Critical distance: doing development education through international volunteering

Abstract

Development education is an under‐theorised aspect of international volunteering, yet it is implicit in the mission statements of many sending organisations when they promise a transformative experience. What does international volunteering offer, and can it make returned volunteers ‘think global’? This paper suggests a tentative definition of development education, outlining key pedagogical concepts that can be applied to analysis of international volunteering projects. Case study research about Platform2, a pilot ‘Global Learning’ scheme funded by the UK government, explores components and challenges of delivery. Discussion highlights the importance of formal structuring of educational opportunities, how international volunteering can both perpetuate and disrupt stereotypes of the global South, the role of proximity in expanding volunteers' capacity to think critically about development, as well as the drawbacks of jumping scale to learn about citizenship.

Finding oneself while discovering others: An existential perspective on volunteer tourism in Thailand

“…Fourth, the intra-personal theme most commonly linked to volunteer tourism is personal transformation (Coghlan & Weiler, 2015;Diprose, 2012;Lee & Woosnam, 2010;Sherraden, Lough, & McBride, 2008). McGehee and Santos (2005) argue that the distinctiveness of volunteer tourism helps to explain why it provides opportunities for consciousness-raising, while Coghlan and Gooch (2011, p. 716) treat volunteer tourism as a form of transformative learning, which ''changes problematic sets of reference to frames of reference that are more inclusive, discriminating, open, reflective and emotionally able to change."…”

The Social Justice Turn: Cultivating “Critical Hope” in an Age of Despair

“…While the above topics imbricated in social justice are not new to the literature, there has been a recent proliferation of research that deals with them. With the staggering variability of programs organized under the banner of service-learning, it is unsurprising that the field may be critiqued for its capacity to reify harmful stereotypes, reproduce racism, and reinscribe the exhausted First-versus Third-World dichotomy, while promoting in mainly privileged university students a self-congratulatory sense of having altruistically helped those in need (Cipolle, 2010;Diprose, 2012;Grusky, 2000;Purpel, 1999;Vaccaro, 2009). other critiques outline concerns over the community impact and exploitation (Butin, 2003(Butin, , 2010Cipolle, 2010), emotional voyeurism (Bowdon & Scott, 2002;Butin, 2006;Langstraat & Bowdon, 2011;Purpel, 1999), and the inaccessibility of the pedagogy for marginalized students (Butin, 2006;Verjee & Butterwick, 2014), among others.…”

How do International Volunteering Characteristics Influence Outcomes? Perspectives from Partner Organizations

“…Much of the criticism for short-term volunteering are based on studies using samples of young international volunteers (Diprose 2012;Simpson 2004;Tiessen and Heron 2012). Opportunities for students to learn abroad have expanded beyond university-based study abroad options.…”