This webinar introduces dispositions as a framework for students’ community-engaged learning. Dispositions are filters made up of values, beliefs, cultural backgrounds, and prior experiences that shape how we take in information and make sense of it. Too often, student orientation to community-engaged learning is a checklist of signing waiver forms, logging volunteer hours, and meeting minimum requirements. While logistics matter, the heart of preparation for engaging with community is bringing and developing a set of dispositions that foster positive cognitive and affective growth. While many dispositions can contribute to such growth, focusing on a small set of strategic dispositions provides a robust frame for making sense of community-engaged learning experiences. The webinar is structured around six dispositions: open-mindedness, humility, appreciation of community cultural wealth, intellectual curiosity, empathy, and commitment. These dispositions are particularly vital for community engaged learning designed to promote critical thinking and social justice.

 

Presenters:

David joined the McCarthy Center as Senior Director in 2015. Before coming to USF, David was the Interim Provost and Associate Vice Provost at Mills College in Oakland, California, and worked there for more than twenty years as a professor of education. David earned his doctorate in Education from Stanford University after earning a Bachelor’s of Arts in History as a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown University. David is a widely-published scholar on topics including service-learning in higher education, human rights, diversity and personal identity. He came to USF committed to the continuation of building a strong community while leading the McCarthy Center in its mission of helping inspire and prepare USF students for lives and careers of ethical public service.

 

Star Plaxton-Moore, Director of Community-Engaged Learning, Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good, University of San Francisco