Taking+action+talking+action

**Taking action, talking action** Adam Davis, Project on Civic Reflection adavis@civicreflection.org]



** Keywords: ** Civic reflection, reflection resources, building dynamic reflective discussion into service activities

** Track: **Student development and learning

** Format: **Conversation hour

**Date & time:** Thursday 9:30-10:40 **Location:** Crystal Room

** Summary: ** Too much service, at college and beyond, happens without sufficient space and structure for reflection. As a result, service can remain an externally motivated task rather than an internalized habit or commitment or even an experience from which participants are likely to learn. Over the last several years, the Project on Civic Reflection has trained hundreds of facilitators, led discussion series, and developed resources to support the integration of reflective discussion into the way many service activities get done.

This session will be a conversation about action and reflection, and specifically about ways to build dynamic reflective discussion into service activity. We will discuss the practice of civic reflection, resources to support it (including //The Civically Engaged Reader// and //Taking Action: A Reader//), and the impact of the practice on students, faculty, staff, and community partners. The two key questions for the session will be: 1) What, if anything, gets lost if we do not talk about the meaning of our service? 2) How can we best help people talk in fresh, open, and generative ways about the meaning of their community-minded work?

The basic case is that meliorative action in the world is complex and challenging work. In order to ensure that our action remains meliorative, and in order to increase the likelihood that we remain committed to such action, we have to find ways to ask ourselves, over and over, and often with peers, about the character of the intervention we are trying to make in the world. The key tools we will refer to are //The Civically Engaged Reader// and //Taking Action: A Reader//.

** References: ** Davis, A. (Ed.). (Forthcoming in Jan, 2012). //Taking action: A reader//. Chicago, IL: Great Books Foundation.

Davis, A., & Lynn, E. (Eds.).//The civically engaged reader.// Chicago, IL: Great Books Foundation.

Davis, A. (Ed.) (2009) //Hearing the call across traditions: Readings on faith and service. Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths.//

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**Billy O'Steen:** Totally stoked that Adam will be at the Conference. We used The Civically Engaged Reader for our service-learning course on earthquake recovery efforts by students and they absolutely loved the readings that led them into deep reflection.