO‐LEARNING: SUSTAINABILITY AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

This research, conducted with an introductory sociology class at the University of British Columbia during the 2001‐2002 academic year, explored community service‐ learning as a pedagogy and philosophy. The theoretical focus of this paper is Nancy Fraser’s (1997) criticisms of Jurgen Habermas’ (1992) bourgeois liberal model of the public sphere. We analyzed the class experiences with community service that emerged from students’ contributions to a database of community organizations, concept maps, and a student‐driven course evaluation. The outcomes of this research include a description of potentially useful course strategies and a narrative of a unique type of community‐service learning. Key words: community‐service learning, public sphere, citzenship, learning Cette recherche menée dans le cadre d’un cours d’introduction à la sociologie à l’Université de Colombie‐Britannique au cours de l’année universitaire 2001‐2002 portait sur l’apprentissage par l’engagement communautaire en tant que pédagogie et philosophie. La théorie sous‐jacente à cet article est tirée des critiques de Nancy Fraser (1997) au sujet du modèle libéral bourgeois de la sphère publique de Jurgen Habermas (1992). Les auteurs ont analysé les expériences du service communautaire qu’ont pu vivre les étudiants à travers leurs contributions à une base de données d’organisations communautaires, à des cartes conceptuelles et à une évaluation du cours. Les résultats de cette recherche comprennent une description de stratégies pédagogiques potentiellement utiles et un récit portant sur un type unique d’apprentissage par l’engagement communautaire Mots clés: apprentissage par l’engagement communautaire, sphère publique, citoyenneté, apprentissage

A Synthesis of the Research on Community Service Learning in Preservice Science Teacher Education

Despite recent recommendations urging stronger connections between teacher education programs and their communities, few studies have examined the potential of community service learning (CSL) within science teacher education. The paper aims to: understand how CSL is conceptualized in preservice science teacher education contexts; identify the various ways that CSL is integrated within courses; examine stated outcomes for preservice science teachers, and; explore how research on CSL has been carried out in science teacher education. To better inform science teacher education, the authors embarked upon a research synthesis of relevant articles within preservice science teacher education. Six main findings emerged from the synthesis: 1) different science teacher education programs define CSL similarly, 2) preservice science teachers’ engagement with CSL is primarily reported as being beneficial, 3) mixed outcomes are reported in preservice teachers’ self-efficacy, confidence, and attitudes toward teaching science, 4) challenges, if reported, tend to be from the perspective of preservice teachers, 5) several common teaching strategies are employed to support the CSL experience, and 6) case study is the most typical research methodology for studying CSL, where the researchers are the instructors of their own CSL courses. These findings are significant for the ongoing development of science teacher knowledge and programmatic directions for the integration of community in science teacher education

Education for Sustainability, Transformational Learning Time and the Individual <–> Collective Dialectic

In the interest of developing sustainability practitioners, this manuscript challenges the conceptualization of transformative learning for Education for Sustainability (EfS) in relation to single courses or programs. Conversely, I will argue that becoming a sustainability practitioner (i.e., someone who takes action in the interest of the sustainability movement) is life-long and life-wide commitment. Time and how and why it matters is addressed. To develop this point, this manuscript details a case study of an education for sustainability graduate program that I designed and currently lead. The purpose is to further theorize transformative learning as it links individual action(s) and collective change(s) in the border-like but permeable spaces that are in-between. It asks the practical question of the ways educators (and practitioners) might expansively and generatively work together in creating a lifetime of classrooms to continuously bridge individual action and collective change.</jats:p

Social leveraging of the 2010 Olympic Games: “sustainability” in a City of Vancouver initiative

Heightened inter-city competition for hosting sport mega-events has increased the involvement of levels of government. Governments are seeking to achieve public policy objectives using the sport mega-event as a vehicle to do so. The emergence of the concept of social leveraging is important to understand the involvement of host governments in attempts to amend, fast-track, or generate new public policy, curriculum, community programmes, and demonstration projects. This article presents a case study of the City of Vancouver’s newly emerging post-Olympic Greenest City initiative. The purpose of this case study of social leveraging is to better understand this concept in the context of hosting the 2010 Olympic Games and the City of Vancouver’s development of a sustainability business brand. This case study is explored according to Chalip and O’Brien and Chalip’s framework of social leveraging. Case study analysis offers evidence that suggests that social leveraging does conceptualize the efforts by government hosts to maximize benefits from their intensive investments in sport mega-events. Findings also extend the exploratory framework of social leveraging by considering additional leverageable resources that government officials utilize, especially as these resources might fast-track policy objectives. Our research also suggests amending the sequence of and the parts of this framework in order to elaborate on social leveraging as an iterative rather than linear process.status: publishe