Service Learning in Interpreter Education: Strategies for Extending Student Involvement in the Deaf Community

CHAPTER 1

14 C H A P T E R 1 Conceptual Framework Learning in the Context of Social Capital and Spatial Theory Starting Point A society characterized by generalized reciprocity is more efficient than a distrustful society, for the same reason that money is more efficient than barter. If we don’t have to balance every exchange instantly, we can get a lot more accomplished. Trustworthiness lubricates social life. Frequent interaction among a diverse set of people tends to produce a norm of generalized reciprocity. Civic engagement and social capital entail mutual obligation and responsibility for action. For the first two-thirds of the twentieth century a powerful tide bore Americans into even deeper engagement in the life of their communities, but a few decades ago—silently, without warning—that tide reversed and we were overtaken by a treacherous rip current. Without at first noticing, we have been pulled apart from one another and from our communities over the last third of the century. Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone Service-Learning Synopsis Duncan and Kopperud (2008) identify four traits specific to service learning : (a) commitment to community partnership, (b) learning and academic rigor, (c) intentional reflective thinking, and (d) practice of civic responsibility . When adapted to student interpreters, these traits mean first that students will make a commitment to partner with the Deaf community, perhaps with an affiliate chapter of the National Association of the Deaf, the National Black Deaf Advocates, other national organizations, a school for Deaf students, or a local Deaf club. Academic rigor refers to the requirement Slie_01.indd 14 Slie_01.indd 14 2/11/2013 10:35:20 AM 2/11/2013 10:35:20 AM Conceptual Framework 15 that students conduct a thorough search of scholarly literature to develop their personal schemas on issues that concern the community. They gain valuable experience by using their institutions’ resources to find the facts that pertain to the Deaf community at large. On a local level, students interact with Deaf leaders or active community members to determine whether the issues they perceive to be problematic are indeed perceived as such by the community. Academic rigor also refers to the fact that the service-learning experience is enhanced by “higher-level critical thinking skills such as analyzing, reasoning, decision making, problem solving, investigating , and synthesizing” (Duncan & Kopperud, p. 13). This requires students to do an extensive amount of reading on the related topics, using online resources (other than noncredible Internet sites) and library databases and discussing what they learn with other students. A third characteristic of service learning is critical reflection. Reflective thinking requires students to articulate the learning experience, clarify their future role in the Deaf community as professional interpreters, embrace the goals and missions of organizations operated by Deaf leaders, empower the Deaf community through collaboration, and identify unconscious ways in which interpreters might perpetuate oppression and discrimination. Reflection is more than simply documenting a course of events. It is analyzing one’s personal journey into a new space and articulating the process rather than tangible facts. Chapter 6 explains how students learn through critical reflection. Civic responsibility might be the most difficult trait for interpreting students to acquire because it appears to contradict the engrained distance that interpreters supposedly maintain from the Deaf community in order to remain in the role of a professional. The key term here is responsibility because it implies that service learning is not a choice but a duty. It is not something that needs to occur because it is a good idea, nor is it a onetime , short-term effort. Basically, students (and as practitioners in the field) will come to realize they have a place in the Deaf community where they can work consistently throughout their careers without exerting power and privilege or in any other way compromising the trust that has been placed in them as interpreters. Indisputably, the concept and purpose of service-learning partnerships may be elusive, at least at first. This was confounded by the lack of a Slie_01.indd 15 Slie_01.indd 15 2/11/2013 10:35:20 AM 2/11/2013 10:35:20 AM 16 Foundations of Service Learning standard,profession-specificdefinitionwhenprogramsstartedimplementing changes in this direction in the early 1990s. Howard’s (2001) principles of academic service learning helped us formulate the conceptual framework within which we operate today. He accentuates the premise of intellectual rigor that holds students accountable for their...