Masters of Professional Studies in Civic Engagement, Final Projects
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Item An Opportunity in Educational Engagement(2023-12) Block, Sequoia Baobab S. LarsonThis capstone focuses on both civic engagement and educational justice and has multiple components. One component includes an analysis of the Read Act legislation designed to guide reading instruction in Minnesota schools, enacted by the Minnesota State Legislature in 2023. I assert the Read Act places too much emphasis on evidence-based research and largely ignores student experience, motivation, and cultural diversity. Another component of the capstone includes me becoming a subject of the research by participating as a volunteer at a local school. In this role, I explore my positionality as a white man as well as the dominant role whiteness plays in educational spaces. I facilitated a cross-age tutoring experience in which students in grades four and five taught reading lessons to students in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. I explore both academic and civic engagement aspects of these interactions and recognize potential benefits that cross-age tutoring has for both tutors and tutees.Item If “Context-onaries” Existed, How Might They be Used to Increase ‘Civic’ Engagement?(2022-12) Kafka, NanWords have no meaning without context. This paper explores, through literature review, observation and attendance at community meetings, development of a conceptual model of a personal context-onary, how a better understanding of a personal context could lead to increased civic participation. Civic is used in its broadest sense, meaning any activity that a person does (engages in) to assist another, is included in the context of civic. The paper did not include any survey or testing of the usefulness or applicability of a personal context-onary, or what would be different (benefits) if a community context-onary were created. The paper does provide a preliminary conceptual model that proposes a deeper embrace of the fullness of the context from which an individual emerges. The paper also includes a critical comparison of four district council websites from the perspective of how those websites encourage or discourage participation by looking at seven distinct elements, noting that only one website provides choice of language in which to view the website and states that it is open to the public.Item Holistic Healthcare: Recognizing traditional practices of the American Indian community(2022-12) Phan, Tia MyThe American Indian community has had traditional healing practices, herbs, and medicines to cure their people long before Western medicine dominated the landscape. This holistic approach to healthcare including these traditional practices and medicines were not included in what we see offered at Western clinics nor are they covered by health insurance companies in the United States. The purpose of this work was to personally observe to understand the marriage of traditional healing and spiritual care in a Western clinic setting. In order to increase the number of people being served in this holistic manner, I name a few recommendations including: adding traditional healing and/or spiritual care service components to other clinics and perhaps hospitals; creating a formal referral network for physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, and other healthcare providers to use; creating a database of available traditional healing and spiritual care services in a geographic area for community members and organizations to use; and expanding the post-event participant surveys to collect more identifiable information and potential barriers to service their participants face to better serve the community.Item Sowing the Seeds of Peace in the Public-Schools via Esports Gaming with Gamers For Peace(2022-12) Shain, Kenneth S.Organized online computer gaming, now referred to as Esports, is rapidly gaining popularity in public schools across the nation. Though touted for its many useful benefits to special student populations hitherto excluded from more conventional athletic team sports, Esports also includes games of war and violence that are of great concern to parents, teachers, and administrators who are rightfully concerned about their impact on our culture, students’ academic performance, attendance, and social behavior. Moreover, with the violence in games, comes the incursion of the US military into the public-school classroom space taking maximum advantage of this wave of interest in what are called “first-person-shooter” (FPS) games to recruit young players into the military. This paper explores the kinds of strategies educators need to adopt to maintain a culture of peace in the school and classroom and minimize the use, promotion, or exploitation of violence by the military.