2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Engagement in Practice: Exploring Student and Instructor Perspectives in a Global Service Learning Experience towards a More Reciprocal and Decolonialized Partnership

Presented at Community Engagement Division 3 - Engagement in Practice Lightning Round: Fostering Reciprocal Partnerships and Empowering Change

Human-centered design in service-learning paves the way for systematic community engagement; however, there can be room for interpretation in utilizing the strengths of international peers when focusing on local student development. This pilot assessment explores notions of partnerships, reciprocity and post-colonialism in a global service-learning context that includes a partnership between universities in the U.S. and India, with the intention of enhancing the reciprocity of the collaboration. Current projects led by students in both India and the U.S. involve designing interactive educational modules and products that enhance occupational ergonomics with several rural communities in India. Student teams are advised at their respective universities, and receive feedback on designs from community partners as well as the advisors in India. These partnerships continued and were actually deepened during the panedemic with new dimensions being added while students were remote for part of their experience.

A discussion of this collaboration will include recent anecdotal perspectives of multiple stakeholders, including multi-disciplinary students and university instructors in the U.S. and India, via critical reflection of values, power dynamics, goals and expectations, and incentives for participating. These perspectives paired with asset mapping communities and university groups in both the U.S. and India will enable a consideration of how to best leverage each of the stakeholders in shaping new projects. A primary goal of this assessment is to acknowledge and challenge the unidirectionality of skillsets- where students in both universities cultivate technical skills and apply them in India. Thus, a specific future objective includes developing a new project where students from each university will work together with a community in the U.S. Acknowledging the assets of each collaborator is expected to be mutually beneficial on multiple fronts: to the community partners gaining a service, the students who are allowed to practice while learning from each other and the communities both socially and technically, and the universities that can achieve students with heightened senses of intercultural competencies. Ultimately this case and preliminary assessment will contribute perspectives for future analyses of evolving service learning pedagogy with global partnerships.

Authors

Danielle N. Wagner http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6572-9001 Purdue University, West Lafayette [biography]

Danielle is interested in enabling transparent communication between different members of society, often with an environmental focus to increase access to natural resources. She is currently a graduate student in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University pursuing a PhD in Architectural Engineering with a focus in indoor air quality. She has had several opportunities to engage in education with undergraduates and community members, and has recently been honored to be able practice advising undergraduate service learning teams in EPICS after mentoring and TA'ing teams for several years. Having community-oriented discussions at Purdue, working with human-centered design in her own research, and mentoring student teams inspirited her drive to center community member and partner voices within academic discussions. She is excited to be able to learn from this Engagement in Practice conversation through discussions with partnering IIT institutions, EPICS leadership, and the students.
Dr. William "Bill" C. Oakes http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6183-045X Purdue University, West Lafayette [biography]

William (Bill) Oakes is a 150th Anniversary Professor, the Director of the EPICS Program and one of the founding faculty members of the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. He has held courtesy appointments in Mechanical, Environmental and Ecological Engineering as well as Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education. He is a registered professional engineer and on the NSPE board for Professional Engineers in Higher Education. He has been active in ASEE serving in the FPD, CIP and ERM. He is the past chair of the IN/IL section. He is a fellow of the Teaching Academy and listed in the Book of Great Teachers at Purdue University. He was the first engineering faculty member to receive the national Campus Compact Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service-Learning. He was a co-recipient of the National Academy of Engineering’s Bernard Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education and the recipient of the National Society of Professional Engineers’ Educational Excellence Award and the ASEE Chester Carlson Award. He is a fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education and the National Society of Professional Engineers.
Mr. Ashish Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India [biography]

Ashish had been working with RuTAG IIT Delhi as a P.A. Tech. for the past five years. He has conducted extensive research on rural problems and worked on community-based projects aimed at improving the livelihoods of marginalized people. Ashish's commitment to community development has allowed him to develop strong bonds with the communities he works with, which motivates him to continue contributing to their betterment. Under the guidance of Prof. Saha, he has also mentored over 450 undergraduate and graduate students for their internships at RuTAG during 2021 and 2022, helping to foster the next generation of community-minded engineers. Ashish's work at RuTAG has given him a deep understanding of the challenges faced by rural communities, and his research aims to provide sustainable solutions that address issues such as social acceptance, women's empowerment, and economic and ergonomic improvements. His recent interactions with Purdue's EPICS teams have inspired him to explore global institutional collaborations as a means of solving complex social problems with his commitment to community development and his drive to create positive change.

Download paper (669 KB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session