Service-Learning and Social Enterprise: What's the Connection?

Last week I had the privilege of attending the Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise, in part to investigate another aspect of social engagement and the potential connection to service-learning.  Given the importance of work-integrated learning (Sattler, 2011) and the focus on entrepreneurial skills (Chiose, 2014) and our mandate that students “contribute to the communities they serve” (Humber College, n.d.) investigating social enterprise seemed like a good fit.  Not to mention some institutions in Canada are beginning to make the connection, usually alongside an academic department. 

“Telling our Story”

Within the first five minutes of the introduction, David LePage (known by many of the participants as the Canadian 'guru' on social enterprise) threw out the following concepts:  making meaningful contributions, creating social change, generating economic and social wealth, building communities, creating employment opportunities, business models, SROI (social return on investments), etc...  Clearly, there was much to learn.  

The conference theme was “Telling our Story”.  Each keynote speaker was a leader in a recognized, national social enterprise, tasked with describing how their social venture came to be.   One such speaker was Janice Abbott, CEO of Atira Development Society.  Janice described how she was hired as a director for the Atira women's shelter in BC, and over time not only developed several social enterprises, such as Enterprising Women Making Art, and a multimillion dollar property management venture, Atira Property Management Inc., but she also went on to develop an award-winning, Recycled Shipping Container Housing Development  project in BC. Some of her wisdom and advice is reflected in the themes I highlight in the next section.

Social Enterprise: Best Practice

Throughout the conference I picked up on five themes that were woven throughout each presentation:

1. Stick to your mission. Keeping to your mission helps organizations stay focused on their goals and serving their constituents.  This may even mean turning down much needed funding.  However, losing sight of your mission can create costly mistakes and shake the foundation of your mission.

2. Take risks and embrace failure.  Often individuals working for NGO’s are risk-averse for many reasons.  Experts suggest you have to be more entrepreneurial and and think of yourself as a business for the community.  Also small projects are wonderful, but sometimes you need to go big!

3. Think sustainable. This is at the core of social enterprise.  The theme of sustainability begins with businesses that are self-sustaining (profits are put back into the community) businesses that support environmental sustainability.

4. Build partnerships and cross-collaborate.  Both funding bodies and experts recommend building partnerships and collaborating with other NGO's, businesses, governments and / or academic institutions.  As well, don’t always rely on the same partners, take relational risk with people unlike yourself (Branzei, 2015)

5. Pay for talent.  Sometimes in order to be successful, a social enterprise must be willing to hire individuals who are experts in their fields in order to grow and develop a business.

So how does this fit with Service Learning?

Social enterprise is “an ongoing organization or venture created with the primary goal of achieving a social mission that uses a business model or earned income strategies in its operation” (Wade, 2015). 

Given the definition, I think the role academia can play is to prepare students for social ventures by providing content knowledge (concepts and theories), experience working in or with community agencies, and by providing business know-how (entrepreneurial skills).  Service-learning specifically, can act as one avenue for students to make community connections and spark an interest in community work.  Secondly, service-learning along with community outreach departments can provide valuable community contacts that could lead to fruitful partnerships. 

Like social enterprise, service-learning values social justice and sustainability.  Each sees a need to help communities develop over time and provide a means for individuals to develop self-efficacy.  Attending the 2015 CCSE conference was an eye-opening experience as it helped me to understand the depth and breadth of community programs, and the great potential when diverse organizations come together with the goal of making change.

For more information on the work already underway at Humber visit:

1. HumberLaunch 

2. Humber’s CE certificate in Social-Entrepreneurship 

(Let me know if I you would like me to add more resources!)

References

Branzei, O. (2015, 04 24). Community meets academia: collaboration through cross-sector partnership. Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise. London, ON.

Chiose, S. (2014, 10 10). Is university the place o learn to be an entrepreneur? The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 04 28, 2015, from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/is-university-the-place-to-learn-to-be-an-entrepreneur/article21068360/

Sattler, P. (2011). Work-integrated learning in Ontario's postsecondary sector. Toronto: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.

Wade, J. (2015, 04 23). Introduction to social enterprise: The forms and functions of the business. Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise. London, ON.

Reflection: What? So What? Now What?

Once you begin post-graduate studies you quickly learn that critical reflection is an essential and expected component.  Critical reflection leads to personal insight, and it helps to uncover the biases, cultural norms and daily practices that undoubtedly influence our professional practice.  As a self-confessed “over-thinker” it is rather refreshing to know I can put my natural reflex to good use.  However, in order to reap the benefits, it is important to understand that critical reflection requires a framework or a set of rules, and much practice, practice, practice. 

Reflection is also one of the key components of an effective and educative service-learning program.  It is the bridge that connects the community experience to classroom concepts and learning outcomes (Eyler, Summer 2001, Bringle & Hatcher, Summer 1999). 

Reflecting sounds easy enough, Moon (2001) suggests we engage in it naturally, usually when we are trying to work something out without an “obvious or immediate solution” (p. 2), but when you begin to plan for reflective activities in the classroom it starts to become a little more complicated.  For example, what types of reflective activities encourage learning that meets course outcomes? And how are reflective journals to be assessed?

What?

Over the next few weeks I will begin to pull together resources and frameworks to help answer some the questions on building reflective practices into the curriculum.  To begin let’s start with a definition that fits within the context of higher education:

“Reflection is a form of mental processing – like a form of thinking – that we use to fulfill a purpose or to achieve some anticipated outcome.  It is applied to relatively complicated or unstructured ideas for which there is not an obvious solution and is largely based on further processing of knowledge and understanding and possibly emotions that we already possess” (Moon, 2001)

Reflection allows us to:

“integrate the understanding gained into one’s experience in order to enable better choices or actions in the future as well as enhance one’s overall effectiveness” (Rogers , Fall 2001).

In its most basic form, reflection is about active, purposeful thinking.  Thinking that engages both cognitive and affective processes that lead to a new way of understanding, and the “integration of the new understanding into one’s experience” (p. 41).  In other words, students engage in reflection begin to question and even change what they believe to be true.  

Factors:

Reflection can be transformational, but as we will see, there are forces and factors that have to be in place for it to be effective, including student readiness (Correia & Bleicher, Spring 2008).  First, students may need to be taught how to reflect in order for connections to be made between their experience and classroom concepts.  Without experience or guidance, some students will tend toward a simple description of their service experience (p. 138), which does not demonstrate what they have learned, or that they have even made the connections between the experience and classroom concepts. 

Secondly, the ability to reflect is developmental, it matures over time and with practice (Ash, Clayton, & Atkinson, Spring 2005).  Students learning how to reflect must be ready to give themselves permission to “believe that their own experience is a legitimate source of knowledge” (p. 56).  Once students have made this leap, or are at least ready to take the risk, are more likely to produce deeper levels of reflection.

Finally, reflective activities must be explicitly tied to learning outcomes and assessment strategies.  If students do not perceive value in the reflective practice (for example, is it graded?), students are not likely to engage in the reflective activity (Moon, 2001).  Along the same lines, reflection activities that are regular and repeated lead to the greatest learning (Bringle & Hatcher, Summer 1999).  It is therefore imperative that students see value in, and engage in reflective activities.

Next week:  So What? Taking a closer look at the reasons why reflection is a key component of service-learning.

References

Ash, S. L., & Clayton, P. H. (Winter 2004). The articulated learning: An appraoch to guided reflection and assessment. Innovative Higher Education, 29(2), 137-154.

Ash, S. L., Clayton, P. H., & Atkinson, M. P. (Spring 2005). Integrating reflection and assessment to capture and improve student learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 49-60.

Bringle, R. G., & Hatcher, J. A. (Summer 1999). Reflection in service learning: Making meaning of experience. Educational Horizons, 179-185.

Correia, M. G., & Bleicher, R. E. (Spring 2008). Making connections to teach reflection. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 41-49.

Eyler, J. (Summer 2001). Creating your reflection map. New Directions for Higher Education, 114, 35-43.

Hatcher, J. A., Bringle, R. G., & Muthiah, R. (Fall 2004). Designing effective reflection: What matters to service-learning? Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 38-46.

Moon, J. (2001). PDP Working paper 4: Reflection in higher education learning. LTSN Generic Centre, 1-27.

Rogers , R. R. (Fall 2001). Reflection in higher education: A concept analysis. Innovative Higher Education, 26(1), 37-56.