International service learning (ISL) programs are growing more popular with students looking to advance their skills and knowledge to become global citizens. While the benefits of these programs among students are well documented, little is known about the implications they have on host communities themselves. This volume explores the impact of ISL programs on members of host communities (e.g. host families and local partner NGOs) who are increasingly influenced by the presence of international students in their lives. Drawing upon post-colonial, feminist and other critical and decolonizing theories, it examines the complicated power relations between North American ISL students and host communities in East and West Africa, the Caribbean and Central America. It stresses the importance of developing trusting relations between ISL students, faculty and individuals in the host communities to create mutually engaging learning experiences.
Part I. Overview
1. International Service Learning: Engaging Host
Communities: Introduction Marianne A. Larsen
2. Epistemological,
Methodological and Theoretical Challenges of Carrying Out ISL Research
Involving Host Communities: A Conversation Allyson Larkin, Marianne Larsen,
Katie MacDonald and Harry Smaller Part II. Case Studies: Impact of ISL on
Host Communities
3. Saying It Doesnt Make It So: Do We Listen and Act When
the Host Community Tells Us What They Want? Nora Pillard Reynolds and Junior
Cezar Gasparini
4. Solidarity or Neocolonialism? The Challenges of
Understanding the Impact of ISL on Nicaraguan Host Communities Michael
O'Sullivan and Harry Smaller
5. The Economic Circle: Impacts of Volunteerism
and Service Learning on Three Rural Communities in Costa Rica Cynthia Toms
Smedley
6. Southern Perspectives on ISL Volunteers: Reframing the Neocolonial
Barbara Heron
7. International Service Learning in a Tanzanian Host
Community: Post-Colonial Insights Marianne Larsen
8. In Right Relationship: A
Case Study of International Service Learning in Eastern Africa Jessica Arends
9. Orient(aliz)ation: A case study of North American Exchange Programs at the
University of Ghana Shelane Jorgenson
10. Struggles for Mutuality:
Conceptualizing Hosts as Participants in International Service Learning in
Ghana Katie Macdonald and Jessica Vorstermans Part III. Rethinking and
Re-imagining ISL and Host Community Relations
11. Reflections from a
Nicaraguan Career ISL Program Coordinator: Challenges and Guidelines for
Moving Forward Joselin Hernández
12. Many Meanings: Moving Reciprocity
Towards Interdependence Samantha Dear and Ryan Howard
13. Resipwosite as
Guiding Framework for Rethinking Mutual Exchange in Global Service Learning
Partnerships: Findings from a Case Study of the Haiti Compact Jessica Murphy
14. A Cross-Cultural Conversation about International Service Learning in
Ghana Godwin Agudey and Hannah Deloughery
15. The Potential of ISL:
Re-examining Ethical engagement Amongst ISL Partners Tamara Baldwin, Salim
Mohamed and Juliet Tembe
16. Fair Trade Learning: A Framework for Ethical
Global Partnerships Eric Hartman
17. Mi Casa es Tu Casa: A Framework for
Reciprocal Public Benefit Gonzalo Duarte
18. I Am Because We Are: Rethinking
Service Learning and the Possibility of Learning from Ubuntu Allyson Larkin
19. Conclusion: ISL and Host Communities: Relationships and Responsibility
Jennifer Kozak and Marianne Larsen
Marianne A. Larsen is Professor of Comparative and International Education at The University of Western Ontario, CA.
