WATCH: Globalsl Releases New Video
Globalsl.org, a network of universities and nongovernmental organizations advancing ethical global civic engagement and cooperative development partnerships, just released a 3.5 minute video detailing leading-edge research on international volunteering and service-learning.
Because it is uniquely grounded in research, the video makes a rare contribution to controversies surrounding international volunteering and the emergence of for-profit voluntourism as part of the study abroad sector. It highlights research-grounded advocacy efforts advanced by broad, global coalitions of child health experts andmedical professionals that aim to discourage particular kinds of international volunteering because of documented harms to children and other vulnerable people. Additionally, the video shares insights from researchers who have demonstrated that international volunteering and service-learning partnerships can have significant, positive outcomes.
Positive outcomes of international volunteering and service-learning are not limited to physical infrastructure. Physical outcomes – like water systems – are important, but long-standing relationships supporting volunteering partnerships can also build trust, sense of pride within the community, and awareness about community issues and concerns. Nora Reynolds, a doctoral candidate at Temple University,demonstrated this on a small scale with in-depth, repeated interviews in the context of a long-standing partnership characterized by short-term (typically one week) engineering service-learning visits.
Relevant research also comes from international governmental organization, nongovernmental organization, and academic partnerships in the field of international development. In a large-scale research project that included review of 106 research and evaluation reports from members of the International Forum for Volunteering in Development, along with numerous in-depth interviews, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers Benjamin J. Lough and Lenore E. Matthew demonstrated the linkages between long-term volunteering for development and the emergence of values and practices relating to good governance. Highlighting those connections, the researchers wrote that through a, “people-centered development approach, international volunteering has helped change informal norms and attitudes that determine how people perceive and act on governing institutions, as well as inspire direct participation in political processes that determine formal rules and laws.”
As a network, globalsl.org is comprised of institutions dedicated to ethical global partnerships and global learning. It continues to collect, share, and build upon insights generated through International Service-Learning Summits hosted at Washington University in St. Louis, Northwestern University, and Duke University, as well as Global Service-Learning Institutes held regularly by Cornell University.
It has become an increasingly broad coalition, with support from several more universities and NGOs, as well as funding from the Henry Luce Foundation. The network is dedicated to collecting and organizing leading research, as well as mobilizing knowledge for dissemination, consumption, and application.
As more institutions engage globally, sometimes even requiring global learning, intercultural engagement, or civic engagement, best practice insights and ethical quandaries continue to accumulate. While the field continues to grow, so too will the resources amassed at globalsl.org.
Due to recognition of the challenging leadership needs in this area, the Staley School of Leadership Studies at Kansas State University is hosting a Leading Change Institute on the theme, “Ethical Global Partnerships, Learning, and Service,” from August 10 – 14 in Manhattan, Kansas. Diverse participants represent researchers, practitioners, administrators, and staff working from community, child protection, academic, and nonprofit perspectives.