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Definition and Key Phrases

Through this Common Commitment, we explore and develop international and intercultural understanding that enables us to participate successfully in a global society.

Video

In 2010, Bonners from Oberlin traveled the country to interview others in the program and create a new video series on the Common Commitments.  Click here for a clip on international perspective.

Bonners at Rhodes also made this video.

Other Key Phrases

and concepts we use to explore this area include:

• globalization
• global learning
• intercultural studies
• interdependence
• International Declaration of Human Rights (knowing and using it)

Notes

Since the founding of the Bonner Scholars Program in 1990, the program has included an openness to students' service work in international settings, as well as the inclusion of international students as Bonner Scholars and (later) Leaders.  In the last decade, however, this dimension of the program has really flourished, especially as institutions of higher education have expanded and made accessible study abroad opportunities in a multitude of countries.  Bonners are increasingly participating in these study abroad opportunities during school year semesters as well as full-time summer internships in international organizations and settings.  Current surveys of Bonner Scholars indicate that in several institutions where study abroad programs are strong, nearly 75% of Bonner Scholars are participating.  

In addition, many programs have sought to incorporate shorter-term service immersion opportunities. For example, building on the sequence of a first year service trip and second year service exchange, many programs have integrated third year service immersion trips.  Some work with key Bonner Partners, such as Peacework (see below), and others are working to establish sustained multi-year non-profit partnerships in particular countries that they will return to each year.  (This is true, for example, at Davidson College, Defiance College, Siena College, and Stetson University).  In these cases, even faculty members are developing relationships with international agencies with whom they will work.

Still, some students struggle to find a non-profit partner for a term abroad.  Because of this, Bonner summer intern Kelly Behrend (now on staff) helped develop three publications (see details below) to support making this international service work easier.  Due to federal restrictions, Bonners who are participating in AmeriCorps must also take a brief leave from their term of service to work internationally, so this is a barrier for Bonner Leaders who do not receive other financial awards from their institutions.  

Currently, deepening and expanding International Partnerships is a key initiative of the Bonner Foundation.  See the notes here.

Training and Curricular Materials

In 2012, we have a completely new set of resources on international and global perspective!  Check them out!

The Global Engagement Curriculum, to be piloted at 2012 SLI, will be added in June, thanks to the work of Program Associate Kelly Behrend and the international team.

Click here to learn about the 2012 Bonner Global Conference! 

In addition, some lesson plans address international perspective directly, including:

• Ethnocentrism: Exploring Your National Identity
  This training is to help participants identify ethnocentrism in their everyday lives and how it may (negatively) affect communication between people. It is intended to help participants build perspective about culture and beliefs, supporting the development of international perspective. Through critical thinking, participants develop more awareness of where they may be unfairly generalizing, stereotyping, or not exploring new perspectives.

• Global Issues:  Poverty
  This one-hour workshop explores the causes, dynamics, and current status of global poverty. Through role-playing, simulation, and discussion activities, participants will be able to examine poverty through actually playing out the parts of the impoverished. The group will be challenged to undertake a system of natural-born privilege and recreate a system of wealth distribution. These activities are supported by a list of provocative discussion questions, a handout that presents the present statistics of global poverty, and a list of resources for joining in on the campaign to end poverty.

Here, we have turned to key Bonner Partners and other organizations that offer excellent educational material including:

Lessons Plans from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

• Lesson Plan: Rebuilding Hope Sudan Classroom Activities
  Explore the experience of three Sudanese "Lost Boys" as they return to Sudan 20 years after fleing their homes to escape Civil War.
• Lesson Plan: Revolution in Tunisia
  In this lesson students will understand the conditions in Tunisia that led to Jasmine Revolution in December 2010, and the examine the consequences, both intended and unintended, of the rebellion.
• Lesson Plan: The Global Water Crisis
  Nearly a billion people lack access to clean water, and demand for water is outpacing supply. In this lesson, students will examine the global water crisis using Pulitzer Center videos, student research guides, and classroom discussion resources.
• "Voices from Haiti" Using Poetry to Speak up for a Cause
  This lesson helps students explore the Haitian experience in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti through poetry, photography, and music.
• Lesson Plan: Haiti - One Year Later
  In this lesson, students will examine the various online resources and reporting projects related to Haiti, and learn more about the reconstruction effort one year after the quake. 
• Children's Lives in Central Africa: A Reading List
  Fiction and non-fiction reading selections related to the lives of children in Burundi, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and other Central African nations. 
• Peacebuilding: Taking Home Lessons Learned in Africa
  In this lesson, students will explore the concept of peacebuilding on both an international and local level. 
• Exploring Fragile States: Sudan
  Through this webquest, students are able to explore the complex country of Sudan using several different projects compiled by Pulitzer Center journalists.
• Exploring Downstream: Water Resources
  Through this webquest, students will use several different projects on the “Downstream” Global Gateway to examine the impact of water around the world.
• Lesson Plans: Heroes of HIV in the Caribbean
  Use this series of five detailed lesson plans to engage your students on the issue of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean, including the epidemic's impact and treatment as well as its relevance in the United States.

• Child Labor
• Child Survival
• HIV/AIDS
• Hunger
• Women's Issues
• Water
• Concern Worldwide also has a great workshop that introduces the UN Millennium Development Goals (International Declaration on Human Rights):
•   MDG Workshop.pdf

Resources from Amnesty International

Search the library at Amnesty International's website to find reports, curriculum, and more. For example, you might find Amnesty International's Movie Review Curriculum Guide: The Kite Runner and integrate it with a semester long reading of The Kite Runner.  Or find Amnesty International's Curriculum Guide: The Conflict in Darfur and eastern Chad.  

Partners

Key Bonner Partners

Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education; promoting global learning in higher education is one of its key initiatives (along with civic learning and diversity). AAC&U offers a multitude of staff professional development initiatives and conferences (such as the conferenceYou can find an index of Global Learning here.

Peacework is a key Bonner Partner, which has worked with over 20 programs in our network to plan and carry out short- and longer-term international service immersion projects.  Through the Peacework Village Network, thousands of volunteers and community leaders are taking steps toward a better future through socially responsible programs in education, infrastructure, agriculture, health,  law, and business.

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is an innovative award-winning non-profit journalism organization dedicated to supporting the independent international journalism that U.S. media organizations are increasingly less able to undertake. The Center focuses on under-reported topics, promoting high-quality international reporting and creating platforms that reach broad and diverse audiences.  The Center's educational programsprovide students with fresh information on global issues, help them think critically about the creation and dissemination of news, and inspire them to become active consumers and producers of information.  Bonners may pursue full-time summer internships with the Pulitzer Center in Washington D.C.  Educational resources include videos, blogs, and more.  (Some are listed above).

Publications

The Bonner Foundation has three key resources for supporting international service engagement, all of which are available here on the wiki in downloadable print format.

• The first in the series is the student manual, the Service Abroad Handbook (Service Abroad Handbook.pdf), which is designed to give students tools and tips on studying and serving abroad. It also includes links to important resources, as well as stories from Bonners who have done it themselves. Be sure to download this document from the link below and e-mail or print the handbook to give to interested Bonners. It may be best to have a printed copy available in your office to get students interested.

• The second manual is the Service Partner Guide (Service Partner Guide.pdf), which serves as an Introduction of the Bonner Program to an International Service Partner. I encourage you to read through that handbook as well, which you should recommend that students take with them when they go abroad. It is a great way for potential service partners to better understand the Bonner Program and even includes a CLA workbook for students to get started on their CLA with their new site supervisor abroad. Again, you can view and print the handbook from the link below.

• The final manual, the Administrator's Resource Guide (Administrator's Guide.pdf), provides Bonner administrators with materials and best practices gathered from around the network to help guide students through the process of serving abroad. 

• Also browse through the International Partner Directory (click here to view), which consists of multiple listings of where Bonners have previously served abroad. Please add your own!

Assessment and Evaluation

Diversity and encounters with "otherness" has been found, through the evaluation of the Bonner Program, to be one of the greatest contributors to the program's effectiveness; in fact this is closely related to students developing an interpretation and commitment to social justice.  Opportunities to understand an issue (such as poverty) in both local and global contexts, as well as direct experiences, extend this learning.  Because of the newness of this area, we do not have as much direct data on the impact of international perspective and experiences, but one key finding is that Bonner Scholar students' skills and commitment to social justice increases in key ways between junior and senior year. The third and fourth year typically involve more challenging service experiences, including in international contexts.  As the report Access to Education through the Bonner Scholars Program: Post-Graduation Service and Civic Outcomes for High Financial Need Students of a Co-Curricular Service-Learning College Program in the United States describes:

• "Having discovered that the most powerful development from the freshman to senior year was the growing importance of the BSP as an opportunity for dialogue, we further explored if there were differences between juniors and seniors in relation to their experiences with dialogue. Four questions available on both junior and senior surveys were related to the skills of dialogue and these were combined to create a composite, 20-point variable. The four, five-point survey questions followed a single probe: “Overall, how has participation in the BSP affected the development of your skills in the following (four) areas: listening carefully to other people, helping groups overcome differences of opinion, understanding of a person of a different background from your own, and skills needed to do effective community service.” Chi-square was used to test for differences between juniors and seniors. Eta was used to measure the strength of these differences for the 20-point composite variable.
• Scholars reported an increase in their skills for dialogue between the junior and senior year as is indicated by the significant difference in the composite variable. Not surprisingly, when each of the four skill variables was tested individually, the results were again significant, though weak based on the Phi coefficient. The strongest of these four relationships was the variable measuring changes between the junior and senior year in students’ assumptions that the BSP had affected the development of skills in understanding person(s) of a different background. One might surmise that the most important kind of dialogue was dialogue with people from a different background, be they peers or those served at community partners’ sites."

The authors conclude: "This study’s findings suggest that the core experience of service is not the service itself but the sustained dialogue across boundaries of perceived difference that happens during service and in reflection along the way, including with people students serve, with the people they serve alongside of, with their supervisors at the service site, with the college staff, and, centrally, with their peers."  Certainly, international experiences and learning have the potential for providing pivotal and lifelong lessons and opportunities for students to engage in sustained dialogue across boundaries of perceived difference.

Campus Practice

Please share examples of what your program does to build students’ understanding of and experience with civic engagement.