Call for Proposals: Symposium on Adult Education and Service Learning

Posted by on February 18, 2005

Linking Adults With Community: A Symposium on Adult Education and Service Learning

Call For Proposals

October 22, 2005
DePaul University
Chicago, Illinois

Linking Adults with Community explores how service learning with non-traditional students enhances adult education and promotes social engagement. The symposium will bring together educators, students, as well as community partners to share their knowledge, insights, successful models, and research about community based learning.

Who Should Participate?
?faculty, administrators and students from community colleges and universities that serve non-traditional undergraduates as well as graduate students;
?community organizations which engage in adult education;
?community organizations who partner with universities or are interested in doing so;
?scholars interested in adult education and/or service learning.

Symposium Themes

The Symposium will foster discussion around three overarching themes. Organizers invite participants to think broadly about the following issues, as they are meant to stimulate ideas, rather than set strict parameters for panel topics.

Theme #1: Confronting Factors of Age, Race, and Class: How Service Learning Triggers a “Disorienting Dilemma”
?How does ethnic and/or racial identity affect the ways adult students approach and experience service learning?
?How does class affect adult students’ perceptions of self, community, human agency?
?In what ways does social and economic inequality shape adult’s perceptions of service learning?
?How might service learning impact adult students, in terms of their personal and professional development?

Theme #2: Transformative Learning: Fostering Critical Reflection with Adult Students
?What teaching methods help students surface and question deeply held beliefs and prejudices?
?How might service learning enhance students’ professional skills and goals?
?What frameworks can help students reflect on and derive meaningful learning from their experiences in service learning?
?How can service learning programs enhance the influence of community partners, as co-educators, in order to improve student learning and meet community needs?

Theme #3: Taking Action: Fostering Sustainable Community and University Engagement
?How might universities address obstacles to participation in service learning, for adult students as well as community partners?
?How might universities and communities work together as equal partners, despite the disparity in their resources?
?In what ways might participatory action research promote community-based research agendas, engage adult students, and lead to ongoing community based projects?
?In what ways might service learning lead to adults forming lifelong commitments to community engagement?

Educators, Community-based Organizations, and Students are invited to submit proposals:
?that are active and participatory;
?that are collaboratively designed, between faculty and community partners.
?Proposals may be for a panel about a topic of their choosing; an individual presentation, whether scholarly or creative; a workshop involving participants in a learning process; or a poster displayed at the conference with an informal presentation.

Panel Presentations (2-3 Presenters)
Submit a proposal that identifies individual topics and the overall purpose of the panel discussion. Collaborative projects are particularly requested, that include multiple perspectives from faculty, community representatives, students, and service-learning administrators.

Workshops
Individuals or a group may lead workshops. Submit a proposal that explains the activities/exercises the workshop will facilitate as well as the learning goals and materials participants will receive.

Individual Presentations
Submit a proposal that explains the purposes of the presentation. Individual papers will be paired with others that share a similar theme or topic.

The Poster Session
Submit an abstract that includes a title and summary of the project, including method of presentation. Presenters may demonstrate and discuss web sites or other computer applications, mount small exhibits of research and interpretation; or share images, audiovisual materials and handouts from successful programs. Presenters must bring their own computers.

In all cases, include a brief vita or bio for proposed participants as well as the email address and phone number of a designated contact person. Sessions will be 1 ? hours long. All proposals must be no more than one page in length and double-spaced.

Proposal Deadline
April 30, 2005. Please send proposals to adultservicelearning@depaul.edu. Further information may be found at: http://cbsl.depaul.edu/adultservicelearning