Youth+servant+leadership+for+peace+building-+Community-based+service-learning+in+Palestine


 * Youth servant leadership for peace building:** **Community-based service-learning in Palestine**

Trae Stewart, Associate Professor, Texas State University – San Marcos [ traestewart@txstate.edu ]



** Keywords: ** International, youth, citizenship, servant leadership, grounded theory, Middle East

** Track: **International impact and development

** Format: ** Research paper

** Date & time: ** Thursday 3:20-4:30

** Location: ** Salon 12

**Summary:** Palestinian youth face cultural and political barriers that impede them from fully engaging in civic-life. Pedagogies of engagement, like community-based-service-learning, have shown their potential to motivate marginalized populations by providing spaces for them to form individual identities while developing civic skills. Using focus-group data, this article considers the impact on West Bank youth who participated in an NGO’s community-based-service-learning leadership program. Discussions of the findings are framed by servant leadership and non-school-based service-learning’s role in peace building in conflict areas.

Service-learning can be a catalyst for young people to become responsible adults and contributing members of their communities (Klute & Billig 2002; Melchior & Bailis 2002). In this, youth voice, or ‘the inclusion of young people” in creating service opportunities’ (Fredericks, Kaplan, & Zeisler, 2001), is key to achieving these outcomes. S ervant leadership models equally emphasize personal development and empowerment through leaders //serving// their constituents (Greenleaf, 1977).

This research study’s findings are sourced from focus-groups with Palestinian youth and were analyzed through open and selective coding (Glaser, 1978; Strauss, 1987; Charmaz, 1983). Then, emergent themes and sub-themes were identified and further explored. Those themes and sub-themes attributed to these participants’ service-learning experiences included development of the following areas: citizenship, social capital, intellectual/cognitive, personal/psychosocial, and human capital/work-related.

Arabic for ‘citizenship,’ mowateneh, is etymologically linked to the word waten, or ‘homeland’. The linguistic bond between identity and a specific geographic territory carries additional meaning for Palestinian youth when acknowledging foreign presence, the individual’s present notion of self, and future possibilities of freedom from restrictive cultures and politics through capacity-building approaches. Community-based-service-learning programs will help to achieve a paradigm shift in the perceptions of youth: from agents of destruction to agents of positive social change by providing a marginalized population with space and support to find their own voices and identities as citizens.

**References:** Charmaz, K. (1983). The grounded theory method: An explication and interpretation. In R. Emerson (Ed.), //Contemporary field research: A collection of readings// (pp. 109-126) //.// Boston: Little, Brown.

Glaser, B. (1978). //Theoretical sensitivity//. Mill Valley, CA: Sociology Press.

Eyler, J., D. Giles, C. Stenson, & C. Gray (2000). //At a glance: What we know about the effects of service-learning on college student, faculty, institutions// //and communities, 1993–2000// (3rd ed.). Nashville: Vanderbilt University.

Fredericks, L., E. Kaplan, & J. Zeisler (2001). //Integrating youth voice in service-learning.// Denver: Education Commission of the States.

Greenleaf, R.K. (1977). //Servant Leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness//. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.

Klute, M. M. & S. Billig (2002). //The impact of service-learning on MEAP: A large-scale study of Michigan Learn and Serve grantees//. Denver: RMC Research Corporation.

Melchior, A. & L. Bailis (2002). Impact of service-learning on civic attitudes and behaviors of middle and high school youth: findings from three national evaluations. In A. Furco & S. Billig (Eds.), //Advances in service-learning research: Service-learning: The essence of the pedagogy// (pp. 201–222). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishers.

Morgan, W. & M. J. Streb (2003). First do no harm: student ownership and service-learning. //Metropolitan Universities 14//: 36–52.

Spears, L. C. (1998). //Insights on leadership//. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Yates, M. & J. Youniss (1996). Community service and political–moral identity in adolescents. //Journal of Research on Adolescence 6//(3): 271–84.

Youniss, J., J. McLellan, & M. Yates (1997). What we know about engendering civic identity. //American Behavioral Scientist 40//(5): 620–31.

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**David Owen - National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement, UK**

Would be very interested to hear of the outcomes from this session. I am currently studying Palestinian cinema and culture and am looking at developing a Ph.D proposal about the role of university-community engagement in contested cities.

**Trae Stewart - Author/Presenter (traestewart@txstate.edu)**

Please find here a direct link to my website with the published article. Thanks to all who attended. []