International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Volume 3, Number 1, January 2009
Return
to current issues pageResearch Article
Excerpt
Teaching Social Justice through Community Engagement
This research was motivated by our desire for our students
to achieve a deeper appreciation for the social justice aspect of our
field, adult education, and also to engage them with the community.
We sought to accomplish these ends as students at two different state
universities volunteered to build a home with Habitat for Humanity.
Data was collected using focus groups and reflective papers and analyzed
using a constant-comparative method. We found that student engagement
with Habitat for Humanity resulted in students’ personal growth
and to a lesser extent they learned something about the potential of
adult education to contribute to a more equitable and just society.
View
Full ArticleBios
Rosemary Closson
University of South Florida
Tampa, Florida, USA
Closson@coedu.usf.edu
I am an assistant professor in the Adult, Career and Higher Education
Department at the University of South Florida where I teach graduate
foundational courses in adult education and human resource development.
My research focus is on learning from experience in the formal, nonformal
and informal sectors, including higher education classrooms and continuing
education programs. Currently I am researching what White students might
learn about race and racism when they are in the minority.
My interest in learning from experience stems from my own continued
reflection
on powerful experiences that affected me throughout my living and teaching
in the United States and in several African countries. I received my
Ph.D. along with a certificate in Program Evaluation from Florida State
University.
Barbara Mullins Nelson
University of Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee, USA
bmullins@memphis.edu
I am a professor in Higher and Adult Education at the University of Memphis where I teach online and classroom based graduate level courses in adult education and learning, education and community, and international and comparative adult education. My research interests are in nonformal education and experiential learning, especially among culturally diverse people and are a result of more than 25 years as an educator and trainer in the United States, The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and Ghana, West Africa. I received a Ph.D. in Adult Education and a certificate in Human Resource Development from Florida State University, an M.S. from Florida State University and a B.S. from Iowa State University.