Service-Learning through Cultural Exchange and Expressive Arts Therapy by Jackson, Katherine;

Short description:

This book highlights various service-learning experiences that incorporate creative techniques such as art making and other expressive therapy practices.

Long description:

This book highlights various service-learning experiences that incorporate creative techniques such as art making and other expressive therapy practices. Utilizing service-learning provides students, faculty, and volunteers a chance to create an ethnorelativist world view, with the understanding that human beings are contextual in relationship to their culture. The use of expressive arts therapies is highlighted as a complementary way to build relationships with those who differ from one another and to increase students’/volunteers’ cultural understanding and awareness. Chapters cover concepts such as cultural immersion, cultural exchange, transformational learning, and cultural competency in working with others. The focus of service within various cultures such as Nepal, South Africa, and the Cheyenne River Lakota Reservation in South Dakota are presented using anecdotal, narrative, and case vignettes.

Ideal for art therapists and art therapy students interested in engaging and/or providing service-learning experiences for others, this book is full of anecdotes from the author’s personal experience, as well as cases that reflect cultural learning using various expressive arts techniques.

"Based on her wide-reaching experiences, Dr. Katherine Jackson offers frameworks and examples to demonstrate how the heart of service-learning is mutual engagement. With examples from within the U.S. and around the globe, readers can appreciate many ways to integrate expressive arts with cultural arts for meaningful exchanges."

Jordan S. Potash, PhD, REAT, LCPAT, ATR-BC, associate professor, Art Therapy Program, The George Washington University

"Dr. Katherine Jackson's seminal work on service-learning utilizing expressive arts therapy brings an authentic and fresh perspective in the use of the creative arts to bridge human relationships. Dr. Jackson infuses discussion of applicable theory with practical insights gained from firsthand experiences not just facilitating service trips, but from her own personal experiences as a "third culture kid" who grew up in Congo, making this a compelling and fascinating read.  Her work not only focuses on bringing expressive arts, such as dance, music, and art making to those being served, it also highlights the cultural exchange that unifies and transforms diverse worldviews."

Rebecca D. Miller, PhD, LPC, LPAT, ATR-BC, ATCS, PMH-C, program director and associate professor of graduate counseling and art therapy, Ursuline College

"Dr. Katherine Jackson has written an engaging account of her service-learning work. I believe that her integration of expressive arts therapy is a powerful way to uplift and unify people. I hope that we can encourage and engage more students and practitioners in expressive arts therapy to participate in service-learning opportunities."

David Santulli, founder of United Planet

Table of Contents:

1. What is Service Learning?  2. Utilizing Arts-based Expressive Therapy within Service Learning  3. Cultural Immersion  4. Cultural Exchange  5. Relationship Building  6. Transformational Learning  7. Cultural Competence  8. Social Justice and Service-Learning  9. Indigenous Art Making Practices as Connection  10. More Creative and Expressive Arts Practices  11. Planting the Seeds in Helping Professions: Service Learning in Undergraduate Education  12. Best Practices, Logistics, and Wisdom Learned from Service Learning  13. Wisdom from Service Providers and Recipients: Interviews with Leaders, Volunteers, and Students  14. Epilogue: Gratitude, Humility and Love