An exploration of team teaching in a first year Residential Academic Service-Learning Course. In this interactive session we will explore our multiple social identities through vulnerability exercises. Together we will investigate how to build a bridge of compassionate understanding between “who we are and who they are.” By modeling a bridge of openness, and exploration of the underlying issues of inequality, educators will learn how to integrate the diversity present in the classroom into a contemplative pedagogy.
Students in our academic program utilize the group classroom experiences with their engagement in community organizations for learning. Our students participate in exploration of self to understand how their social identities relate to their engagement with community partners. Self-exploration is fundamental in understanding issues of social justice, power, privilege and oppression. Beyond individual development, students examine the prevailing systems governing the community organizations they serve and bring their erudition to the class.
