Research and design for inclusive, reciprocal and critical engagement in an international curriculum: the shift from service learning to community engagement in the International Baccalaureate

Abstract: This presentation focuses on the research and curriculum development process and the resulting curriculum design, including the theoretical framing, pedagogical underpinnings and articulation of learning outcomes proposed for service learning/ community engagement in an international curriculum for students aged 16-19 that is implemented in different communities and parts of the world.

Taking action is a central component of all International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes, reflecting a focus on moving beyond awareness and understanding to engaging with personal, local and global issues in responsible ways. The presentation outlines the review of service learning/ community engagement in the IB’s Career-related Programme (CP) that was guided by the goals of inclusion and equity, student well-being and ethical engagement.

At the IB, curriculum review is a multi-year process including research, development, and implementation. We adopt a participatory design approach, intentionally ensuring to include voices from a range of contexts. Contextualization is indeed a key consideration in our curriculum and programme design as we develop curriculum frameworks, educational content and pedagogies that are to be implemented in various contexts around the world.

The presentation will discuss how this component has been reviewed and designed in ways that speak to developments beyond the IB (in particular, critical, post-critical and transformative approaches in the intersecting fields of service learning/ community engagement, sustainability, and global citizenship education) and support appropriate contextualization in diverse school contexts worldwide. It also invites feedback both on the research and development process, and on the resulting design through the lens of the conference theme.

Narrative: This presentation has a two-fold focus on the participatory research and development process, and on the resulting curriculum design for SLCE in an international curriculum for students aged 16-19. It outlines how research can inform and support inclusive SLCE design and practice, and shape practices for preparing students and educators to engage in reciprocal and equitable relationships with communities. It also invites discussion and evaluation of the research and resulting design.

Taking action is central in International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes; current transformations are expanding emphasis on and understanding of engagement, reflecting a focus on moving beyond awareness and understanding to encompassing ethical connections with communities and to critically engaging with personal, local and global issues in responsible, responsive and reciprocal ways that contribute to a more peaceful, just and sustainable world. This presentation focuses on the curriculum review of service learning (SL), a core component of the IB Career-related Programme (CP).

At the IB, curriculum review is a multi-year process including research, development and implementation. We adopt a participatory design approach, including diverse voices and perspectives from a range of contexts where IB programmes are implemented. Contextualization is a key consideration as we develop frameworks, educational content and pedagogies to be implemented in various geographical, political, socio-economic, cultural contexts around the world with a diversity of students.

The goals framing the SL curriculum review included:
Enhancing the learning journey, through supports for the complexities arising from community engagement
Inclusive design and consideration for students’ safety and well-being
Alignment with pedagogies that support ethical engagement and foster socio-emotional learning

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Key research questions included:
What is the role of SL within the CP? What should it be?
What has been the impact of the current SL programme on students; school communities?
What are the alternative ways SL curricula could be imagined in the future?
What is the pedagogical and practical relationship between SL and other IB programme action/ service offerings?

A range of research items and methods were used; they were compiled and analyzed in a research report. A series of IB-internal and external review meetings were held, with IB curriculum designers and educators from around the world reviewing the research results and translating them into recommendations for the curriculum review.

The curriculum development phase operationalized the recommendations into a new curriculum design, co-created by IB curriculum designers with educators and also including alumni.

THE NEW CURRICULUM

A central recommendation was to reconsider the theoretical orientation and strengthen the pedagogical underpinnings, and re-orient SL towards community engagement, grounding it in more critical and reflexive approaches. The new design draws on critical and post-critical, and transformative approaches that bring together the insights and intentions of SLCE, sustainability education and global citizenship education. It is also informed by compassionate systems thinking, social, emotional and ethical learning and place-based pedagogy, and aims to accommodate complexity thinking and cultivate an ecocentric mindset.

Associated changes:

• Changing the name “service learning” to “community engagement”, to reflect the theoretical and pedagogical re-orientation, to capture the desired learning processes, experiences and outcomes at a CP level, and to embrace more inclusive and culturally and politically sensitive language, in view of the critiques of terms such as “service” and “service learning”

• Shifting from “service” to reciprocal engagement and partnership with communities, developing authentic, mutually transformational relationships, and place-based pedagogies that support learning in, from and with communities and connection to place

• Shifting from “addressing authentic community need” to “responding to relevant challenges or opportunities”, where relevance is jointly defined by student and community

CE is conceptualized as spanning three intersecting domains of knowing and being, which inform and inspire students’ actions: personal, relational and systems, with the key outcomes of ethical consideration, compassion and (critical) reflexivity.

The learning outcomes encapsulate reflective and reflexive practice; compassion and reciprocal engagement with the community; systems thinking; ethical thinking and action. We aim for an expanded understanding of ethics, including consequences (foreseen and unintended), but also values, rights and (shared) responsibilities, embracing broader notions of justice (social and ecological) and understanding the importance of contextualizing discussions and activity toward justice. This, alongside stronger focus on deeper, critical reflection and reflexivity, can support critical, ethical, contextually responsive engagement and help fulfil the transformative potential of SLCE. Critical and systems thinking are key to understanding and addressing complex (local and global) issues, and identifying systemic, root causes, examining power relations and uncovering structural forces that perpetuate injustices.

The revised model of CE practice/methodology has the self in relation with the community at the center. It consists of three (iterative) stages, and is grounded, informed and driven by three key principles:

• Reciprocity: co-created visions, authentic, equitable relationships, and responsive action in partnership with the community; this also encompasses compassion, ethical solidarity, and a sense of responsibility and accountability towards each other and the planet

• Dialogue: working collaboratively to create common understandings and goals, participation and contribution that is responsive to contextual dimensions; this also encompasses openness, humility and critical curiosity

• Ongoing reflection and critical reflexivity: an expansion in the students’ power of analysis and reflection, into critical reflection and reflexivity – questioning own assumptions and attitudes, being open to being challenged, considering one’s positionality, examining and challenging individual and collective assumptions, perspectives and perceptions, understanding they are constructed in cultural, societal and historical contexts: an ongoing, always evaluating process, with a decidedly action-oriented stance.

Finally, the curriculum review team has focused on enhancing the assessment model, through authentic and inclusive approaches that can embrace the complex and often open-ended nature of CE and value conversations and dialogue: learning journals, narrative assessment and dialogic feedback.

PROVOCATIONS AND INVITATIONS TO DISCUSS AND PROVIDE FEEDBACK

• Was the research approached in an inclusive way? How can we improve in the future?
• Does the proposed design manifest an inclusive and accessible approach to CE?
• How do we create frameworks that are not hegemonic? How do we accommodate flexibility and contextualization while identifying “non-negotiables” that can bring about the needed paradigm shifts?