Pushing Boundaries: Introduction to the Global Service-Learning Special Section

Abstract

Welcome to the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning's special section on global service-learning (GSL). In this introduction we describe how we each came to the field of GSL--some of its emphases and values that drew us to and sustain our commitment with this work, discuss some highlights of what GSL practice can learn from other bodies of literature and practice, share a few thoughts on the interplay of the local and the global, identify five themes distinguishing domestic service-learning (SL) from GSL, and introduce some noteworthy past and current work on GSL including the globalsl.org Web site aimed at advancing GSL research and practice. We end by describing the evolution of and process we used for this special section on GSL and introduce the two articles selected for this Journal issue. Kiely, International Relations, and Intercultural Learning Kiely's first encounter with community-based service-learning was as a faculty member and administrator when, in 1993, he co-founded a GSL program that involved U.S. college students in Nicaragua. His experiences with that program led to a focus on GSL for his doctoral studies (Kiely, 2002, 2004, 2005). Similar to situations on many campuses, Kiely was asked to be part of that initiative because he was one of the few members of the campus community fluent in Spanish and experienced with study abroad and international relations. In other words, at that time he had no SL background (nor a GSL field upon which to draw). But his familiarity with international relations and study abroad, his interest in facilitating intercultural learning, and the potential synergies he could see evolving from connecting pedagogy, community-based research, institutional change, and community capacity-building, drew him to want to pursue work in GSL. Interestingly, even now when there is a growing body of GSL literature, his visits to campuses often occasion a rare or even first-time meeting between the campus offices of study abroad and service-learning. Slowly, campuses are investigating strategies for institutional change such as inter-office cooperation to create the capacity for a well-informed commitment to GSL (Day Ong & Green, 2014; Tryon, Hood, & Taalbi, 2013). Until such efforts are solidified, the growth of each field independent of the other as well as that of GSL precludes best practice in course and program design. Hartman, International Development, and Community-Driven Work Hartman first encountered GSL in 2002 as a staff member at Amizade Global Service-Learning, a nonprofit organization dedicated to community-driven service across cultures. He was hired because of his background with domestic SL and the organization's interest in deepening its GSL capacity. Similarly to Kiely's ongoing experiences in Nicaragua, Hartman found his experiences in Pern to be transformative (Kiely, 2004)--fundamentally disrupting his understanding of the world and renewing how he saw his place within a global context. Working with communities around the world, he not only learned about their strengths and the challenges they faced but how to consider those challenges from a global political-economic structural lens that led to understanding about extraordinary resource differentials, oppressive national and regional histories (Mellom & Herrera, 2014), and complex international interdependence (Keith, 2005). What Can GSL Learn from Related Literatures and Practices? International Education Despite their customary separation into distinct campus offices and reporting lines, it has been and remains the case that the study abroad and the service-learning communities have a great deal to contribute to and learn from one another (Brewer & Cunningham, 2009; Bringle & Hatcher, 2011; Pusch & Merrill, 2008). In fact, Kiely's (2011) contribution to the Bringle, Hatcher, and Jones book, International Service Learning: Conceptual Frameworks and Research in International Service Learning (2011), highlighted many of these opportunities for cross-fertilization. …