Learning from each other: using a service-learning citizenship course to promote intercultural understanding

Abstract

Many U.S. college students are unaware of the processes for refugee resettlement and the steps that refugees must take to attain citizenship. We designed a college course to address these gaps. The course, ‘Citizenship and Education in the US,’ aims to provide a fundamental overview of the history and processes of immigration and naturalisation in the United States, including an exploration of the refugee system. Since our community supports refugee resettlement, we included a service-learning component where college students tutor adult learners (primarily refugees) who are preparing for the citizenship exam to allow students an opportunity to develop relationships with refugees and to learn about their history and relocation. We developed an exploratory, qualitative study to determine the impact that this experience had on the college students enrolled in the first iteration of the course. We found that in addition to increased knowledge of the refugee system and the processes for attaining citizenship, the participants demonstrated increased intercultural understanding and an expanded worldview.

Keywords:

• Service-learning
• refugees
• intercultural understanding
• immigration policy
• citizenship preparation