ABSTRACT LANDSCAPES OF COMPASSION: A GUATEMALAN EXPERIENCE MAY 2011 TRAVIS WILLIAM SHULTZ A.S., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST B.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Peter Kumble, PhD If landscape architecture can intertwine with the practice of social justice, how should academic training provide an atmosphere where this correlation is developed? In a professional degree program, such as landscape architecture, there are a plethora of skills among students that can be utilized no only in their future careers, but during their academic experience. By learning the tools while implementing them, there is a profound educational opportunity to be taken advantage of. An even greater opportunity can be capitalized if the tools are implemented in a context where the deliverables make positive impacts on impoverished communities. The goal of this thesis is to demonstrate how a landscape architect can contribute to humanitarian efforts; and the opportunity for this contribution should begin within the walls of academia. To support this argument, the author reviews literature and clarifies the vision and targets of this style of learning. The most convincing part of this thesis was the implementation of a graduate level class, LA 591g: Applied Field Studies in Guatemala, where eight students, a professional, and a professor combined their scholastic, professional, and life experiences in a community service learning atmosphere. Their work lead to the start-up of AbonOrgánico, a non-for-profit company located in Guatemala City whose mission is: To supply necessary jobs to at-risk youth from impoverished communities within Guatemala City by taking organic waste from the Central Market in Guatemala City and producing high-quality compost. Students participated in a 9-day spring break trip to Guatemala City, 11 journal entries, 2 questionnaires, 5 group reflection meetings, a 145-slide department-wide presentation, and a 12-chapter manual including a site design, construction details, operational guidelines, and a business plan. In the pages of the thesis, the reader will see how this class set out to make a difference with the tools they had, and they did, but the most profound difference was made by this community on them.

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Every product has economic, environmental, and social impacts whether or not those impacts are explicitly considered. These impacts affect society and are an important part of engineering design. "Triple Bottom Line Sustainability" focuses on economic, environmental, and social sustainability and has become an important goal for those designing products. Economic considerations are an established part of the engineering design process. Environmental considerations are increasingly being considered in design including the development of design standards and widely used methodologies. Social impact considerations, however, lack the standardization and wide inclusion of economic and environmental considerations. This results in reduced and unbalanced consideration of social impacts compared to economic and environmental impacts. Improved consideration of social impacts in engineered products would benefit society in many areas of life. While many tools and methodologies for assessing social impact exist and are used in the social science and development fields, these tools are not broadly used in the engineering community. Some reasons these methods are not more standardly practiced include designers not being aware of the methods, methods not being widely applicable or adaptable, methods being too complicated or time intensive to use, or methods not being useful in product development processes. The purpose of this research is to classify and organize design tools for social impact and create methods that fill holes in the social impact design tool space. The classification and organization is done through the classification of 374 papers in the EGD literature along several dimensions including method purpose, industry sector, social impacts considered, sustainable development goals, paper setting, and data inputs required. This will increase awareness of available methods and help designers find relevant research to aid them. Additionally, this research describes two methods developed by the author to fill specific gaps identified in the literature.

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This study investigated integrated learning at a Christian university, the Christian Bilingual University of the Congo (UCBC) with the view to improving higher education practice in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which is tasked with addressing social problems. Higher education in the DRC is shaped by its colonial legacy and a teacher-centred approach focused on theory, typical of a banking-type learning and a lack of integration. These factors stifle critical thinking and initiative in students and prevent them from developing into service-oriented agents for change in their communities. The advent of Christian universities has heralded a quest for holistic training to foster character and produce civic-minded and service-oriented citizens. A qualitative study using a phenomenology as methodology investigated the lived experiences in integrated learning and service in the community of twelve purposefully selected UCBC alumni. Data was obtained through semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Findings indicated that integrated learning is holistic education which engages mind, heart, soul and body; it combines practice and theory in training and prepares students to contribute to national welfare. It occurs in a multiple component and dimensional context and is characterized by learner-centeredness, active learning and constant interaction among the school community members. It is focused on the building of the inner person of the learner. Further, participants understood transformation as part of personal development, a lifelong process that moves a person to act differently in community after his personal assumptions have been deeply revised through his encounter with integrated learning. Its impact is character development as foundation for bold action in the community, the rediscovery of one’s identity, the development of servant leadership, team work and social networking and dependence on God. Findings revealed that transformed learners initiated a change of mentality and experienced culture conversion in their communities through confronting problems and modelling servanthood. It also established the enactment of integrated learning as a contributor to personal and community transformation as a result of students’ ‘echoed words’ and actions as learning-teachers. Based on the findings recommendations were made for the strengthening of integrated learning in Christian universities. / Educational Foundations / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / Bibliography / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: During the past number of years, the pressure on universities worldwide, including universities in South Africa, has increased to bridge the gap between higher education and society. This includes becoming active partners with its communities. Therefore, the importance of community engagement as one of the three pillars of higher education, alongside teaching and learning, and research, has gained considerable momentum. Higher education institutions in South Africa are also increasingly challenged to elevate the status of their teaching and to raise their levels of community engagement. This also pertains to the area of postgraduate education, which points to the need for a close relationship between teaching, learning and research. The aim of this study was to develop a contextualised and integrated curriculum framework for community-engaged teaching, learning and research in a postgraduate Play Therapy programme. This was done using a contextualised perspective on higher education with reference to current higher education legislation in South Africa as well as curriculum development in general. A literature review of community engagement provided a perspective on the current state of community engagement - nationally, as well as internationally. The study used a qualitative single case study design and an interpretive paradigm to generate empirical data. The first phase of the empirical part of the study focused on determining the current state of community engagement within the postgraduate Play Therapy programme. Data was generated using questionnaires completed by current students and lecturers. In the second phase of the empirical study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with lecturers from 13 national as well as international higher education institutions to review curriculum frameworks and content from other higher education community engagement models. The last empirical phase included two focus groups, one with current students and one with current lecturers in the postgraduate Play Therapy programme under investigation. From the findings of the study, a curriculum framework emerged which outlines community engagement within the postgraduate programme. The emerging framework points to the need for a stronger integration of teaching and learning with community engagement (service component) through service learning. In the South African context and within the programme that was investigated, service learning provides for engaged learning which includes experiential learning and opportunities for students to engage in interactive and experiential processes. The study has also pointed out that research within the postgraduate programme should reflect, in a much stronger way, links to community-based research. Such links may benefit a scholarship of engagement. Also, the research component of the programme needs to be linked more closely to teaching and learning in order to better inform the curriculum in terms of trends, needs and priorities. These activities need to take place within community partnerships with a reciprocal benefit to both the programme and the communities involved. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Universiteite wêreldwyd, asook in Suid-Afrika, het gedurende die afgelope paar jaar druk ervaar om die gaping tussen hoër onderwys en die gemeenskap te verminder. Dit sluit in om aktiewe vennote van gemeenskappe te word. Die belangrikheid van gemeenskapsbetrokkenheid as een van die drie pilare van hoër onderwys, saam met leer, onderrig en navorsing, het dus aansienlik toegeneem. Hoëronderwysinstansies in Suid-Afrika word ook uitgedaag om die stand van hul leer en onderrig te verhoog en die vlakke van hul gemeenskapsbetrokkenheid te versterk. Dit geld ook vir nagraadse opleiding, wat neerkom op 'n hegter verband tussen leer, onderrig en navorsing. Die doel van hierdie navorsing was om 'n gekontekstualiseerde en geïntegreerde kurrikulumraamwerk vir gemeenskapsgerigte leer, onderrig en navorsing binne 'n nagraadse program in Spelterapie te ontwikkel. Dit is gedoen deur 'n kontekstuele oorsig van hoër onderwys te gee met verwysing na die huidige hoëronderwys-wetgewing in Suid-Afrika asook 'n oorsig oor kurrikulumontwikkeling. 'n Literatuuroorsig van gemeenskapsbetrokkenheid het perspektief op die huidige stand van gemeenskapsbetrokkenheid landwyd én wêreldwyd verskaf. Hierdie studie berus op 'n kwalitatiewe enkelgevallestudie-ontwerp en benut 'n interpretatiewe paradigma om die empiriese data te genereer. Die eerste fase van die empiriese gedeelte van die studie was gerig op die bepaling van die huidige stand van gemeenskapsbetrokkenheid in die meestersprogram in Spelterapie. Data is gegenereer deur die gebruik van vraelyste wat deur huidige studente en dosente ingevul is. In die tweede fase van die empiriese studie is semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude met dosente van 13 nasionale asook internasionele hoëronderwysinstansies gevoer om die kurrikulumraamwerke en inhoud van ander hoër instansies se gemeenskaps-betrokkenheidsmodelle te verken. Die laaste empiriese fase sluit twee fokusgroepe in - een met huidige studente en een met huidige dosente in die meestersprogram in Spelterapie, wat die onderwerp van hierdie studie uitmaak. 'n Kurrikulumraamwerk het vanuit die bevindinge van die studie ontstaan wat 'n uiteensetting van gemeenskapsbetrokkenheid in die meestersprogram in Spelterapie verskaf. Die opkomende raamwerk dui op die behoefte aan sterker integrasie van leer en onderrig met gemeenskapsbetrokkenheid (dienskomponent) deur middel van diensleer. In die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks en in die program wat ondersoek is, bied diensleer die geleentheid vir betrokke leer wat die volgende insluit: ervaringsleer en geleenthede vir studente om betrokke te raak by interaktiewe ervaringsprosesse. Die studie het ook uitgewys dat navorsing in die meestersprogram op 'n baie sterker wyse die verband met gemeenskapsgerigte navorsing moet reflekteer. Hierdie konneksies kan ook die vakkundigheid van betrokkenheid versterk. Daarby moet die navorsingskomponent van die program nader aan leer en onderrig beweeg sodat die kurrikulum altyd die jongste tendense, behoeftes en prioriteite weerspieël. Hierdie aktiwiteite moet in gemeenskapsvennootskappe plaasvind om voordele vir die program sowel as die betrokke gemeenskappe te bied.