Experiencing Service-Learning

6. Service Learning and Transformational Change

Chapter 6 Service-Learning and Transformational Change Some students initiate or are involved in transformational change projects. They seek what Argyris, Putnam, and Smith (1985, ch. 2) call “double loop learning.” Unlike single loop learning, which improves the level of information thatonetransmitsbutdoesn’tchangeorganizationalvalues,doublelooplearning changes organizational values, and that is what some students may seek to do. Students may come up against an obstacle to what they feel is an important project and attempt a transformational change project to remove the barrier. Transformational change, based on Type II learning (Argyris et al 1985), involves not doing more of the same things better and faster but changing the cultural mind-set of the school, neighborhood, or educational system. An option not previously considered is now seen as reasonable or possible. Although there is often a need to challenge the educational establishment when one is creating a new program, challenging the establishment is rare in our experience with service-learning. One usually transforms oneself and another person; the goal is not generally to effect transformation at the institutional or culture level. The sensing-reflecting-acting learning model can be used for major change projects as well as for one-on-one work with mentees. The students who describe their projects in this chapter sensed the situation, reflected on possible courses of action, acted, and then recycled their thinking back through the sensing-reflecting-acting process. These service-learners are transformational leaders in the action learning process. Tichy and Devanna (1986) describe the qualities of transformational leaders as follows: 1. They identify themselves as change agents. 2. They are courageous individuals and prudent risk takers, and they are willing to take a stand. 3. They believe in people. 4. They are value driven. 122 Service Learning and Transformational Change 5. They are lifelong learners and can learn from mistakes. 6. They can deal with complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty. 7. They are visionaries. Action learning by students and faculty who do not accept the dominant cultural paradigm in the community can highlight a need, inspire action on an issue, and create transformational change. The service-learners described in this book were transformational in that they refused to accept the frame of reference of the authority or dominant culture and acted within another frame of reference. Transformational leaders attempt to change the culture by working through the culture. To those affected by the change, the new way is often perceived as uncomfortable, and the benefits may be long in coming . A transformational change may not work well immediately, but at some point the program accelerates and has a ripple effect through the system for important collective benefit. Or the change may come to a slow halt because a benefit did not materialize, or it may die because significant stakeholders opposed the project and were able to kill it. Transforming School Health Care The school can be more than a place where reading, writing, and arithmetic are taught. Schools, especially Title I urban schools, may take on aspects of a human service agency to meet the needs of the whole child. The child’s health is foundational to effective learning; children who miss school also miss learning and socializing opportunities. Therefore, keeping students healthy is an important component of enhanced learning. Health care for Title I children is often precarious. School clinics in Knoxville are often staffed by parents and volunteers, with a school nurse generally on site for half a day each week. Nurses are usually the only school personnel certified to perform procedures such as giving injections to students with diabetes. This means that a large portion of a nurse’s time at the school is spent performing such procedures and handling paperwork, leaving little time to deal with the regular scrapes, headaches, and stomachaches that children have. In schools without a strong parental presence, there is no functioning school clinic. When the school nurse is absent, the office staff and teachers become responsible for handling any health concerns that may Service Learning and Transformational Change 123 arise during the school day, on top of their regular duties, which means less attention is paid to the teaching-learning function. This makes health clinics a central tenet of the concept of full-service schools. In the stories that follow , we see how three proactive service-learners—Gigi Youngblood, Michele Gourley, and Michael Catalana—made a school clinic a reality. GIGI YOUNGBLOOD AND THE...