Above: Jim Simeone, left, and Jim Sikora. Below: Juniors Maren Wesley and Liz Jaroscak participated in the recent move Mandel-Cohn house in Bloomington as part of their work with The Old House Society.

Action Research Center Takes Learning Beyond the Classroom

November 28, 2004

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Two Illinois Wesleyan University professors are taking the classroom into the community in an unusual program that is designed to establish and sustain their students’ commitment to active citizenship.

The Action Research Center, established in 2003 by sociologist James Sikora and political scientist James Simeone has three components: a one-semester seminar, an internship, and an independent study project. In all three instances, Illinois Wesleyan students team with community partners to work on specific projects.

"Students need to work as ‘savvy followers' to be effective leaders later. Only then can they work effectively with community partners and their partners' projects," said Sikora.

Through the Action Research Center, however, the students find themselves immersed in real community work from the outset. Nine not-for-profit community organizations have affiliated with the project, ranging from Heartland Head Start to Prairie State Legal Services to the Ecology Action Center.

This fall, for instance, two participants in the Action Research Seminar, seniors Liz Towers and Bridget Mudron have worked on creating a brochure, in Spanish, for non-English speaking parents of Heartland Head Start children, permitting them easier access to Bloomington/Normal community resources.

"Liz and Bridget phoned utility companies and asked them to set up an extension just for English as a Second Language customers and put that information in the brochure," explained Sikora.

At the beginning of the semester, the not-for-profit partners made presentations to the students who then submitted resumes to those organizations and were then matched with a community group and developed projects on which they would work during the semester.

These learning-by-doing activities are complemented by classroom work in which the students not only discuss their required readings but also develop interviewing, networking, and organizing skills.

In establishing the program, Simeone and Sikora were looking for a way to incorporate community-based action research into the University’s curriculum without going the more traditional service learning route which essentially requires volunteerism.

"We first identified participation in community activities as important to our students around 1996," said Simeone, adding that he and Sikora coordinated projects with students and community organizations from within their own departments.

The Action Research Center now serves as a clearinghouse for these projects while also combining theory with practice.

An important consideration was to establish continuity in the programs as students move through the seminar and eventually graduate. "We wanted something long-term that would go beyond one semester or an internship," said Sikora. "The unusual independent study component allows student to pick up where others leave off."

By the end of the fall semester, 30 students will have participated in the seminar, which will be offered annually.