Abstract
Community-based service learning (SL) opportunities that ground experiences as a primary basis of learning can help psychology trainees work toward these competencies while providing them with a chance to answer the call to become “citizen psychologists” who use the advantage of their education to benefit the community. The aim of this study is to elucidate clinical psychology MA students' perceptions of the value of SL experienced offered by The Research and Application Center for Children Living and Working on the Streets (SOYAÇ), a center in Istanbul, Turkey that incorporates community-based studies into clinical psychology graduate education. Ten students completed in-depth interviews about their experiences. Interpretative phenomenological analysis of these interviews suggested that participants experienced significant improvements in their professional, personal, and interpersonal skills. In light of this information, the authors encourage policymakers, community organizations, and universities to consider mutually beneficial university-community collaborations.
TopIntroduction
Clinical psychologists must be competent in assessment, intervention, research, and collaborating with other professionals (APA, 2008). In addition to trainees’ professional development, many training programs aim to promote trainees’ personal growth, interpersonal development, and collaboration skill with an interdisciplinary team (Laidlaw & Gillanders, 2011). Classroom-based experiences, alone, provide necessary but insufficient training toward these competencies as such gains require applied training by nature (Shakow, 2017).
Service learning (SL) is a pedagogical that emphasizes applied experience and reflection on that experience as the basis of learning. Most SL courses leverage community-university partnerships for the reciprocal benefit of students and the broader community. Community-based SL offers unique training opportunities that can help trainees work toward professional competencies while developing personally. Students training in these contexts may gain awareness of inequalities and social variables in community (Le Roy & Woodcock, 2010; Rhoads, 1997), reconsider their understanding of stereotypes and ethnic groups (Giles & Eyler, 1999), to combine their academic knowledge with the service they provide and to put the knowledge into practice in a wider context (Mitchell, 2008). In community-based projects where an active learning model is adopted, students learn how to associate materials they learn in class with the community’s needs and fulfill civic responsibilities (Bringle & Hatcher, 1997). Experiential learning offered to students in community-based active learning models introduces them to the community's social, political, economic, and historical context. In addition, the relationships established with the community will enable students to gain a deep awareness of the effects of this context on people's well-being (Perry & Katula, 2001; Smail, 2002).
For students to acquire professional and civic experience from community-based practices implemented with SL pedagogy, it is necessary for them to engage in activities where they can reflect on their learning, for instance, with support meetings including supervision or peer supervision, or with reflection and interpretation activities such as keeping a journal (Eyler et al., 1996). From this standpoint, integrating community-based practices into undergraduate education appears to increase educational opportunities. University-centered community-based practices offer students a field of education where they can combine theory and practice in a structured and controlled context. The practices allow students to gain one-to-one educational experience on human rights (Le Roy & Woodcock, 2010), practice their professional skills, and develop in personal, ethical, and social areas (Akhurst, 2017; Tharp, 2012).
Key Terms in this Chapter
SOYAÇ: Research and Application Center for Children Living and Working on the Streets (SOYAÇ) is a university-based center in Istanbul, Turkiye that adopts clinical community psychology’s principles to train students toward professional competencies while also facilitating an opportunity to serve the marginalized community.
Marginalized Children/Youth: Refers to young people who are not prioritized by the society due to their personal and living conditions (low socioeconomic status, disability, sexual minority, immigrant statues etc.).
Therapeutic Skills: Refers to communication skills that facilitate the therapeutic relationship between the client and the therapist and support the psychological well-being of the client.
Experiential Learning: Hands-on learning that helps to internalize a certain skill and theory.
University-Community Collaborations: Form of cooperation that leads to mutual educational and progressive outputs by carrying out projects that benefit the society with a university-centered organization.
Social Justice: The view that argues that everyone is worthy of equal economic, political, and social rights. It prioritizes the equitable distribution of these rights to every member of a society.
Systemic Approach: The approach adopts that the system is formed by the parts that make up the whole and their interactions with each other. In the context of psychotherapy, it means to consider the individual within the framework of the micro and macro systems in which they are in.