Chapter 13: Summarizing the Principles
Reflecting on the Six Principles
Checklist: Bringing the Six Principles Together
The following questions are intended to help you self-assess whether your community-based, experiential learning engagement is following McMaster’s principles. You can download a copy at the end of the checklist so you can use the checklist and include your own additions.
Respectful Relationships
- Have I taken the time to understand this community by reviewing publicly available materials prior to engaging the community partner? How?
- Am I listening actively to community partners? How?
- Have I been open and honest with my community partner about my skills, limitations, and the amount of time and energy I can devote to this project?
Reciprocity
- How will I make sure that my engagement contributes something meaningful to this community?
- How have I considered the community partners’ needs and expectations in my project plan?
- What can I do to ensure that I draw on community partners’ time appropriately?
- What skills do I hope to develop throughout this experience? How can my participation in this project enhance those skills?
Equity
- How do my identities (race, gender, sexuality, class) matter in terms of this work? How might community members perceive my participation?
- What broader power structures affect this issue and how does the community participate in this issue? What are common assumptions and biases about this issue? What perspectives may be missing and why?
- Is everyone able to participate equally in this process? What are the barriers and how can we use an equity approach to mitigate those barriers and ensure participation?
Continuity
- Are there opportunities to build on prior community-engaged learning with this community partner? What are they?
- Are there opportunities to develop future community-engaged opportunities with this partner? What are they?
Openness to Learning
- Are there elements of my lived experience that might make working and learning with this community partner difficult? What are they?
- What difficulties might I have when learning from and with individuals who are dissimilar to me?
- How have I demonstrated that I am listening to my community partner? What steps have I taken to ensure there is clear and honest communication with my community partner?
- How do I approach learning and growing from mistakes and misunderstandings?
Commitment to Act
- Do I have sufficient time and energy for this work? What steps will I take to ensure this?
- What will I do if I need to exit the work early in the process?
Bringing the Principles Together
In this module, you have learned about McMaster’s six principles of community-engaged learning. While each principle is important, these principles are also interrelated. When pursued, they strengthen one another and in turn strengthen the community-engaged project.
Your sustainability class has procured funds to build a community garden in a downtown Hamilton park. “A community garden is a space where plants are grown by the community to meet that community’s needs. The garden engages community members to grow their own vegetables and herbs, to get exercise, and to meet new friends” (Community Gardens, Food Access Guide).
Please go through the following activities to consider how the principles can improve your community-engaged experience and how they can work together to make the experience a success.
At the meeting, residents seemed surprised to hear about the project.
Their confusion suggests that communication with the community was not as effective as it should be. Consider ways to get the word out and talk to community members in advance so that they will be prepared. Then at the meeting they can ask questions and get excited about the project rather than being concerned that they didn’t know about it.
Their questions suggest that more could be done to establish Reciprocity, Respectful Relationships, and Continuity. These principles help to ensure we are listening to the community and meeting their needs, rather than just thinking about our own interests and ideas.
You visit the community garden site.
Your class goes on site to assess the community space where the garden plots are to be built. Several residents are using the space while you are there and you say hello.
You talk to the residents.
Some of the residents engage you in conversation about the project. They note that the area your class is measuring for the plots does not receive enough sunlight to grow vegetables. They also have insight into rainfall patterns and soil needs that you haven’t considered.
