TEORÍA DEL CUIDADO HUMANO
2.2.4. GESTIÓN DEL CUIDADO DE ENFERMERÍA
Janice Kinghorn, Associate Professor of Economics and Associate Dean of the Core Program Eli Nettles, Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Associate Dean of Faculty
David Kammler, Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Antioch’s mission shapes its students’ civic engagement: An Antioch education is shaped to the mold of human experience. This is a radically democratic education: every theory, every belief, every ideal is re-examined and subjected to the test of experience. We ask our students to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Their work is marked by scholarly rigor — and civic engagement. They come to know the world by analyzing it — and living deeply within it. They come to know justice by studying it — and practicing it. They become humanists in the broadest, deepest sense of the word: citizens and scholars capable of meaningful action, continuous growth, and enlightened leadership.
Connected Curricula
In 2005, the college undertook an initiative we refer to as our “Connected Curriculum”: a broad and visionary plan to place Antioch once again at the forefront of experimental education. The goals of this renewal included improved retention, increased civic engagement and deliberate participation in the community, and more rapid development of meaningful reflective skills. At the heart of the Connected Curriculum is a belief in the power of integrated learning,
Integration in the Connected Curriculum is multifaceted, and it intentionally links academic disciplines, civic engagement, and cooperative education. At every level and during both work and study terms, students are expected to be, at some level, informed participants who are actively engaged within their communities.
Every first-year student enters the Core Program, enrolling in a 15-credit learning community program, taught by four faculty during the fall and spring terms. These programs immerse stu- dents thoroughly in the liberal arts, satisfy the general education requirements of the college, and provide a structured environment in which the students learn how to become engaged and effective citizens.
Following the successful completion of the Core Program, stu- dents enter the Upper-Level Curriculum: a three-year, year-round program of alternating terms of work (cooperative education) and study (16-18 credits of connected and integrated courses) with increasing performance standards, which ultimately culminates in a Senior Project in an individualized major.
Civic Engagement in the Classroom:
Water Matters and Citizenship
Over the past year, Antioch’s Core Programs have used a variety of models for bringing civic engagement into the classroom and then reconnecting it to the outside world. This case study will describe two of them. The Core Program, Water Matters, used a long-term class project to connect classroom learning with civic engagement, while the program Citizenship focuses much class- room learning directly on issues of civic engagement.
Both models seem to be highly effective in teaching our stu- dents not only how to be informed about an issue but also how to become engaged in various communities around these issues. Ad- ditionally, students learned how to educate others about the issues they explored.
In the spring of 2006, Water Matters, focused on issues of fresh water through the lenses of environmental chemistry, freshwater ecology, literature, and creative writing. This Core examined wa- ter issues around the globe, paying special attention to basic sani- tation, potable drinking water, and water use and management. This course had a number of smaller in-house projects coupled with local and regional field trips designed to connect students to community water issues such as nearby stream contamination, severely aging infrastructure, and wetland degradation.
The Water Matters term-long civic engagement project culmi- nated in WaterFest and the inaugural Eric and Kay Johnson Global Water Symposium, a two-day seminar on freshwater issues, well attended by the Antioch community and the general public. Activi- ties included PowerPoint presentations, poster sessions, and litera- ture readings by students and a number of distinguished guests, as well as distribution of Water Journal, a compilation of student cre- ative and scientific works from this Core Program. Discussions and presentations on local, regional, and global fresh water issues were led by John Huber, the President of the Louisville Water Company, Steve Werner, the Executive Director of Water for People (an in- ternational non-profit fresh water development organization), and Vanessa Tobin, Chief of the Water, Environment, and Sanitation Programme Division of UNICEF.
The local field trips and the global symposium taught our students how to become informed on important issues, how to
educate others about them, and how to become engaged in the community, whether locally, regionally, nationally, or globally.
The ongoing program, Citizenship, in the fall of 2006 is fo- cused on issues of citizenship in political science, history, and art. One of the goals of this Core is to “eliminate or substantially reduce political apathy that may exist among its participants by improving their knowledge of the American political institu- tions, political culture, political power, public policy process, rights and responsibilities associated with citizenship, and major challenges and opportunities facing the American politico-eco- nomic system” (http://www.antioch-college.edu/Academics/reg- istrar/core/0607corelcs.html; fall 07 link on Core is http://www. antioch-college.edu/Academics/registrar/core/0708corelcs.html). The program explores American citizenship through the context of art; students consider how art both influences and reflects who gets to participate as a citizen. Studio assignments complement required readings and critical, written reflections. For example, students created a broadside — a political tool to engage with the general public about issues they had studied. Their art expressed issues of citizenship.
Assessment
We are assessing student civic engagement and its impact on learning, retention, satisfaction, and leadership, at three points: during the first-year Core Programs, during the first cooperative education experience, and across the Upper-Level Curriculum, including the Senior Project. Assessment methods include peri- odic student surveys, formal Student Evaluations of Instructors and Programs (SEIs), and reflective essays and interviews within the Cooperative Education Program. We plan to assess student performance by comparing our current first-year students to those of the recent past who did not have the foundation of the Core Program or the Co-op Communities.
We are currently comparing students’ civic engagement learn- ing and practice within the various first-year Core Programs. By examining the broad variety of methods currently in use, and the outcomes of these programs, the relative merits of each delivery system can be determined, and then compared to instructors’ views of program effectiveness as well as student reports of prog- ress and satisfaction. The necessary assessment tools, primarily student surveys and formal SEIs, are currently in use.
Building on the First Year
Beginning their second year, students experience cooperative edu- cation (work) in an organized co-op community, which includes Place as Text: an academic component that asks students to be- come responsible, informed citizens within their local community. We believe that this directed civic engagement experience will lay a foundation upon which a student can continue to build skills throughout their Antioch education. The first group of students in this program is in the midst of that experience, and we plan to assess student performance by comparing their cooperative educa- tion reflection papers and interviews to those of previous students.
We will also track the progress of students’ civic engagement skills, satisfaction, and leadership ability as they progress through our Upper-Level Curriculum. In the past, many graduating se- niors integrated moderate to high levels of community involve- ment into their Senior Projects. By carefully assessing civic en- gagement early on, we can track the development of skills across the Antioch educational experience among those students who integrate community involvement into their Senior Project.
I. Contributors’ Names and Contact Information
Main contact for submission: Janice Kinghorn
Associate Professor of Economics
and Associate Dean of the Core Program Phone: 937-769-1330
Email: [email protected] Eli Nettles
Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Associate Dean of Faculty Phone: 937-769-1176
Email: [email protected] David Kammler
Assistant Professor of Chemistry Phone: 937-769-1171
Email: [email protected] Antioch College
795 Livermore Street Yellow Springs, OH 45506
II. Institutional Description
a. Antioch College, Yellow Springs, OH b. Four-year
c. Private d. Residential
e. 350 students, 120 first-year students f. Primarily residential
CASE STUDY
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, CHICO