17 - Miriam Doi

Title

UTAS Teaching for Togetherness: Utilizing student & community partnerships to deliver the Clemente Program in Tasmania

Author(s)

Miriam Doi*, Faculty of Arts
Lorise Clark*, Faculty of Arts
Mitchell Rolls, Faculty of Arts
Elizabeth Freeman, Faculty of Arts

Subtheme

Students as Partners and Building an Inclusive Culture

Presentation Type

Spotlight on Practice

Room

Lecture Theatre

Time

11.30-12.30

Abstract

Clemente Australia (CA) is an innovative university-level program for Australians experiencing multiple disadvantage and social isolation. It is founded on Earl Shorris's (2000) Clemente program in the USA and is an example of a community embedded, socially supported university education (CESS) model (Howard, et al. 2010, p6) that has been pioneered in Australia since 2003 by Australian Catholic University (ACU), in collaboration with not for profit agencies, other universities and the broader community. More than 500 Australians have enrolled in a localised CA program and many who have completed the program with a ‘certificate of liberal arts studies’ have continued to further education, employment and community participation since 2003. The CA program was the subject of an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant research project to examine the program’s social and economic impacts. (Howard, et al. 2012).
ACU’s representative in Tasmania approached the Faculty of Arts in 2014 to consider whether we could deliver a suite of at least four units of study towards a certificate of liberal arts studies. Recognizing that the CA program aligns with key UTAS social inclusion and learning & teaching strategic plan goals, the Dean endorsed the Faculty of Arts’ participation in the program and four foundation-level, non-HECS-liable units were developed for a small cohort of students in Southern Tasmania, commencing in Semester 2, 2015.
The process of adapting and delivering existing introductory level units as foundation-level units, designed specifically for a uniquely Tasmanian CA program cohort comprising a number of young male asylum seekers, required close collaboration among professional staff, profile academic staff, sessional staff, CA/ACU representatives and a large network of community and charitable support agencies throughout Tasmania. As a result, a cohort of around 20 students has participated in the program and about 10 are expected to complete at the end of 2016. The involvement of the Faculty has provided firsthand experience of the CESS model and the ability of the CA program to enable both ‘agency thinking’ and ‘pathway thinking’ that builds higher hopes (Snyder, 2002) and contributes to the enhancement of social capital.
References
Howard, P., Butcher, J., & Egan, L. (2010). ‘Transformative education: Pathways to identity, independence and hope’. Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement, 3, 88-103.
Howard, P., Marchant, T., et al. 2012, ‘We’re part of our own solution’: social inclusion through community embedded, socially-supported university education’: ARC Linkage Grant, Final Report 2012, Mission Australia, Sydney, https://www.acu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/486790/ACU_ARC_Cat-Clem_Digital_version.pdf, accessed 06 Nov 2016.
Snyder, C. 1995, ‘Conceptualizing, measuring, and nurturing hope’. Journal of Counseling & Development, vol. 73, pp. 355–60.

Resource

Download presentation (requires University of Tasmania login) (PDF)