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Learning Political Engagement from the Experts: Advocacy Groups, Neighborhood Councils, and Constituency Service
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Freyss
2
T
his paper describes a new, quite successful approach to service learning introduced in a lower-
division, general education (GE) course in American and California state government. The project, first undertaken in the fall quarter 2001 and then again in winter 2003, involvedadvocacy organizations, a municipal citizen empowerment department, as well as the district offices of elected officials. The report explains the approach, evaluates the course based on survey responses, identifies reasons for its success, and points out some limits encountered. The paper is detailed and follows the tradition of Battistoni & Hudson (1997, p. 1) and others in sharing insights into the theory and practice of service learning in political science, so that advantages and limits of this form of experiential learning can be made transparent.
1
After an activist start in the 60s and 70s, service learning in more recent years has, to a great extent, evolved into charitable, care-taking, mentoring, or tutoring work, as the testimonies by pioneers indicate (Stanton, Giles, and Cruz, 1999). High school and college students are asked to do volunteer work in nonprofit organizations to help needy children and adults. That is the “service” part of the service-learning mission. In political science courses the “learning” component is introduced by asking the students to reflect on the causes of poverty or of other deficiencies, to study the public policies that alleviate or fail to resolve the problems, and to device strategies advocating on behalf of the needy.
Service learning is different from internships, although overlapping objectives can occur. Internships are intended to prepare students for future employment and to provide some work experience to improve the students’ chances of getting hired. In contrast, service learning is intended to prepare young people for their future role as responsible citizens as well as to generate a sense of community and a link to social groups the students might otherwise not come in contact with.
The wish to introduce students at the California State University, Los Angeles, to political institutions that may be beyond the students’ cognitive horizon was the central reason for pursuing the pilot project. It demonstrated to the students three pathways citizens have to influence the political process and governmental action:
1. Organized interests;2. government programs that bring city hall closer to the community, such as the
Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE), which is charged with overseeing the formation of more than 100 neighborhood councils covering all of the city of Los Angeles;
3. the district offices of elected officials.
A fourth pathway would be getting involved in election campaigns. But the service learning literature excludes partisan politics from service learning considerations, and this distinction was made clear to the students and to the elected officials who participated. I was very pleased to see that this line was respected. However, while explaining the distinction at the beginning of the quarter, I had told students that they, of course, could get involved in election campaigns on their own time, and I was happy to learn that some did.
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| | Authors: Freyss, Siegrun. |
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Freyss
2
T
his paper describes a new, quite successful approach to service learning introduced in a lower-
division, general education (GE) course in American and California state government. The
project, first undertaken in the fall quarter 2001 and then again in winter 2003, involved
advocacy organizations, a municipal citizen empowerment department, as well as the district
offices of elected officials. The report explains the approach, evaluates the course based on
survey responses, identifies reasons for its success, and points out some limits encountered. The
paper is detailed and follows the tradition of Battistoni & Hudson (1997, p. 1) and others in
sharing insights into the theory and practice of service learning in political science, so that
advantages and limits of this form of experiential learning can be made transparent.
1
After an activist start in the 60s and 70s, service learning in more recent years has, to a great
extent, evolved into charitable, care-taking, mentoring, or tutoring work, as the testimonies by
pioneers indicate (Stanton, Giles, and Cruz, 1999). High school and college students are asked
to do volunteer work in nonprofit organizations to help needy children and adults. That is the
“service” part of the service-learning mission. In political science courses the “learning”
component is introduced by asking the students to reflect on the causes of poverty or of other
deficiencies, to study the public policies that alleviate or fail to resolve the problems, and to
device strategies advocating on behalf of the needy.
Service learning is different from internships, although overlapping objectives can occur.
Internships are intended to prepare students for future employment and to provide some work
experience to improve the students’ chances of getting hired. In contrast, service learning is
intended to prepare young people for their future role as responsible citizens as well as to
generate a sense of community and a link to social groups the students might otherwise not come
in contact with.
The wish to introduce students at the California State University, Los Angeles, to political
institutions that may be beyond the students’ cognitive horizon was the central reason for
pursuing the pilot project. It demonstrated to the students three pathways citizens have to
influence the political process and governmental action:
1. Organized interests;
2. government programs that bring city hall closer to the community, such as the
Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE), which is charged with overseeing
the formation of more than 100 neighborhood councils covering all of the city of Los
Angeles;
3. the district offices of elected officials.
A fourth pathway would be getting involved in election campaigns. But the service learning
literature excludes partisan politics from service learning considerations, and this distinction was
made clear to the students and to the elected officials who participated. I was very pleased to see
that this line was respected. However, while explaining the distinction at the beginning of the
quarter, I had told students that they, of course, could get involved in election campaigns on their
own time, and I was happy to learn that some did.
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