Daniel J. Greenberg | Teaching Global Citizenship, Social Change, and Economic Development in a History Course: A Course Model in Latin American Travel/Service Learning | The History Teacher, 41.3

Teaching Global Citizenship, Social Change, and Economic Development in a History Course: A Course Model in Latin American Travel/Service Learning

Daniel J. Greenberg
Pace University, New York City

TEACHING ABOUT SOCIAL CHANGE and Third World economic development in Latin American History courses has long proved an exercise in frustration; in part due to the radically different conditions of life, culture, and work that North American college students know from experience.¹ Even in courses where theoretical and empirical studies of economic underdevelopment and its social impacts have been assigned and discussed, students tend intellectually and emotionally to resist the notion that most of the population of Asia, Latin America, and Africa face radically different life chances and spend most of their lives attempting to maintain a level of bare survival. Part of this intellectual myopia has been nurtured by neo-liberal, pro-globalization ideologies that today dominate the thought of North American and Western European societies.² Since 1980, and especially since the fall of the Soviet Union, acceptance of the "Washington Consensus," a slate of neo-liberal policies mandating liquidation of the welfare state, establishment of universal free trade, privatization of state-owned enterprises and other free market reforms, has gained ideological and policy hegemony in both the developing and developed worlds.³ This triumph of western capitalism has created student conceptual barriers in courses in Latin American History and other social sciences, for which learning objectives include the comprehension of Third World poverty, poor wealth distribution, and economic underdevelopment.⁴ Those who additionally teach global civic engagement by promoting the notion that students are participants in a wealthy capitalist society and therefore have a moral obligation to assist the Third World struggle for economic development and social survival, face similar conceptual blinders. To put the problem another way: the very situation of global privilege that is a consequence of First World/Third World inequality can be a barrier to teaching concepts of global citizenship, social change, and under-development.

Since the late 1990s, however, many countries which had carried out wide-ranging neo-liberal reform had suffered significant social, cultural, environmental, and economic damage, triggering an expanding movement of opposition. Beginning with the 1999 Seattle meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO), militant protests greeted virtually every gathering of the WTO, World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Group of Eight—the concert of powerful, highly industrialized nations which had been early promoters of market reforms.⁵ In the "Battle of Seattle," an impromptu coalition of more than 10,000 progressive youth (especially anarchists), trade unionists, human rights advocates, and environmentalists protested militantly while WTO negotiators sought to advance the free trade agenda.⁶ The size and intensity of the protests overwhelmed Seattle's police and forced the meeting's abrupt closure.⁷ The September 2000 Prague meeting of the IMF and World Bank witnessed even more violent protests. Police threw gas at and arrested hundreds, as some protesters hurled Molotov cocktails and thousands chanted, "London, Seattle—continue the battle!"⁸

Moreover, beginning in 1998, and especially since 2002, major Latin governments have added their voices to this crescendo of anti-globalization sentiment.⁹ Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez, first elected in 1998, was an early leader of the Latin anti-globalization movement. Lately, he has championed criticism of U.S.-sponsored neo-liberal reform.¹⁰ In 2002, the victory of Brazil's democratic socialist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva brought the region's largest and most populous country into this movement, which was joined by Argentine left-Peronist Néstor Kirchner in May 2003. Emblematic of a continental uprising of indigenous peoples, Bolivia's Evo Morales and his Movement towards Socialism party gained power the same year. In late 2004, Uruguayan socialist Tabaré Vásquez's Frente Amplio (Broad Front) followed with another victory. All have emerged as vocal critics of neo-liberal, globalization reform; and especially of U.S. efforts to convince the region to implement the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), a continentally expanded version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).¹¹ In addition to the classic criticism of the policy's counter-development and socially regressive aspects, they have criticized the inequitable character of Washington's concept of free trade. As a counterpoise, South American nations have instead tended to strengthen and expand Mercosur, the region's largest trade and political union.¹²

After 2001, escalating resistance to globalization began to generate self-criticism and calls for reform, even from such bastions of liberal globalization as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.¹³ These reforms were designed to attenuate the impact of neo-liberal programs on the poorest of less developed countries (LDCs) by providing for a system to declare national bankruptcy and receive debt forgiveness.¹⁴ Moreover, the internal critics acknowledged that too rapid imposition of market reforms could result in social and economic disaster.

For educators, the anti-globalization movement has created a literature of opposition which offers enhanced opportunities for teaching critical analysis of neo-liberal political economy. The movement also aids those who wish to teach how First World wealth and privilege is functionally related to Third World poverty and underdevelopment. The pedagogy of travel/service learning offers promising advantages in both areas. This paper will outline an innovative history course which has been successful in attaining these outcomes. My purpose is to present the course as a model to enhance conventional pedagogies. The course possesses a unique "rotating venue" design which in alternate years travels to Argentina, Peru, or Brazil, where students work in short-term community development projects. Our underlying assumption is that with some caveats, what students learn in any of these countries can be applied to understanding the greater surrounding region. I will begin by describing the course, its methodologies, and the development of "adoption relationships" with Latin social agencies. I will discuss some of the active learning techniques employed to link experiential with conceptual learning. Finally, I will offer a variation on Paulo Freire's theory of concientizacão (consciousness-raising) to explain how First World students can benefit from a travel/service learning experience.¹⁵

I. The Rio Prototype: 1995, 2000, and 2004

The three credit course offering, History 243, "Service and Study in Latin America," was launched in 1995 with the Brazil destination course that became its prototype. Like its two variants, the Rio version of HIS 243 begins with five weeks of intensive, multidisciplinary study of the country analyzed historically and by allied social sciences. Themes of special focus include the historical generation of underdevelopment and an understanding of the dimensions and consequences of Latin poverty. But in each case, these themes are tailored to issues of particular interest to the focus country. Thus, for Brazil, the class focuses upon urban poverty, race relations, homelessness, and the phenomenon of the favela or urban squatter settlement. Rather than lecturing, the professor uses Freirian dialogics, group reflection, and journaling to relate students' knowledge of New York's urban problems (poverty, racial and ethnic discrimination, poor public education, violent crime, and homelessness) to similar aspects of Rio de Janeiro's social geography. At the same time, we teach that Rio is a capital of underdevelopment just as New York is an international center of finance, high culture, entertainment, and technology. Documentary films like The Children of Rio and the fictionalized semi-documentary City of God depict the situation of socially abandoned street children and the drug-plagued, gang-dominated life of some favelas, respectively. Moreover, the feature film Central Station depicts Brechtian characters who react with astonishment to Brazil's vastness, cultural complexity, and the coexistence of its massive resource wealth with generalized, severe poverty and underdevelopment. All three films are utilized to familiarize the country's sights and sounds and to stimulate discussion on social and development issues. Invited speakers from the Brazil Consulate-General and other universities analyze issues like hunger, the urban marginalized, and the favela as a human habitat.

Another important part of the classroom segment seeks to mold the group into a harmonious, well-functioning team which can wrestle with issues of cultural toleration. To achieve this, an expert trained in the concepts of cultural adaptation and service learning facilitates two workshops. In the team-building exercise, students are encouraged to overcome private barriers, bond with their peers, and learn how to work together as a unit. In the adaptation workshop, they are urged to recognize and struggle against attitudes of racial, class, and First World privilege. The sessions are often emotionally intense, as the facilitator confronts unconscious discriminatory attitudes and challenges participants to recognize and overcome them. Another goal of these exercises is to learn the concept of universal brother/sisterhood. This aspect reveals one of travel/service learning's most stunning potentialities: that of promoting values change and personal maturation.

The ten-day stay in Rio, usually scheduled during the spring recess, is the course's highlight and pedagogical keystone. The Brazil course has developed two community development projects. In one, the class renovates a public elementary school located on the fringes of a favela.¹⁶ In the 2004 project, we worked within the favela and renovated a community social center which favelados had built with their own resources. Escôla Municipal Pace (Pace Primary School) is located just outside Jacaresinho, one of Rio's largest favelas. Nearly all of the school's students are black or mulatto and live in the community. Favelas typically lack all municipal services, telecommunication, mail delivery, banks, and professional services including health or dental care. While the squatter settlements have always existed in Brazil, their multiplication and prevalence on the urban landscape is a consequence of the massive post-war Latin phenomenon of internal migration. That development is a troubling symptom of the failure of the rural sector, resulting in empty interior areas and overly large cities which are poorly equipped to serve their bloated populations.

When we arrived in 1993 to "scout" the Escôla Pace location, we found the building dilapidated and in urgent need of basic maintenance. We met with school administrators, members of the Board of Education, and Mayor César Maia. We told them of our intention to bring a class and asked what we could do to help. Mayor Maia and the administrators felt that, given the lack of budgetary resources for even basic maintenance, their greatest need was for a "paint-up, fix-up" project. This had clear advantages: it would meet a real need, could be planned to avoid disruptions, and would not exceed our students' capabilities. Moreover, we reached an accord leading to an "adoption agreement" which stated that every few years, Pace would send groups of students and faculty to carry out similar projects, always after consultation with the Brazilians. This agreement became a prototype for pacts concluded later in Argentina and Peru. Adoption agreements are a sine qua non to creating a course like "Service and Study in Latin America." In negotiating them, it is essential to emphasize the program's benefits for both sides. Moreover, the thrust and objectives must be defined by the host agency, structuring the relationship as one between equals rather than as "foreign aid." Such an accord helps ensure the project's success and opens doors of friendship and collaboration.

In March 1995, we returned to Rio with a group of eight students. In five days of intensive effort, students and faculty patched and painted five of the school's eight classrooms. In order to promote the democratic team concept, it is essential to have faculty work alongside students and avoid assuming the role of "boss" or supervisor. My tasks included repainting the school's sign in green and yellow, the national colors. We ate lunch at the school cafeteria and included "cultural exchange activities" in daily visits to the classrooms. These exchanges focused on subjects of interest to the children. Not surprisingly, many concerned internationally known popular musicians, such as Michael Jackson, and Brazilian soccer superstars. When asked about their career plans, nearly all the boys expressed dreams of being professional soccer players or skilled workers; the girls tended toward teaching in public schools. The lack of broader vistas reflected the favelados' bleak future. It also stunned our middle-class students, whose sights were set on careers as scholars, professionals, or business executives.

In March 1995, Pace students donned exotic Carnaval costumes given to them by contestants in a Rio samba school competition. A sambista is at center, with high hat.

During afternoons, we conducted group "reflections" (structured discussions). These take the form of Freirian dialogics—each student is asked to reflect on the day's experience and relate it to course concepts. Often, class members noted how poverty and the difficulty of obtaining even a high school education clearly narrowed the children's life chances. While Brazilian public schools are a sheltered environment, if analyzed carefully, they provide a laboratory for the study of urban poverty. We learned that the school provided three free meals and uniforms in an effort to relieve hunger and soften poverty's harshest impacts. The attitude of teachers (who were universally female and seemed to emanate from middle-class backgrounds) was one of evident compassion toward the children.

On the last day at the school, Escôla Pace's teachers and students organized a "cultural pageant" in our honor. This consisted of a demonstration of the samba, Brazil's national dance, and some of the other carnival rituals for which the city gained international fame. With hilarious result, the children tried to teach us to samba. Later that afternoon, we hosted an ice cream social. Imagine our amazement observing the look of surprise and delight as the youngsters experienced ice cream for the first time. Our goodbyes were moving; tears flowed freely from both sides. Many were touched at how quickly these strangers had offered us warm friendship. During that evening's reflection, class members read from their journals. They expressed amazement that the children's poverty had not left them callous or embittered. The openness with which Brazilians expressed friendship and love surprised the relatively cautious and self-protective New Yorkers. Others commented that in spite of language, cultural, and material differences, we shared a basic humanity. Several expressed a desire to return; one said she had decided to change her major from Business to Sociology, so that she could "make a difference." Such ego and values transformation are frequent and rewarding outcomes of this novel pedagogy.

In March 2000, the Pace-Brazil team painted a mural to decorate an Escôla Pace wall. Shown here, its communitarian theme was "Two Schools, One Mission."

After returning to New York, our class met only a few times. We had one reflection to sum-up the trip's main "lessons," and there was still a research paper to write and a capstone seminar to share overall perspectives. Both included experiential and conventional learning components.

II. The Argentine Counterpoint: 1997 and 2001

In March 1997, we returned to South America for the second course offering. Our decision to create two additional course venues was based on several considerations. Many of Pace's students are of Hispanic descent and thus have greater affinity with Hispanic America than Brazil. We wanted to give them an opportunity to explore their collective identity and experience Latin America's diversity. We also wished to offer varied career enrichment opportunities by developing several kinds of community development projects. Argentina is unique in Latin America for its stark division into two regions which differ greatly in ethnicity and level of economic development.¹⁷ The coast, or Pampa, is almost entirely European in ethnicity, including the magnificent and beautiful city of Buenos Aires. But the country's vast and underdeveloped Northwest is Inca in culture, life-ways, and ethnicity. This region's poverty, economic backwardness, and vast gaps between rich and poor make it identifiably Latin American.

Since, as a historian, I specialize in Argentina's economic and social history, I already had contacts there and utilized them to locate our second course venue in a northwestern rural provincial hospital. Once again, a preparatory trip was necessary to confer with hospital management, decide on the type of project the Argentines desired, and sign an adoption agreement. In the summer of 1994, I visited the town and met the hospital's director, who quickly expressed a desire to form a partnership. Like the Rio school, the hospital suffered from physical neglect. In part due to a conscious decision by the national government to allow interior regions to fend for themselves, such neglect is generalized in Latin America and is an unfortunate consequence of the "Washington Consensus."¹⁸ Everywhere, this program has included selling off state assets, eliminating spending on social needs, and repealing tariffs on competing foreign manufactures. One result was the collapse of Argentina's sugar industry, which was focused in this region. Shorn of their jobs and medical coverage, workers and their families quickly overwhelmed the hospital's ability to meet their needs. As a course venue, the hospital was promising in illustrating an important learning objective. The hospital's inability to serve its clientele revealed how U.S.-led globalization had contributed to the decline of quality of life.

When I began discussing our project with the director, he asked if we had a medical school or nursing program. He knew about U.S. prenatal health programs and wanted his staff to be trained in patient education. Infant mortality is high in the region, making this one of the hospital's most pressing needs. Informed that we possessed a nursing school, the director asked if we could recruit some of its students to train his staff in prenatal patient education. He was excited by this prospect and suggested that in return, his staff educate our novices in the use of Quechua medicinal herbs and family health counseling. Thus we embarked on a hybrid project: half the class would engage in an exchange of healthcare training; the other half would complete a building "beautification" project similar to the Rio prototype.

The medical staff of Argentina's Tafi del Valle Hospital toast the Pace 1997 visit.

In March 1997, our Argentina team arrived. Due to long neglect and a humid climate, the building's interior walls were flaking and pitted, and some were crumbling. This led to our renovation team spending as much time shoring and patching as we did painting. As foreseen, our nurses served by creating a hospital prenatal care program Our hosts were very happy with the students' clinical seminars, and our nurses prepared for stateside follow-up by agreeing to translate, print, and send prenatal care brochures for the hospital's clientele. For their part, the Argentines schooled our team in native pharmaceuticals and led a seminar about the problem of spousal abuse among the Quechua, a not infrequent cause of female hospitalization.

Due to the cultural richness of this area of Argentina, we had many opportunities to visit museums and learn about the Inca past. Our hosts provided a physician who gave talks on folk medicine and an anthropologist who led us on a tour of the surrounding valley. The tour included the ruin of Quilmes, the capital of a Quechua-speaking people who had resisted the Spanish conquest. We learned how the Quilmes, like "our own" Cherokee, had proven so difficult to subordinate that the Spanish had led them on a forced resettlement march to an area south of Buenos Aires which today bears their name. The strong indigenous cultural component of the Argentine course added a dimension which gave it special richness. Overall, the satisfaction expressed by both students and the Argentines reinforced the perception that the program was meeting its goals and that we should move forward on incorporating a third venue.

III. Cycle Completed in Peru: 1999 and 2003

In 1999, we completed the course cycle by bringing the class to Peru. Peru's northern Sechura region is a tropical arid land where irrigation has enabled the production of rich crops of rice, bananas, and coconut. During the mid-1990s, a weather disaster struck; the El Niño weather phenomenon brought torrential rains and widespread flooding, stripping the rich topsoil and pauperizing thousands of farm families whose smallholdings were rendered barren. Suddenly, these poor but self-sufficient farmers required food donations to survive.¹⁹

I had learned of this disaster from Patricia, a Peruvian employee of the travel agency which had arranged the Argentine itinerary. Patricia knew what our project's goals were and also knew that to succeed, we would need the support of local authorities. Her father had been mayor of Sullana, a fast-growing hardscrabble town that was the valley's commercial and administrative center. She described the situation of the farmers and convinced me that her father could use his good offices to provide an official invitation.

In mid-1998, I journeyed to Sullana to investigate a Peruvian third venue. But first, I visited Cuzco and nearby Machu Picchu, a well-preserved ruin of an entire Inca city which is an Inca showplace. I wanted to determine if it was possible to begin our trip here to teach about Peru's Spanish colonial background and Inca prehistory. From Cuzco, I continued north to Sullana and met with Patricia's father and other local authorities. I explained our project and asked how we could be of assistance. The local officials identified feeding programs as their most important need. I visited several of the villages and decided that Sofia, the poorest, offered the greatest possibilities. Sofia's roads were rutted and unpaved, its homes windowless adobe huts. The town's farmers used mules or men to drive the plows that broke its soil. Its kitchen "ovens" were outdoor earthen pits. There was no running water or indoor plumbing. Sofia thus epitomized the grueling rural poverty which is the fate of many Latin Americans. We chose it because its needs were greatest and best exemplified rural underdevelopment. We chose Peru partly because its population is predominantly native American, and thus offered a striking contrast from the other course venues.

Pace students hike the challenging terraces of Machu Picchu, an archeological highlight of the 1999 course.

In March 1999, we returned with nine students and a 22 year-old Pace employee named Erik W., who was sent by a university center for the promotion of service learning. Erik was highly skilled in team-building and the pedagogy of service learning. In addition to being a constant source of advice and guidance, he proved to be an important communication link with the students.²⁰ The trip began with three days in Cuzco and Machu Picchu. The students rhapsodized about the culture, impressive achievements, and exoticism of both places. Learning about the "Three Commandments" of ancient Inca civilization ("Thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not be lazy."), they developed a strong liking and respect for Peru. Equally important, the Cuzco-Machu Picchu excursion energized them for the following week of intensive effort. Moreover, Cuzco and its surrounding "Sacred Valley" provided a wealth of archeological resources which strongly enriched the course's educational content.

We travelled to Sullana on a Monday with the goal to assist an existing feeding program in Sofia. As noted above, El Niño's disastrous flooding had the normally self-sufficient farmers experiencing severe poverty and hunger. The tillers and their families responded by forming cooperatives, pooling their human and financial resources to deal with the cruelest impacts of the crisis. For us, the opportunity to help was an exciting and positive development. Confronted with the State's withdrawal from social spending, Latin American poor have developed new and cooperative forms of survival. In Sofia, for example, the feeding project was led by village women and financed internally. Working with Sofia's Women's Council, our students spent their time buying, preparing, cooking, and serving food. While the Council acquired most of the food, our students provided donations which enabled the Council to buy meat and other items normally beyond their budget. Gestures of this type cost little and mightily enhance the quality of life for the poor.

Sofia's children attend a cultural exchange with the 1999 Pace team.

A small subgroup of our students, majors in Accounting and Management, split off from the class to advise the Sullana women on streamlining distribution and financial record-keeping. Like the main project, this aspect was requested by the Peruvians and it became one of the most successful elements. After returning to New York, the students utilized e-mail to continue to advise and assist the Peruvian organizers. This demonstrated our students' tendency to integrate global civic engagement into their lives, an exciting realization of one of the main course goals. They often declared that they had not only learned useful concepts, they had also "changed as a person." Overall, our assessment was that "Peru" had been the most successful venue in imparting our learning objectives, creating a cooperative team, and building strong student satisfaction. We think there were three reasons for this. First, we had learned from the previous trips and had corrected our mistakes. Second, Erik's assistance helped keep the students unified and committed to the program. And third, rural Peru's stark poverty and primitive farming techniques acted as a catalyst to convey our learning objectives relating to underdevelopment and its social impact.

These Cuzco sisters are children of cargadores (human beasts of burden). The city's Centro Cargador was Pace's 2003 and 2007 adoption partner for the Peruvian service learning course.

IV. Assessment

This study contends that the pedagogy of travel/service learning can offer important advantages for teachers of Third World History in enhancing instructional quality. To assess that claim's validity, we employed student evaluations of teaching. The utility of student evaluations is a subject of sharp controversy among scholars, but most agree that when used in conjunction with other forms of assessment, the ratings can be an effective measure of teaching effectiveness.²¹ To assess this study, we employed the Pace University Dyson College of Arts and Science's standard student evaluation surveys required for all courses between 1999 and 2005. During this period, the College experimented with three survey forms. In order to make analysis consistent over time, we utilized only two questions asked on all three versions of the survey: those assessing the quality of the course and the quality of instruction. Our hypothesis was that if travel/service learning pedagogy constitutes a superior form of teaching, then students should have rated the course and instructional quality of HIS 243 higher than other courses taught by the same instructor using conventional (lecture/discussion) pedagogies.

Data from the student evaluations was analyzed as follows: First, the arithmetic mean ("average") of responses to questions measuring course and instructional quality was calculated for HIS 243 and all other "HIS" (History) courses taught by the same instructor. The surveys asked students to choose between five responses in rating course and instructional quality. These responses were given numerical values ranging from 5.0 (highest course or instructional quality) to 1.0 (lowest course or instructional quality). The averages for course and instructional quality were then calculated and combined to obtain an overall average of "course/instructional quality." Similarly, combined average course/instructional quality scores were calculated for all conventional pedagogy courses (see Table 1). This data is presented graphically in Figure 1. In both Table 1 and Figure 1, the data presented as "Student Evaluation" are the combined averages for course/instructional quality ratings.

TABLE 1 HIS 243 VS. CONVENTIONALLY TAUGHT COURSES STUDENT EVALUATION OF TEACHING


YEAR	DESTINATION	HIS 243	OTHER HIS

1999	PERU	4.8	4.8
2000	BRAZIL	5.0	3.9
2001	ARGENTINA	4.7	4.4
2003	PERU	5.0	4.2
2004	BRAZIL	4.1	4.5
2005	BRAZIL	4.9	4.9
Source: Student evaluation data, combined average for course/instructional quality, HIS 243 and all other History courses taught by D. Greenberg, Pace University, 1999–2005. The year 2002 is omitted, as the course was not offered that year.

FIGURE 1

TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS OF HIS 243 VS. CONVENTIONALLY TAUGHT COURSES

Table 1 reveals a clear trend: the combined course/instructional quality scores for HIS 243 tended to be superior to those of conventional pedagogy courses. Between 1999 and 2005, in three of six cases (2000, 2001, and 2003), HIS 243 was clearly judged superior. In two additional cases (2005 and 1999), the findings for HIS 243 were equal to those of conventionally taught courses. In one case (2004), the rating for conventional courses exceeded that of HIS 243. More importantly, when the overall average is calculated for all HIS 243 and conventionally taught courses, the former received higher student evaluation scores. The overall rating for HIS 243 was 4.8 compared to 4.5 for conventional courses, a difference of 0.3 or 6.7%.

The disappointing result for the Spring 2004 HIS 243 course requires further analysis. The discrepant result may be attributable in part to the special features of the course venue, the Rio de Janeiro favela of Jacaresinho. Jacaresinho is a large (40,000 population) urban squatter settlement with a history of drug-dealing gang activity and a high general crime rate. Like most favelas, it suffers from scant police or government presence. The community's obvious security issues caused the instructor to adopt extraordinary measures to protect students and faculty. Consequently, students' freedom to venture out and explore independently was sharply curtailed. While this strategy was effective in protecting the group from all criminal activity, it undermined espirit de corps and impeded the development of student-faculty fraternity. The loss of the team spirit that typically develops during these courses deprived the group of a major source of motivation. Certainly, one important, untoward effect of the special group security measures was the undermining of students' enlistment in the ego transformative, value-building goals of the travel/service learning pedagogy.

A second source of the non-conforming 2004 outcome related to the attitudinal characteristics of this class. In the weeks prior to the group's departure, we were concerned that several students seemed to view the trip's raison d'être as hedonism, relaxation, and tourism rather than global civic engagement. A student assistant employed to attend all classes and accompany the group to Brazil reported early in the term that several students did not to share the course's central goals. For instance, when asked during pre-trip reflection to reveal his expectations, one male student candidly reported, "Women, the beach, and alcohol." We therefore conclude that the discrepant result was due more to the nature of the venue and the cohort's unique attitudinal characteristics than a failure of the travel/service learning pedagogy. If the 2004 data are excluded from the analytical survey, the course/instructional quality ratings are as follows: HIS 243: 4.9; other courses, 4.2—a difference of 0.7 or 17%. When the discrepant year 2004 is separated from the more consistent data, the travel/service learning pedagogy scores are even more superior.

Students' evaluations provide an appealing quantitative measure of teaching effectiveness, but the survey's inclusion of a prose commentary section offers an opportunity to assess nuanced views of the pedagogy's impact upon students' individual educational experience and personal development. Even more than the pre-selected, quantified part of the survey, these responses presented a portrait of satisfaction with the travel/service learning approach. Responding to the query "Q1," which asked what was "most valuable about the course," one member of the 1999 Peru group responded: "The experience and the knowledge ... gained was unforgettable." A second identified "the applied aspect of learning. The service experience that changed my life and the way I view the world." A third isolated "the valuable and strong bond that was born between us and the professor ... The course is responsible for opening my horizons and being a source of inspiration in my life and career."

Students' prose responses to the 2000 Rio de Janeiro course were perhaps most enthusiastic. Responding to question Q1, one student reported that the most valuable course element was "the service and study combination ... it was an incredible experience." Another concurred: "The service part. It was amazing to be in another country and help people." A third echoed: "The service learning aspect of the course." Other students isolated the pedagogy's experiential aspect: "The hands-on experience," one responded. "The fact that we were able to experience what we were studying first-hand was not only helpful," another wrote, "but educationally informative." Yet another pointed to "the practical service part of the course. Being able to experience the people and practice the language." Those who traveled to Buenos Aires and Tucumán, Argentina in March 2001 tended to share the 2000 Rio group's perspective. Responding to a question similar to Q1, one offered the service element as the most valuable course aspect, while another chose the traveling. A third agreed on both counts: "The trip, the work, preparation." A fourth was more emphatic: "I learned an incredible amount from this course. Not only in class, but of course in the field."

Like question Q1, item Q4 on all three of the surveys asked essentially the same query. Q4 asked students to provide additional commentary on any course-related subject. The most interesting development was that several students' employed this opportunity to ask the university administration for more travel/service learning courses. In March 1999, one Peru student responded, "We need more service learning classes." Another echoed, "There should be more service learning and travel courses." Several in the 2000 Brazil contingent expressed similar sentiment. "Keep providing courses such as this one," one wrote. Others offered: "They're great!" and "It was a great experience" as praise, promising to "highly recommend this type of course to other students. It was a life-changing experience." A similar sentiment read: "Courses such as this should be offered more frequently and include all majors. This course has been one of the best I've taken." A student in the May 2005 Brazilian Rain Forest group called it "a great experience—a life changing course." With similar sentiment, another observed, "this class was amazing."

V. Analysis and Conclusion

After eight runs in three countries, "Service and Study in Latin America" has demonstrated that the pedagogy of travel/service learning can effectively teach concepts of world citizenship, economic development, and social change. This result is demonstrated both by students' evaluations of teaching effectiveness and by superior performance in class assignments. Students' rating of teaching and curricular effectiveness revealed a strong preference for civic engagement over conventional teaching methodologies. Additionally, term projects, course capstone seminars, and the content of journal entries reflected improved understanding of the complex processes of economic underdevelopment,of social inequalities in Latin American societies, and of the historical generation of that underdevelopment. Equally important, students tended to recognize the need for social change and expressed a desire to use their citizenship to work for greater justice in international economic relationships. They hoped to assist in developing countries to ameliorate poverty and hunger and to close the wide gaps between rich and poor. They understood that globalization has had destructive as well as positive impacts, and called for reform as they began to comprehend the relationship between the wealth of their world and the poverty of Latin America.

Why does travel/service learning produce such results? Our hypothesis is a reworking of Paulo Freire's concept of concientizacão. We believe that Freire's argument can be applied to First World populations by viewing it dialectically. In his Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire fashioned a pedagogy developed from his experience working with Brazil's urban and working poor in the Northeast, the country's poorest region.²² In devising what he termed "libertory pedagogy," he discovered that Latin elites had employed mass ignorance and illiteracy to keep the majority powerless. Freire noted those masses have a tendency toward passivity and fatalism rather than motive activism. For those who did gain access to the written word, it was as though their eyes suddenly opened: they experienced an epiphany of consciousness. They discovered that they could organize to change their lot and force the elites to share power, wealth, and opportunity. For Freire, knowledge and literacy conveyed a vision of empowerment through social and political change. This process of concientizacão was a "little motor" that, when replicated, could create the "big motor" of social movements. Once mobilized socially and politically, Latin masses could employ democratic process to alter the distribution of wealth and political power. Freire's work provided reason for hope in what had been a remarkably bleak and pitiless social and political landscape of Brazil in the 1960s.

When North American college students participate in a history course like "Service and Study in Latin America," they are forced to re-examine their values and assumptions about their country's place in the world. When they participate in projects of community development among the poorest of the poor and view firsthand the depths of poverty and suffering, they react first with denial; then with a kind of shock; then with a questioning of the status quo. As the class discusses the travel/service experience in group reflection, it begins to connect theory and practice. Just as moments of enlightenment enabled Freire's pupils to make consciousness breakthroughs, so our students realize that Latin privilege and want are two sides of the same coin. By working with Brazilians, Argentines, and Peruvians, they also learn to respect the courage and humanity of poor people who never lose their dignity in spite of enormous challenges. Dialectically, they comprehend that Latin poor are brethren in spite of differences of language, culture, nation, and social circumstance. They grasp the concept of universal brotherhood and the ethical notions that, just as people are responsible for other people, peoples are responsible for other peoples. Student participants declare that their values have changed in discovering that in poor societies, the value structure is focused on love, family, and friendship rather than material things. Finally, in changing their aspirations to continue participating in internationalist voluntarism, they demonstrate mastery of concepts of world citizenship.

These are some of the advantages of travel/service learning gleaned from the Pace experience. What are the disadvantages? First, faculty must devote many more hours of advance preparation and personal commitment in planning these courses; this may not suit the professional priorities of all. Moreover, we have found that the support and encouragement of administrators, in providing academic release and funding for course development, travel, and related expenses, are the sine qua non of successful programs.

The subject of student acceptance is also not a simple one. As demonstrated in this study, travel/service learning can be an effective teaching tool which may include the outcomes of strong student acceptance and a transformed attitude toward the institution. However, we do not pretend that it succeeds every time. As our 2004 Rio de Janeiro class demonstrated, some students actively resist civic engagement concepts. Moreover, as Freire's colleague Ira Shor noted, some are more comfortable with old systems of learning and thinking and resist approaches that oblige them to challenge their attitudes and values.²³

No pedagogy is perfect, but to reiterate this study's main conclusion: travel/service learning, when integrated with strong theoretical grounding and a carefully-planned community development project, can be a remarkably effective pedagogy. It also can "make a difference" in teaching concepts of world citizenship and humane values.

Notes

^1.� This is a revised version of a paper delivered at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association in Honolulu, Hawaii in March 2005. The author wishes to thank panel chair Heather Heckel of Bridgewater College and commentator Chris Scholl of Wheeling Jesuit University for helpful comments and suggestions. Thanks are also offered to Jane Dabel, editor of The History Teacher, for her assistance and encouragement, and to the journal's anonymous reviewer, whose suggestions significantly improved the result. I also wish to thank the U.S. Department of Education and Pace University's Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, which provided generous financial aid and course release assistance.

^2.� For the ideology of Globalization, see Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy (New York: Touchstone, 2002), Introduction, Chapters 3 and 9; see also Thomas L. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree (New York: Anchor, 2000). An economist's view strongly critical of the ideology and its policy impacts is Joseph Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents (New York: W.W. Norton, 2002).

^3.� For an excellent critical analysis of Latin American elites embracing this so-called "Washington consensus," see Duncan Green, Silent Revolution: The Rise of Market Economics in Latin America (London: Cassell/Latin American Bureau, 1995).

^4.� An introduction to the "structuralist" theory of economic dependency and underdevelopment is the famous work by Andre Gunder Frank, Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America: Historical Studies of Chile and Brazil (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1967); also see Frank's Latin America: Underdevelopment or Revolution (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1969) and Lumpenbourgoisie: Lumpendevelopment: Dependence, Class and Politics in Latin America (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1972). A vast literature supportive of and critical of Frank followed his seminal work. While many have questioned individual aspects of this version of "dependency theory" (e.g., its emphasis on relationships of economic exchange rather than those of social class), its essentials have become internalized in the thinking of most Latin Americanists. See, for instance, Ronald Chilcote and Joel Edelstein, ed., Latin America: The Struggle with Dependency and Beyond (Cambridge: Shenkman, 1974). For a prescient, neo-Marxian philosophical analysis of this myopia, see Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man (Boston: Beacon Press, 1964).

^5.� See, for example, Jeffrey Frieden, Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2006), 457–460; Mike Carter and Anne Koch, "Police Admit WTO Riots Caught Them Flat-Footed," Seattle Times [hereafter, "ST"], 5 April 2001; William Bole, "Protesters Eye Genoa Summit This Summer," ST, 21 February 2001; Monte Reel and Manny Fernandez, "Number of DC Protesters Shrinks amid Heavy Police Presence," ST (reprinting Washington Post article), 29 September 2002; Alwyn Scott, "Anti-WTO Activists Take Fight from Street to Halls of Power," ST, 16 December 2005.

^6.� The Seattle protest is discussed in detail in Frieden, ibid. and Carter and Koch, ibid. The literature critical of globalization and neo-liberal market reform is now considerable and reflects a diversity of viewpoints. One of the earliest and most articulate criticisms is by democratic anarchist Noam Chomsky, Power over People, Liberalism and Global Order (New York: Seven Stories Press, 1999), see especially the essays in Chapters 1, 3, and 4. Also see the same author's Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance; especially Chapter 6. For the environmentalists' arguments, see Peter Singer's brilliant and lucid One World: The Ethics of Globalization (New York: Yale University Press, 2002). Environmental and cultural opponents of globalization were especially active in the European protests, reflecting the strength of the Green parties; e.g., the September 2000 Prague meeting of the WTO, the 2002 Genoa meeting of the Group of Eight, and the June 2001 Madrid visit of President W. Bush. For the role of trade unionists, see William Bole, "Protesters Eye Genoa Summit This Summer," ST, 21 Febuary 2001; and Frieden, ibid. Labor's arguments against foreign sweatshop competition are exemplified by Keith Yearman and Amy Gluckman, "Falling Off a Cliff," Dollars and Sense, September/October, 2005, 8–9 and 36.

^7.� Ibid. Also see Jim Brenner, "Paul Schell: A Lasting Imprint on the City," ST, 6 September 2001; Brenner, "The Measure of a Mayor: Seattle's Image, Like Paul Schell's, Has Changed Forever," ST, 13 January 2002; Nancy Bartley, "Stamper Takes Rap for WTO in His Memoirs," ST, 7 June 2005; and David Bowermaster, "Jury Says Seattle Violated Rights of WTO Protesters," ST, 31 January 2007. Political casualties of the 1999 WTO protests included both Seattle's chief and assistant chief of police. Another was Mayor Paul Schell, who he became the first mayor in 50 years to be defeated in the electoral primary.

^8.� For the Prague protests, see "Prague Protests Renew 'Battle of Seattle,'" ST, 27 September 2000.

^9.� This political realignment is analyzed in Michael Shifter and Vinay Jawahar, "Latin America's Populist Turn," Current History, February, 2005, 51–57; Juan Forero, "Latin America's Populist Shift," The Economist, 29 October, 2005; Russell Crandall, "Taking Root: The Practicalities of Latin American Democracies," The National Interest, Winter 2005–06, 100–106. The November 2005 summit meeting of Latin leaders with President George W. Bush in Mar del Plata, Argentina was called to discuss U.S. proposals to create a continental expansion of NAFTA into a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). See, for example, Larry Rohter, "Bush Faces Tough Time in South America," New York Times [hereafter, "NYT"], 2 November 2005 and Elizabeth Bumiller and Larry Rohter, "Bush, Replying to Chavez, Urges Latin America to Follow US," NYT, 7 November 2005; Bumiller and Rohter, "Protesters Riot as Bush Attends 34 Nation Talks," NYT, 5 November 2005.

^10.� For backround on Chavismo see, for example, Paul B. Goodwin, Global Studies: Latin America, 12^th ed., revised (Dubuque: McGraw-Hill, 2007),113–115; Chávez as regional leader of anti-globalization is clearly seen in Rohter and Bumiller, "Protesters Riot." While President George W. Bush was conferring with Latin leaders in the fifth Summit of the Americas, Chavez was giving a fiery, anti-American speech to a boisterous stadium crowd. Violent anti-Bush street protests followed.

^11.� A good, brief analysis of these developments is in Goodwin, 74–77 (Brazil's Lula); 63–64 (Argentina's Kirchner); 67–68 (Bolivia's Morales); and 109 (Uruguay's Vásquez). Also see Shifter and Jawahar, "Latin America's Populist Turn," and Juan Forero, "Latin America's Populist Shift." For the indigenous uprising, see Hector Tobar, "Native Peoples Gaining Power in Politics in Latin America," ST (reprinting Los Angeles Times article), 27 October 2003. Also see Chomsky, ibid., Chapter 5, "The Zapatista Uprising," for an analysis focusing on NAFTA's impact on native Latin Americans.

^12.�Mercosur was founded by Argentina and Brazil in the 1980s; Uruguay and Paraguay were included at the organization's foundation. During the 1990s, Bolivia and Chile were added as associate members; Venezuela joined in 2007. Latin leaders such as Lula and Kirchner see increasing participation in Mercosur, along with expanded economic ties with Europe, as a preferable alternative to what they consider the unfair trade terms offered by the U.S. in the FTAA. Two exceptions to this rule are Mexico, which under Vicente Fox was a close North American ally and NAFTA partner, and Chile, which despite its associate membership in Mercosur retained a close relationship with the U.S. See Goodwin, 77 and 64; Bumiller and Rohter, "Bush, Replying to Chavez"; and Rohter, "Bush Faces Tough Time."

^13.� For the efforts to reform global neo-liberalism, see "Prague Protests Renew Battle of Seattle," ST. James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, acknowledged the anti-globalization protesters' "legitimate question[ing]," and pledged to place greater emphasis on poverty reduction of the under-developed world. Calls for reform were even more evident at the 2002 Washington IMF/World Bank meeting. See Paul Blustein, "Rethinking Globalization: Some Now Advocate Go-Slow Approach," ST (reprinting Washington Post article), 27 September 2002. For an eloquent, well-reasoned example of IMF/World Bank internal criticism of neo-liberalism, see Joseph E. Stiglitz' Globalization and Its Discontents (New York: W.W. Norton, 2003). Stiglitz was the World Bank's chief economist under President Clinton.

^14.� Stiglitz is biting in his criticism of the dogmatic tendency of neo-liberal IMF policymakers, and compares them unfavorably to his own colleagues in the World Bank. He urges that a "go slow" approach be adopted toward many LDCs, in order that the latter be permitted to adjust to the destabilizing impact of market reform. Moreover, he supports the movement for debt forgiveness for the poorest countries, and urges restraint with respect to dismantling social and healthcare programs. Importantly, Stiglitz's analysis emphasizes that world financial institutions must never let adherence to neo-liberal ideology trump the goals of alleviation of poverty and economic development. His proposals for reform are summarized in Globalization and Its Discontents, Chap. 9.

^15.� For a statement of Freire's pedagogy, see his famous Pedagogy of the Oppressed revised ed. (New York: Continuum, 1997); and the more lucid and discursive sequel, which amplifies and clarifies his original ideas, Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Continuum, 1997); also see Ira Shor and Paulo Freire, A Pedagogy for Liberation (New York: Bergin and Garvey, 1987); Freire, Education for Critical Consciousness (London and New York: Continuum, 2007); Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy and Civic Courage, trans. Patrick Clarke (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998); and Freire, Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to Those Who Dare Teach, trans. Donaldo Macedo, Dale Koike, and Alexandre Oliveira (Boulder: Westview, 2005). Freire's work spawned a large pedagogical literature and gained particular influence in the U.S. See, for example, Linda Darling Hammond, et al., ed., Learning to Teach for Social Justice (New York: Teachers College, 2002) and William Ayers, et al., eds., Teaching for Social Justice (New York: Teachers College, 1998).

^16.�Escôla Municipal Pace was launched in 1962 with assistance from the Kennedy Administration's Alliance for Progress aid program. Prof. Jordan Young, an early U.S. specialist on Brazil, played a central role in creating a Pace-Brazil connection. Carlos Lacerda, the famous Center-Right journalist/politician who was then governor of Guanabara state, officiated at the school's christening. Author's interview of Jordan Young, New York, October 14, 1991; original photo of Lacerda at school's christening dated July, 1962 in author's file.

^17.� A classic history text which emphasizes this dualism is James R. Scobie, Argentina: A City and a Nation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), passim. Other Latin nations, of course, possess varying degrees of the same type of regional polarity; e.g., Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Colombia. In all five cases, political regionalism has been a result. But Argentina's striking contrast between the Littoral and Interior is without parallel in the region.

^18.� The neo-liberal "reforms" of the Carlos Menem government (1989–1999) were a case in point. These included the elimination of financial assistance which Buenos Aires had always provided the poorer provinces of the Interior. Author's interview with Alberto Parra, Regional Director of Public Health, Province of Tucumán, Argentina, March 15, 2001.

^19.� Most of the farmers of the Sechura Valley received their land from the Velazco Alvarado agrarian reform program (1968–75). The grants are typically small, but the provision of irrigation combined with a high soil fertility have made this region one of the most prosperous and fast-growing in Peru. Author's interview with Hon. Jaime Burneo Arrece, former mayor of Sullana, Peru, July 14, 1998.

^20.� While not an absolute necessity, the provision of a faculty assistant is an important asset to travel/service learning courses. The assistant helps keep the group together, relieves some of the professor's stress load, and acts as a motivator to keep morale high and remind students that the main goal is completion of the project.

^21.� A large literature exists on the reliability, validity, and relevance of student evaluations to teaching effectiveness See, for example, Wilbert H. McKeachie, "Student Ratings of Teaching," in "The Professional Evaluation of Teaching," American Council of Learned Societies Occasional Paper No. 33, n. d., 2–9; W. McKeachie and J. Coleman, "Effects of Instructor/Course Evaluations on Student Course Selection," Journal of Educational Psychology 73 (1981): 224–226; H. W. Marsh, Students' Evaluations of University Teaching: Research Findings, Methodological Issues, and Directions for Further Research (Elmsford, New York: Pergamon, 1987); and H. G. Murray, "Low-Inference Classroom Teaching Behaviors and Student Ratings of Teaching Effectiveness," Journal of Educational Psychology 75 (1983): 138–149.

^22.� Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed; Shor and Freire, Reliving the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 28–38.

^23.� Ira Shor and Paulo Freire, A Pedagogy for Liberation (New York: Bergin and Garvey, 1987), 24–27.

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