Introduction to
International Development

Studying and Experiencing Community Based Development through Service Learning

Program Title: Introduction to International Development
Academic Credits: 6 in Political Science
Location: Cochabamba, Bolivia
Instructor: Reinhard Heinisch
Dates: May 18 – June 15, 2008

Amizade Student Application (pdf)

Course Description: This course is offered by the Amizade Global Service-Learning Center in partnership with the University of West Virginia. Its objective is to examine the problems of political and economic development in the context of a service learning field experience. In this case, the program is built around student participation in the construction and expansion of a school in an indigenous community near Cochabamba, Bolivia. Through their hands-on participation in the construction project, working alongside indigenous masons and villagers with the same tools and under the same conditions, the students experience first hand community based development.

The physical activity is complemented by an intellectual discourse with an experienced faculty mentor, presentations by local experts, interaction with different members of the community as well as participation in cultural events and fieldtrips. While differing substantially from a traditional in-class setting, this course nonetheless stresses academic rigor and includes a thorough discussion of the theory on development.

Yet, the contribution made by the students in terms of community development is real as they help build from start to finish an entire section of the overall project. Perhaps most importantly, the projects are all community-driven and maintained. Community leaders identify suitable projects, whose execution is guided locally. The head mason coordinates the cooperation between the international and the community volunteers and decides on available tools and materials. In this manner, the students, even if they have no prior relevant language or cultural experience, become more integrated and begin to develop a deeper understanding of the enormous limitations and constraints facing rural Bolivians. As a result of this approach, Amizade’s field organization and the faculty leader have long-standing ties to the community and enjoy a close working relationship from which the students benefit.

An integral part of the course is dedicated to Global Service Learning and the concept of Global Citizenship, thus touching on themes such as personal values and ethics, service in a cross-cultural context, and global values and ethics. Group activities, daily reflection sessions, journal writing, and intense discussions force course participants to confront themselves with the impact of their own culture on local conditions. This includes a discussion of cultural notions and stereotypes on one hand and international perceptions of the United States on the other. In such discussions, the students interact regularly also with the service-learning facilitator and the Amizade field director or her representative, one of whom is with the group at all times. A final goal is the creation of a group journal, which will force students to distill the essential components of the experience of service learning. 

Academically, the course focuses on the problems of development and democracy within the context of Andean society and approaches the subject by:

• Providing an overview of the political and economic history of Latin America by paying special attention to its unique political characteristics, social stratification, and specific patterns of economic development.
• Analyzing Bolivia as a country that quintessentially embodies many of the structural features and patterns that have shaped Latin American political development, ranging from resource dependence to military rule, weak institutions, economic reforms, and a recent surge of populism.
• Providing a Survey of development strategies ranging from the modernization theory, import substitution, and dependent development to more recent approaches centered on state capacity, economic liberalization, and micro-level/community development.
• Studying the Andean indigenous community at the beginning of the 21 century and their growing role in the political process.