Delivering an experience

Course: PSYC 245-01 Psychology of Cultural Differences 

Professor: Stacey Raj, Ph. D.

Partner: Academy of World Languages

Prior to spring break, students in Dr. Stacey Raj’s Psychology of Cultural Differences service learning course were implementing a new reading program with nearby Academy of World Languages (AWL), a preschool-8th grade citywide magnet program in the Cincinnati Public school district. Located five minutes from Xavier’s campus, AWL attracts a diverse group of students including over 60% from immigrant and refugee families that represent 35 different countries.

Raj and her students planned to host weekly book readings at AWL as part of their integrated community engaged learning experience. Her students researched and selected books for Kindergarten and 1st grade students with the help of their nonprofit partner, Blue Manatee Literacy Project, who in turn donated the selected books to help kick start the young readers’ own libraries. According to Raj, the population of students at AWL definitely influenced the selection of books by her students.

“The Academy of World Languages is a school that has a very diverse student body, and the books that we selected capture and celebrate different aspects of diversity,” Raj said. “The characters in the books might be raised in single parent homes, they might be adopted or immigrants from different countries.”

 Fast forward to spring break when the bulk of the 400 plus books arrived at AWL ready for circle time reading with close to 100 Kindergarten and 1st grade students. Looming COVID 19 closures - first of Xavier’s campus, and shortly thereafter, all Cincinnati Public Schools - seemingly put an end to this community-based collaboration. After discussing logistics with AWL resource coordinator (and Xavier alum), Jill Smith, Raj elected to continue the community collaboration while she concurrently switched her classroom instruction online.

The plan would be to coordinate deliveries of books to each student so they could continue to read and discuss these culturally relevant topics. Raj received support from some of Xavier’s Community Engaged Fellows to help deliver 400 books to 100 students in 27 different Cincinnati zip codes. Some books were delivered with supportive meals provided by the Freestore Foodbank – a stark reminder of the many challenges families are facing during this health crisis. And while it was a great gift to AWL’s students to receive a bags of books (in bags donated by XU’s Alumni & Development Office!), Raj noted that it was equally important her students have the ability to continue their experience with AWL and know that the books they chose would reach their intended audience.

After delivery, Raj was able to transition her students’ weekly in person reading commitment to pre-recorded videos of students reading and discussing the books they selected. Videos were shared with the students’ teachers to integrate into their own remote learning lessons (Check out an example here: Nino Wrestles the World ). Raj noted that this service-learning aspect was vastly important to her class, especially with her a focus on diversity and cultural differences. She believes that the partnership with AWL helped her students learn how to understand different cultures as a result of the diversity in the school, even from a distance.

“I really think it helps contextualize learning,” Raj said. “I think it’s kind of living and experiencing what you learn. This is a class of culture, so we learn a lot of how different parents might do things in a different way to raise their children.” Jill Smith, the Resource Coordinator at AWL, agrees.

“The primary benefit of this partnership has been exposing AWL students to XU students, diverse children's books,” Smith said, “and with the Blue Manatee partnership, the AWL students are starting their own personal library.”

While adapting a service-learning class mid-semester was likely a bit more than Raj or her students planned, she believes the full experience was necessary to fully grasp the concepts that they’re learning.

“I really think what students get out of it is a lot more than a standard curriculum,” she said. “You get to live what you learn. I think it’s meaningful.”