Service-learning in Mongolia.

Abstract

Through a case study of an international service-learning program in Mongolia, this article argues that service-learning pedagogy can and should be incorporated into courses with international and comparative foci. It proposes an integrated pedagogy that combines academic focus on Inner Asian history and Tibetan Buddhism with student volunteerism in a cross-cultural setting.

Introduction

A unique community-based approach that emphasizes teaching and learning from both a theoretical and practical perspective, service-learning allows students to learn by providing direct services in a community and by combining knowledge with experience in authentic settings. While the current discussion of service-learning addresses the importance of reflective learning based on student volunteerism and community outreach, it usually assumes a relatively narrow and localized focus. Such an approach fails to add global and cross-cultural dimensions in the learning experience, and runs counter to the goal of internationalizing liberal arts education (Billig and Furco, 2002).

Through a case study of an international service-learning program in Mongolia, this article argues that service-learning pedagogy can and should be incorporated into courses with international and comparative foci. It proposes an integrated pedagogy that combines academic focus on Inner Asian history and Tibetan Buddhism with student volunteerism in a cross-cultural setting. Once placed in this context, the meaning of "community" needs to be broadened to incorporate groups of peoples or locales outside the immediate geographical or social environment of a particular university. In cooperation with the Cultural Restoration Tourism Project (CRTP), a San Francisco-based not-for-profit organization, Pace University in New York organized a service-learning trip to Mongolia in June 2004. Students assisted in restoring a Tibetan Buddhist monastery at Baldan Baraivan, located 200 miles east of the Mongolian capital city of Ulan-Bator. The monastery, once a flourishing community of over 6,000 monks, was destroyed by the Communist regime in Mongolia in 1937. The restoration project, closely tied to an academic focus on Tibetan Buddhism in Northeast Asia, enabled students to immerse themselves in a very unfamiliar culture and to develop relationships with the local community.

In this fascinating process of cross-cultural interactions, students gained a first-hand experience of restoration work in a Tibetan Buddhist environment, acquired insights into the everyday life of a contemporary Mongolian nomadic community, and added a practical dimension to an Inner Asian History course. On a conceptual level, they developed a more sophisticated understanding of the world as opposed to a simplistic division of the globe into mutually hostile civilizations. While the challenges of implementing academic courses devoted to global citizenship and service-learning may vary from case to case, the insights and findings gained from this experience in Mongolia are valuable for expanding a comprehensive liberal arts education in the emerging global community of the twentieth-first century. Beginning with an account of the origins of this international service-learning program in Mongolia, this article discusses its objectives, unique features, and outcomes. It hopes to stimulate discussion and an exchange of ideas about and experiences with service-learning pedagogy in an international setting.

Why do service-learning in Mongolia?

Over the past several years, Pace University has placed a strong emphasis on service-learning and civic engagement, a commitment reflected in its recently adopted new core curriculum. Service-learning courses currently available at Pace University enable students to integrate academic learning with voluntary services outside the campus, and help them develop a strong sense of civic consciousness and citizenship (Smith, 2004). Incorporating service-learning pedagogy into a subject combining by necessity an area studies approach with discipline-specific methodology presents special challenges. A regular course in Asian History as part of the liberal arts education attempts to do several things at once. As a history course, it must introduce students to research methodology specific to the discipline, and as a course dealing with a non-western civilization it must provide sufficient historical knowledge for students to acquaint themselves with a culture that is largely unfamiliar to them.

It would appear at first glance, then, that the adoption of service-learning pedagogy takes away from much needed classroom contact time. This can be justified only if the service-learning component is designed not only to introduce students to the ideas of volunteerism and community service by themselves but also to actually enhance students' understanding of the subject matter, in this case, Inner Asian History. It was from this premise that a new course was introduced to address the history of Mongolia and North China, with particular reference to the development and spread of Tibetan Buddhism, the title of which is "HIS 2961/CRN 57132: Cultural Heritage and Service-Learning in Inner Asia." Traditional subject matter and innovative pedagogy are closely interconnected in this course, the goals of which are to advance the role of Pace University students as public intellectuals and global activists who engage in public history research, cultural restoration and community service-learning in Mongolia, and to create global partnership between Pace University and a Mongolian community in the area of cultural restoration. This course combines approximately twenty hours of classroom instruction with a three-week trip to Mongolia and China. The service-learning component is limited to a one-week stay at Baldan Baraivan, while the rest of the trip is devoted to historical and religious sites in Ulan-Bator, Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai. The latter provides the necessary historical and art-historical framework for the work at Baldan Baraivan.

Several methodological and practical concerns led to this particular subject. Our first and foremost concern was the connection between academic content and service-learning pedagogy. Mongolia and her powerful neighbor, China, were fertile ground for the development of a range of world religions and philosophies, including shamanism, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Wealth and prosperity in the past made the entire region an attractive destination for travelers and merchants from the Middle East, Europe and Americas. The "Silk Road" on which Marco Polo traveled was an Inner Asian highway controlled by Mongol warriors. The conquest of Inner Asia and eastern European by Genghis Khan shaped regions from China to Russia and from India to the so-called Middle East. The peoples and cultures of Mongolia were of great significance in world history. Furthermore, Tibetan Buddhism had been the dominant religion in Inner Asia (Mongolia, Tibet and Manchuria) and North China for several centuries and would therefore occupy a central position in our course. In Mongolia, Buddhist monasteries had been, in fact, the only sedentary elements in a largely nomadic culture. After the establishment of a Communist state in Mongolia in 1924, the Tibetan Buddhist institutions faced increasing persecution that culminated in the physical destruction of almost all monasteries by 1938. With the collapse of communism in 1989-90, Mongolia was able to reassert its national identity (obscured by decades as a nominally independent Soviet client state). The restoration of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries destroyed two generations ago is now a major part of this nation-building process. This dramatic change in Mongolian politics and society presents a golden opportunity for introducing a service-learning component into the course.

Assisting with the restoration of an actual historic site is something few history courses can offer. There is no better way to learn about Tibetan Buddhism as well as about premodern and modern Mongolian history than to participate in such a temple restoration project. Through the restoration work, students can not only identify themselves with the nomadic community under study, but also transform themselves from outsiders into semi-/insiders by working and living with the Mongols for a short period of time. In addition, students have a unique opportunity to contribute something of long-lasting physical, cultural and spiritual value to the host community. Although the logistics proved daunting, the result did indeed exceed our expectations.

Partnership with the Cultural Restoration Tourism Project (CRTP)

Initially, we approached different Mongolian official and religious organizations in the United States to explore the possibility of providing help with existing cultural restoration projects. However, an even better opportunity presented itself when we found the San Francisco-based Cultural Restoration Tourism Project (CRTP), a nonprofit organization, which has been given tax-exempt status and can accept contributions under Internal Revenue Section 501 (c) 3. CRTP was established to restore and preserve culturally significant buildings and artifacts around the world. Ever since the early 1990s, CRTP has been working on the reconstruction of Baldan Baraivan, once the third largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Mongolia.

The greatest success of CRTP lies in its creative approach to combine cultural tourism with historical restoration and community development. Because CRTP relies for its revenue exclusively on the contributions of donors and volunteers, it serves as a self-sustaining and self-operating business model for volunteerism in developing countries. As the biggest employer in the Baldan Baraivan area, CRTP has a dynamic team of 30 to 40 staff and runs a permanent office in the capital of Ulan-Bator. By using the latest environmental-friendly techniques in sustainable development, CRTP hopes to rebuild a community that can eventually support itself and take over the management and maintenance of the monastery.

Indeed, CRTP is a very important bridge that connects Pace University with the community in Baldan Baraivan. Assigned to work and live with Mongol workers, students gain a first-hand experience of cultural restoration work in a Tibetan Buddhist environment, and acquire insights into the Mongolian culture that no classroom lecture can provide. As far as pedagogy is concerned, this service-learning program in Mongolia differs from other Asian study abroad courses on two levels. First, it helps students develop trans-Asian perspectives in the study of Inner Asian history. Rather than seeing Mongolia and China as two separate regions in textbooks, this course redefines the Mongol world and her Asian neighbors (China, Tibet and Manchuria) as multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural empires. This trans-Asian dimension enables students to situate the development of these countries within the wider context of global conflicts across Asia from the past to the present.

Second, it balances classroom instruction with field-based service-learning. Working with the nomadic community in restoring a Tibetan Buddhist monastery at Baldan Baraivan, students can gain a better understanding of the host culture. Cross-cultural interactions with local people and field trips to major historic sites in Mongolia and China help students acquire in-depth knowledge of particular subjects, and greater awareness of global issues from the past to the present.

What are the outcomes of service-learning in Mongolia?

In order for our students to appreciate the remoteness of the site, we arranged to travel from Beijing to Ulan-Bator by train. While the 30-hour train ride in vintage East German built carriages was an adventure in itself as it went through the Gobi Desert, it paled in comparison to the 14 hours spent in cramped vans bouncing through roadless wilderness at an average speed of 12 miles per hour to reach Baldan Baraivan. This was, however, just the beginning of a week of experiential learning, the challenges of which none of the students had ever encountered. While coping with the absence of running water, electricity, and consequently refrigeration, living in traditional Mongolian felt tents (gers) and getting used to a diet of goat and mutton the students were able to get hands-on experience in traditional carpentry and to learn a great deal about Tibetan Buddhism, Mongolian culture, and community service. An in-depth tour of the site, once home to some 6,000 monks but utterly destroyed in 1937, provided the historical background of the project, linking aspects of pre-modern and modern Mongolian history to the task at hand.

Students were invited to participate in a variety of tasks, such as preparing a newly built temple for ceremonies and rituals in conjunction with the formal re-opening of the monastery as a place of learning in July 2004, 67 years after its destruction. All had a chance to try their hands at the intricate carpentry designs for the interior of the main temple, currently undergoing restoration. Many lent a hand in more "menial" tasks, such as carrying water, removing stones and clearing meditation paths. Throughout their stay, they worked alongside with and got to know the Mongol workers. This experience of partnership challenged students to perceive their role as "learners" rather than "experts" in the community and to think about how they might engage and learn from the local community. Most students referred to the partnership as one of the most memorable and rewarding experiences in the trip. As one student expressed her excitement about the restoration work in the travel journal,

"June 9, 2004, (I am writing by candle night in my ger) Today was the first day working at the monastery in Baldan Baraivan. I was carving the wood into different shapes, to give it that temple feel! The great part of this job was working with the serene Mongolians.... Once in a while, a lovely tune or song would spring from them, reminding me of what I was doing and where I was.... I realized how awesome this experience was.... In Mongolia, the people have gone through extreme oppression (like monks killed or sent to labor camps, monasteries destroyed). This opportunity of restoring one of the largest monasteries in Mongolia is so amazing. I would love to return to see the re-opening of the monastery. To know that I helped lay down the foundation of this amazing place only makes me feel so proud. Not many people get this opportunity to restore a historic place like this one."

In addition, the CRTP Mongolian staff and full-time American volunteers shared their views on community service, volunteerism and sustainable development with students who previously had very little exposure to these concepts. This was perhaps the greatest benefit of working with an established NGO. Reflection is a key to self- and group-assessment of the progress and outcomes of learning. Students are required to take field notes and keep a diary. This helped them reflect on their learning experience and restabilize their position in times of uncertainties and cultural shocks. At the end of the trip, students expressed a genuine interest in volunteer work, and appreciated the dynamics of Tibetan Buddhism and Mongolian culture. As a student recalled her conversation with the director of the CRTP, "June 11, 2004 I spoke with Mark [Mark Hintzke, Director of the CRPT] today about how the world views Asia and how Americans tend to take things for granted. I hate behaving as a "lucky" foreigner in a developing country. I am coming to this country to escape all those materialistic ideas. I realize how fortunate I am, and would like to share with the needy."

As anecdotal evidence of the effects of cultural immersion we are tempted to cite a situation at the last temple visit of the trip (in Shanghai) when the local guide proceeded to lead the group around the main building in a counterclockwise pattern. The students noticed the faux pas immediately and proceeded to walk clockwise around the hall, as proper Buddhist etiquette demands!

Conclusion

This international service-learning program links Pace University faculty and students with the Tibetan Buddhist monastery and nomadic community at Baldan Baraivan in Mongolia. Students gained insights from this service-learning experience, and can make linkages between classroom instruction and voluntary work. They also acquired practical and useful skills in cross-cultural communication, and made valuable contacts that would allow them to continue their support of cultural restoration even after the course was over. One student is currently applying for a Fulbright Scholarship in order to spend a year in Mongolia. Service-learning pedagogy combined with courses with international, cross-cultural, and comparative foci allows for a more fulfilled, well-rounded, and better-educated college graduate. This service-learning experience in Mongolia helps students understand that the study of Inner Asian history and culture is not just a scholastic exercise but can have significant and immediate impacts on them and the local people whom they encountered. Based on our experience and the findings presented above, the following points are of crucial importance in teaching an international service-learning course:

First, service-learning pedagogy is a very effective teaching tool if it is tied in with the academic discipline and subject matter of the course. Students are likely to embrace the service-learning component if it is recognizably related to the subject under study. Significant amounts of time need to be spent in class in preparation for the trip. While care should be taken to adequately inform students about the challenges of overseas travel, special attention should be paid to the academic requirements of the course.

Second, assessment criteria need to be flexible without compromising standards of academic performance. Expectations need to be clearly and repeatedly communicated to students. In addition to travel journals and web-based group projects as assessment tools, some more traditional tools (quizzes, written examinations) should be incorporated into the classroom contact hours.

Third, international service-learning courses lace significant logistical hurdles in the initial stages of development and need to be constantly re-assessed with regard to issues such as cost, safety, medical care and insurance. A possible (if less desirable) alternative to travel, should the cost be prohibitive, would be to provide services for and work among immigrant communities in the United States.

References

Billig, Shelley H. and Andrew Furco (eds.). Service-Learning: Through a Multidisciplinary Lens. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, 2002.

Cultural Restoration Tourism Project (CRTP), http://www.crtp.net/

Smith, Veronica. "Being Green: Claudia Green's civic-minded classes take students from restaurant kitchens to the rainforests of Brazil." Pace Magazine--A Special Issue on "From Scholarship to Citizenship: Civic Engagement on Campus", Vol.21, No.1 (Spring/Summer 2004).

Ronald K. Frank, Pace University

Joseph Tse-Hei Lee, Pace University

Ronald K. Frank and Joseph Tse-Hei Lee, thank Pace University for the support of this research through a Presidential Grant on Civic Competency in Summer 2004.