Faculty members Martin Kamela in the Department of Physics, and Aaron Peeks and Kim Jones in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, ran a workshop on Ethical Partnerships in International Service-Learning at the Gulf South Summit on March 4, 2011, in Roanoke, Va.
In the workshop, they discussed building ethical partnerships for International Service-Learning Study Abroad programs. They used scenarios based on their experiences leading ISL courses (Jones in Brazil, Kamela in India, and Peeks in Guatemala) to demonstrate some of the ethical dilemmas faced in the course of assuring that all factions – students, faculty, administrators, partners and community members – are adequately informed regarding what to expect from such projects.
Portions of the ethical code of the American Anthropological Association was referred to as a good basis for developing ethical partnerships in ISL.
The three faculty members also published their research in the article “International Service-Learning: Ethics in Cross-Cultural Partnerships” in Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning & Civic Engagement.