Politics and Active Citizenship Service Learning Module

by Mary Murphy (mary.murphy@nuim.ie)
NUIM has a long history of ‘professional’ placement training for community work, teaching and media and some more recent civic engagement in departments like Geography. The home department for this module the Department of Sociology has a departmental level commitment to ‘public sociology’ (Burawoy 2005, Khoo 2009) but no formal policy on civic engagement (Furco 2007). There have however been various initiatives by various academics which could come under the rubric of active research or civic engagement teaching pedagogies. The new undergraduate degree programme in Politics and Active Citizenship, stress on political sociology and politics ‘beyond the usual’, a commitment to a critical form of active citizenship and to growing students who will question answers more than answer questions. From the outset in 2006 it was always anticipated that there would be an experiential learning module in Year 2 of the three year degree. The first year intake of the degree was limited to an intake of 20 students so it was anticipated growing the numbers to approx 40 in the second year of intake and up to 60 students in subsequent years. This meant the first pilot year was limited to 20 students but that the methodology had to have the capacity to cope with up to 60 students. The concept of civic engagement therefore fitted directly into the rationale informing the core learning objectives of the degree programme ‘politics beyond the usual’ and its key aim of providing experiential learning experience for students. There was not necessarily a commitment to community or service within the design of the degree and indeed there may be wariness amongst a number of teaching staff of active citizenship concepts which promoted volunteering as an alternative to critical public and political debate as the centre of active citizenship. The Learning Objectives for the civic engagement module were simply that students will have had opportunity to experience and reflect on power and democracy in the external world.

Discipline:	Social Sciences
Institution:	National University of Ireland Maynooth
Activity:	Service Learning/Community Based Learning

Additional Information

Academic Discipline:	Politics and Active Citizenship Degree, Sociology
Module Title:	xx
Typical number of students:	15 students
Year(s) of Programme:	2nd Year Students
Credits (ECTs):	xx
Mandatory:	Yes
Assessment method:	Assessment was based on two key assessment tools, participation and completion of an assignment. Participation in placement /workshops/presentation & use of journal as learning tool was 40% of the total mark and the Assignment a 3000 word report of learning achieved in placement was valued at 60% of the total mark. Students had the opportunity in the final workshop (week ten of a twelve week term) to give a four minute presentation of the learning impressions of the placement. This was an
First established:	2009/10
Typical number of hours:	30 hours
Learning outcomes:	This was perhaps the strongest aspect of the course module with strong learning outcomes as demonstrated in the syllabus and student presentations. There was good linkage with academic theory and the workshops were positively evaluated, had 80-90% attendance and were characterised by good participation. Student’s evaluations specifically remarked that they enjoyed seeing ‘theory come to life’. There was a clear social development aspect to the pedagogy and approach to the workshops in which the students developed a bond and trust with each other. This allowed greater risk taking in learning and reflecting and more participation in group activities and crucially more conscious of their learning styles. One student said for example ‘overall the module will be the learning experience I’ll remember the most from my degree’. The department supported the students financially to attend a live television broadcast of Questions and Answers a key current affairs programme and to have a group meal to finish off the placement. The students appreciated this gesture, this social aspect should continue.
Case study website/link:	xx
Community Partners:	4 NGO’s NWCI, EAPN, Drugs TF, IBOA One Minster of State (FF) One Senator (Lab) Three TDs (FF, Green, Lab) Two councillors (Green FG) One town council (FF)