A Critical ReflectionMy experience in Tijuana would not have been justifiable if it was not embedded in a course. I cannot emphasize enough how crucial the course has been to my understanding of my time in Tijuana, the reasons I went there and where I go from here. If I did not have the knowledge that I gained through the class, there is no way that I would have even begun to understand the lives of the people that we met in Tijuana. I would not have the faintest idea of what I was seeing and hearing. None of the people I met or places I saw would have had such a big impact on me if I didn't have a glimpse of the root causes of why we were in Tijuana. Also, I would not have been able to process the trip thoroughly without the class time where I could digest my experiences.
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The Pros and the Very Dangerous Cons |
If this experience was not connected to a class, I would certainly agree with critics who stated that service trips are great at short term changes for students. I have been on other service trips and I often leave with more questions than answers, or relationships, for that matter. If there is no context to why the "service" is needed, those who go on the trips leave with stories, pictures and perhaps a nice tan. That's nice. However, they are missing the most crucial, and arguably the only redeemable quality of service learning, knowledge. If you are going on a service trip to "change lives" (which you should be critical of anyway), then you should at least know what exactly you are changing. Building a house on spring break has no chance for long-term repercussions if you do not understand why the house needs to be built in the first place. In fact, it can have seriously negative repercussions. A week of service in a foreign community can strip the community of the dignity it possesses and continue the cycle of dependency. Not only will the community believe that they are not capable of "saving themselves", but it reiterates that privileged Americans are the only ones who can be saviors.
If you do not deconstruct the structures that make this service necessary, then you simply are putting a band-aid on the problem, perpetuating dependency and encouraging the hierarchy between the "server" and "served". You leave feeling as though you made a difference, but you are missing the most important element: the knowledge needed to make systemic change. I believe that effective global-service learning does not aim to build a house, rather, it aims to create a world where no more houses need to be built for the poor. |
Should Service-Learning Trips Continue? |
I struggle with whether global service-learning trips should continue. At times, it seems as though the possible unintended consequences on the communities we visit outweigh the good. The constant rotation of Northern, privileged people can have have seriously contrived consequences on the esteem of those in the receiving communities. We often question whether these experiences will truly remain with the student long-term or if they will fade in time. The fact that the students have the ability to forget what they saw there and the work left to be done is simply another indicator of their privilege to do so. Those in the communities like Tijuana do not have this privilege to forget because it is their home and their heart that has been affected.
However, Esperanza has renewed my hope in global-service learning. I believe global service-learning can only continue if Feinstein affiliates with organizations that use a model of empowerment. The community that one is working with must use the resources within the community and a consistent liaison or relationship to empower the people within it. The goal of this organization should be to become obsolete. This is why I believe that the Tijuana trip must continue. I have learned so much in the course that was enhanced through my experiences in Tijuana. I felt prepared to go into the community and look critically at what I saw. The empowerment model echoed my intentions of entering the community as an ally to do with with the community rather than for the community. As Eduardo so beautifully stated, "We are working along side each other in life, in work and love." I left Tijuana with a full heart, a full head and an eagerness to learn more. I now believe that I can speak confidently about what I experienced and why I was there in the first place. This proves that service-learning trips can have significant long term impacts on students. Of course I can only speak for myself, but I have been impacted in an incredible way. I believe that although we used a privileged system to become involved with Esperanza, the end result, real relationships and knowledge that may spur action, justify these means. My final stipulation for service-learning trips to continue is that we can no longer call the "service" learning trips. I believe that this word, "service", undermines the entire objective of the trips and classes. Language is an extremely powerful device and I think that the use of the word "service" perpetuates the hierarchy between "us" and "them". It could be called Globally-Engaged Learning, Globally-Active Learning and so much more. At the end of the day, I want to go into this experience with the intention of being along side those I meet and not above them. Global-service learning must continue because, frankly, it is the best option for breaking down barriers right now. The alternative is that we do not go and we perpetuate our perceptions of "the other". Global-service learning may not be perfect but it does challenge us to question the stories we are given and it shows us the tools needed to write new ones. |