Coalition for Christian Colleges and Universities
Global Stewardship Initiative
Westmont College
Global Stewardship Mayterm Currucular Development Project
Jeffrey P. Schloss
email: schloss@westmont.edu
Westmont College Global Stewardship Program
Final Project Summary
Report on a Curriculum Development Proposal Submitted to
the
CCUC Faculty Grant Program for Global Stewardship Projects
Jeffrey P. Schloss, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
with
James Halvorsen, Ph.D.
Associate Chaplain and Director of Leadership Development
Jonathan Wilson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Religious Studies
Westmont College
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
Project Overview:
The original project proposal for a Westmont College Global Stewardship Program, made to the CCUC Global Stewardship Program, set the goal of planning, having institutionally approved, and actually launching an off-campus, integrative Global Stewardship Mayterm for the college. The program was to revolve around two courses - a biological field course emphasizing ecological principles and tropical natural history, and an interdisciplinary course integrating theological/ethical, sociological, and scientific perspectives on global environmental issues. The (then remaining) steps outlined to achieve this goal entailed a) developing a formal curricular proposal and detailed course syllabi, and navigating them through the appropriate governance structures at the college, b) developing further contacts with local guides, field stations, etc., and finalizing logistic arrangements for an extended off-campus program, c) recruiting students and successfully offering the program for the first time.
Project Progress:
The first offering of this program consisted of two courses, one disciplinary and the other interdisciplinary (Tropical Ecology; and Biology, Values, & the Third World - syllabi appended). It entailed field excursions to a variety of habitats and indigenous communities, but utilized three field stations as primary bases: the Organization for Tropical Studies' La Selva Biological Station, Southern Nazarene University's Quetzal Education & Research Center, and the Christian Environmental Association's Jaguar Creek Reserve (program description and detailed itinerary appended). This first time around, it was limited to just seven students for purposes of maximizing both logistic simplicity and access to a number of restricted-availability field sites. While we had both majors and non-majors successfully participate, this first iteration was overtly pitched toward majors, which vastly streamlined the processes of both institutional approval for curricular credit, and recruitment/selection of student participants. While we will want to further develop the non-majors emphasis when additional faculty are involved in subsequent phases of the project (as outlined in the original proposal), this offering went so well that it is likely we will continue to offer an interdisciplinary Mayterm with a science-majors emphasis.
Project Evaluation:
While no formal project assessment has been requested to accompany this report, I do want to convey a number of evaluative observations. The curricular objectives specified in the original Project Proposal, which involved recognition of the significant need to develop an academic program that was a) environmental, b) interdisciplinary, and c) global in orientation would - as a direct consequence- be met (and could only be met) by successfully developing and approving the program's curriculum, and successfully offering it for the first time. This has been done. However, the particular educational objectives described in the course syllabi are more substantively linked to student outcomes and therefore worthy of ongoing operational assessment. The two major, specified objectives in this regard are a) to increase students' cognitive understanding and affective appreciation of the natural environment, and b) to motivate and equip students to be more effective stewards of the earth.
The first set of objectives can be meaningfully assessed, at least in part, by formal evaluative instruments (examinations, field notebooks, and course evaluations) and self-reports (journals and exit interviews). With respect to the affective dimension, student journals, ongoing discussion, and exit interviews reflected unanimous and strikingly intense expression of newly cultivated appreciative sensitivities (appended are student responses to a global question on the course evaluations - "Are you glad you went?"). While positive responses are typically difficult not to get from an even moderately successful travel program, the self-reported impact of this program on student participants significantly exceeded what I had expected and even imagined on the basis of my prior experience in field education.
Cognitive outcomes, on the other hand, were more mixed. Field notebooks
and written examinations indicated the students were more successful at
acquiring taxonomic knowledge and natural history skills than I have ever
before seen in a field course. However, their grasp of theoretical concepts
was distinctly more superficial than what is characteristic of equivalent
on-campus offerings at this institution.
Finally, the objective of equipping for praxis , or stewardship applications, is a more difficult area to assess. A pleasant surprise was the virtually unanimous claim by students that they benefited greatly from staying with the Belizean Mennonites and living at the sustainable Jaguar Creek facility, and the enthusiastic affirmation that they would like to see even more explicit emphasis on this dimension in further offerings of the program. Although we need to think through methods of longitudinally assessing achievement of "earthkeeping" outcomes, it is my sense that each participant experienced a heightened awareness of the importance of stewardship issues, but we did not succeed in helping students go on to develop new, environmentally-sensitive habits of living. It is my conviction that a longer (at least a full semester) residential program, plus extensive and comprehensively planned on-campus follow-up are necessary to achieve this goal.
I will add two evaluative comments on the contribution of the CCCU Global Stewardship Initiative to the attainment of our programmatic goals and the general enrichment of our campus "stewardship ethos". First, and perhaps most significantly, it is not an overstatement to say that this project would simply not have been consummated by now, without the support of the PEW Initiative. Most helpful, in fact absolutely essential, was the course reduction that allowed all the logistic planning and curricular refinement to occur. In addition, the monetary support was instrumental in helping us to acquire needed books, curricular resources, and field supplies. Modest though these funds were (only offsetting a fraction of the actual costs involved), they did tangibly contribute to making the critical difference between having and not having sufficient resources to launch the program.
Second, it is worth passing on that administrative support at our college, in the form of the concomitant course reduction that proved so helpful, was provided with some reticence, and unfortunately would not be repeatable: our Dean made it clear that the ratio of institutional (a course reduction is equivalent to $3,000 on our campus) to external contribution would not persuade him to respond favorably to similar proposals in the future. I don't know if faculty at other participating institutions encountered similar responses. At Westmont, where the administration has tended to be either lukewarm or resistant to environmental issues, but where the factors limiting faculty innovation have been not so much motivation, but time and curricular resources - the impact of an effort like the GSI would be greatly magnified by even a modest augmentation of support available for campus projects.
Third, the linking the GSI with opportunities for Coalition student involvement (through the joint efforts of the Christian Environmental Association and the Evangelical Environmental Network)has had a tremendous and wholly unforeseen impact on our campus. The level of student awareness and enthusiasm has risen dramatically by the recognition that there is a tangible "entry point" for Christian undergraduates interested in such issues, and by the perception that this effort is supported by their academic mentors and the larger evangelical world. Great idea - thank you for this contribution to our campus life.
Project Continuation:
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