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Living the Questions: DeconstructingInterdisciplinary Higher Educationand the Subject of Poverty Through a“Community of Truth”Eva Zygmunt-Fillwalk aa Department of Elementary Education , Ball State University ,Muncie, Indiana, USAPublished online: 08 May 2009.

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Journal of Poverty, 13:214–232, 2009Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1087-5549 print/1540-7608 onlineDOI: 10.1080/10875540902841820

WPOV1087-55491540-7608Journal of Poverty, Vol. 13, No. 2, March 2009: pp. 1–28Journal of Poverty

THOUGHTS ON POVERTY

Living the Questions: Deconstructing Interdisciplinary Higher Education

and the Subject of Pover ty Through a “Community of Truth”

Living the QuestionsE. Zygmunt-Fillwalk

EVA ZYGMUNT-FILLWALKDepartment of Elementary Education, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA

This manuscript recounts the experience of 10 undergraduate stu-dents at a mid-sized midwestern university engaged as membersof an interdisciplinary seminar examining poverty in their com-munity. Students’ writings and reflections were deconstructedwithin the framework of Palmer’s (1997) “community of truth” tointerpret students’ understandings and uncertainties. Students’direct dialogue with individuals living in poverty afforded theminsight that may have eluded them through more traditionalhigher education pedagogy. Periods of disequilibrium, deconstruc-tion, rebuilding of new schema, and commitment toward socialaction were documented and evidenced both through students’writing and emerging community activism.

I want to beg you, as much as I can, dear sir, to be patient toward allthat is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselveslike locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreigntongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given youbecause you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to liveeverything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually,without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

— Rainer Maria Rilke (1903, p. 27)

Address correspondence to Eva Zygmunt-Fillwalk, Department of Elementary Education,TC212C, Ball State University, Muncie, IN 47304-0600, USA. E-mail: emzygmuntfil@bsu.edu

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Living the Questions 215

INTRODUCTION

This article recounts the journey of 10 undergraduate students at a mid-sizedmidwestern university engaged in a semester of inquiry and “living” thequestions that Rilke reveres. The students were members of an interdiscipli-nary seminar examining poverty in their community—statistically one of thepoorest in the state. Their processes and the emergent nature of their explo-ration throughout the seminar exemplified the power of experiential,project-based learning. Their persistence and resolve in constructing meaningfrom experience was a testament to the commitment with which theyapproached the task of learning.

Although a majority of colleges and universities structure themselvesaround disciplines, there is a growing realization of the limitations of suchan arrangement. According to Lattuca (2001), “Disciplines, it now seemsclear, are powerful but constraining ways of knowing. As conceptualframes, they delimit the range of research questions that are asked, thekinds of methods that are used to investigate phenomena, and the types ofanswers that are considered legitimate” (p. 2). While a discipline-specificmodel has characterized formal higher education since its inception, a juxta-position of the confines of this approach, against the potential of a moreintegrated, holistic model, has been explored in both theory and practicethroughout the last century. Pioneers such as Dewey articulated a vision,whereby graduates, through interdisciplinary study, would be more fullyprepared for citizenship within a democracy. Central to the experimentalprograms in the early 20th century was the tenet that “learning cannot beconfined within departments, or separated from one’s experience outsideacademe, or formulated without the direct participation of faculty andstudents” (Coleman, 2001, p. 15).

With the turn of the century and a renewed recognition of the imperativeof preparing students for participation in the global order, interdisciplinarylearning is now experiencing a rebirth on university and college campusesacross the country. While many definitions of “interdisciplinary” have been pro-posed (Birnbaum, 1977; Epton, Payne, & Pearson, 1983; Klein, 1990; Piaget,1972; Rossini & Porter, 1984; Roy, 1979) a majority of interdisciplinary initiativesstrive to engage students as participants in collaborative, inquiry-based learningcommunities through which the process of discovery can emerge.

METHOD

Students were chosen to participate in this program based on application.For both students and the faculty fellow guiding the seminar, participationconstituted an entire semester’s credit load, thus allowing full focus. The uni-versity is increasingly committed to immersion opportunities for students,

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and sponsors and funds three such seminars annually. In order for fellow-ships to be awarded, seminars must be interdisciplinary, collaborative, projectdriven, and community-based. Credits are negotiated with students’ homedepartments in relation to the content of the seminar, so that their work canbe integral to their existing course of study. In this manner, participation insuch a seminar does not add an additional semester to the students’ existingplan; rather, their work fulfills requirements of identified existing courses,counting toward the degree(s) they are pursuing.

The 10 students selected for participation in the seminar represented10 different disciplines, including philosophy, sociology, public relations,political science, urban planning, English literature, social work, telecom-munications, health science, and communication studies, respectively.Student participants varied in age from 19 to 43 years old, and wereequally divided along lines of gender. The faculty fellow was from theDepartment of Elementary Education, thus adding further diversity to thegroup composition. Students and faculty met daily throughout the semester,with emerging understandings of poverty guiding the nature of interactionsand the course of inquiry.

A requisite framework for the seminar was developed by the facultyfellow as part of the fellowship award. According to the proposal, studentswould work with a community partner who was piloting an initiative toeliminate poverty in the county in which the university is located. Theintention of the seminar was specified as “furthering the public convictionto address issues of poverty in the community.” Working additionally with alocal public radio station, students were charged with “giving voice” to familiesexperiencing inequity and disadvantage. How this would unfold was inten-tionally left in the hands of the student scholars. Students were asked tojournal throughout the course of the semester.

CONTEXT

Surveys of the public in the United States, the wealthiest nation with thewidest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized country, indicatethat most people assign individual deficiency for economic disadvantage(Adeola, 2005). This is consistent with random samples of undergraduatepopulations who tend to blame the poor for their condition (Cozzarelli,Wilkinson, & Tagler, 2001). While providing direct opportunities for rela-tionship building with individuals living in poverty, this seminar sought tochallenge preconceived notions and engage students in examination of thestructural (Feagin, 1972), or macrosystemic (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) issues ofcapitalism, racism, classism, power, and privilege as contributing factors tothe economics of past and present America, and the resulting social stratathat have and continue to unfold.

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Living the Questions 217

The community initiative in which students were charged to engage isreferred to as the “Circles™ Campaign” and was developed by Move theMountain Leadership Center in Ames, Iowa, in 1992. The initiative isimplemented in the county by the seminar’s community partner, a grass-roots non-profit organization, who brings together and supports volunteersas they work to build a stronger community. According to Miller (2007), “ACircle comprises two, three, or more volunteers—‘circle allies’—who meetmonthly with the head(s) of a single family—‘circle leader(s)’—to seek solu-tions for the daily problems, large and small, faced by those wanting to getout of poverty” (p. 5).

The community partner hosted bi-weekly dinners through which peopleliving in poverty, and those who were not, could prepare and share a mealand dialogue about issues within the community, generating solutions toaffect change. Additionally, these dinners provided an entrée to individualswho might potentially be circle leaders or allies. Students participated regu-larly in the dinners, planning, preparing, and sharing meals with membersof the community. These dinners afforded opportunities for students tobuild relationships, thus furthering their understanding of poverty within thecommunity. Students connected with captains, allies, and other communitymembers at these dinners, assisting in meal preparation, leading and partic-ipating discussion groups, and eventually conducting personal interviews.Students also participated in “poverty simulations” organized by the com-munity partner where students, along with other community members,were assigned an identity and thus “lived” in poverty for a month, strugglingto make ends meet and experiencing the impossible decisions imposed bylimited resources. Research suggests that such simulations have the potentialto sensitize individuals to social issues, increasing empathy toward an oftenisolated and marginalized segment of the population (Shirer, Klemme, &Broshar, 1998).

The Circles™ Campaign is in place in 16 communities across the UnitedStates, with an additional 44 communities in emerging initiatives (Miller,2007). Preliminary research on existing community programs indicates circleleaders ending dependence on cash assistance in an average of 10 months,and tripling their income in a 12–20 month period. Data shows a 300%return on every dollar invested, as savings in cash assistance, and costsrelated to healthcare and the judicial system are realized. Additionally,increased productivity and contribution to the tax base surface as outcomesillustrating the economic benefit of the Circles™ Campaign (Miller, 2007).

The community initiative to eliminate poverty works from the insideout—supporting individuals working toward self-sufficiency—as well asfrom the outside in—working to address issues of classism, increasing publicawareness, and stimulating community dialogue. Ultimately, throughintentional relationship building, the initiative encourages a mobilization ofcommunity, and the creation of a unified voice necessary to affect change.

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218 E. Zygmunt-Fillwalk

Voice, according to Covey (2006) lies at the nexus of talent, passion,need, and conscience. This seminar was about discovering voice—the voiceof individuals living in the community—and the students’ own. Through thevoices of all whose lives converged during the seminar, and the evolvingnature of the project, a construction of meaning emerged.

Participants in the seminar engaged in the process of interdisciplinaryexploration throughout the sixteen-week semester. Their group inquiry intopoverty in their community emerged and evolved through processes of per-sonal and collaborative discovery, disequilibrium, reconstruction, andrefinement. The interdisciplinary nature of the work afforded limitlesschoice of questions to pose, literature to read, experiences to pursue, andrelationships to construct. Bound only by their commitment to the subjectand to each other, participants were free to construct personal and collectivemeaning, and work toward building truth.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

In the following section, Parker Palmer’s (1997) “community of truth” hasbeen used as a framework through which to deconstruct the 16-week expe-rience. Palmer’s work was not known to students throughout the course ofthe seminar, nor provided them with a course to follow. Rather, this frame-work provided a post-experience conceptual map—a means through whichto deliberately and qualitatively analyze both affect and interpretationsexperienced during the seminar.

The Community of Truth

Truth, according to Palmer (1997), is “an eternal conversation about thingsthat matter, conducted with passion and discipline” (p. 104). Embracing thepotential of interdisciplinary pedagogy, Palmer articulates “a community oftruth” through which real learning can unfold. Unlike much of traditionaleducation, which is teacher directed, Palmer’s approach is subject centered.In the community of truth, the subject is at the center of all activity, andinforms and drives the activity of the knowers. Knowers, in this model, con-stitute teachers, students, community members, outside experts, authors,and a myriad of others to whom the subject may direct inquiry. In thismodel, there is dynamic interaction between the subject and the knowers,as well as the knowers themselves. The flow of activity is bi-directional,indicating a mutual interaction between knower and subject, the interplayof which deepens the relationship.

According to Palmer, “The hallmark of the community of truth is in itsclaim that reality is a web of communal relationships, and we can knowreality only by being in community with it” (p. 95). Relationship between

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Living the Questions 219

subject and knower is at the crux of the model. In the community of truth,the subject is at the center of attention, and is given respect and authority—in essence, it functions as a living element. Palmer characterizes the activenature of the subject as calling the knower and inviting intrigue. He thenelaborates, “Once we have heard that call and responded, the subject calls usout of ourselves and into its own selfhood” (p. 105). Honoring the subject –what Palmer calls “the great thing,” thus, is paramount in the community oftruth. Palmer describes,

In a subject-centered classroom, the teacher’s central task is to give thegreat thing an independent voice – a capacity to speak its truth quiteapart from the teacher’s voice in terms that students can hear and under-stand. When the great thing speaks for itself, teachers and students aremore likely to come into a genuine learning community - a communitythat does not collapse into the egos of students or teachers but knowsitself accountable to the subject at its core (p. 118).

According to Palmer, education in its finest form invites us to embrace thevirtues of diversity, ambiguity, creative conflict, honesty, integrity, andfreedom, which summon us to dig deep into inquiry without assurance ofdestination. In retrospect, these virtues guided the seminar, and provided alight to follow as uncertain terrain was traversed. It is through these themesin tandem with words spoken and written by students and communitymembers, that our journey is best recounted. Following the seminar, writtenreflections and transcribed oral comments were considered within theframework provided above. In the following sections, the interactions, sub-sequent processes, and significant transformations of seminar participantsare privileged.

Inviting Diversity

We invite diversity into our community not because it is politically correctbut because diverse viewpoints are demanded by the manifold mysteriesof great things (Palmer, 1997, p. 107).

The subject of poverty lends itself to interdisciplinary inquiry. Inequityand disadvantage are social, economic, cultural, and political realities,and these subjects merit examination from philosophical, historical, andcontemporary frameworks. Anthropological exploration of the meansthrough which cycles of poverty are evidenced and perpetuated invitedissection of systems of education, health care, and welfare. An assess-ment of capitalism, democracy, and the value systems upon which institu-tions were founded and have evolved can neither be ignored. Separatingthis subject from the web of disciplines in which it is embedded, and

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220 E. Zygmunt-Fillwalk

studying it from the lens of a single subject, would be nothing less thansevering a limb from its whole. In the absence of multidimensional scru-tiny, we limit the lens, and the ability to construct relationships critical toa quest for truth.

Working with ten students representing ten different disciplinesensured a broad range of perspectives from which to begin a course ofinquiry. Having never experienced such an interdisciplinary approach tostudy, students were appreciatively apprehensive about the semester thatlay before them. Students expressed such tentative concern over a yet-defined role in this new educational terrain:

For me, it has more often than not been difficult to enter a situation ofambiguity. I like the comfort of structure, deadlines, and familiar faces.Entering this experience, I knew I would have little of that . . . the realworld isn’t mapped out in a syllabus, and part of my college experienceshould reflect that. I hope I won’t regret my dive into the unknown.

I need to confess that I couldn’t sleep the night before the start of our seminar.I was so nervous, so excited that my mind couldn’t stop planning andthinking of how it will be to be in this group, how I will understand people,how it will be working together the whole semester.

I think every person on this team is going to change significantly –ideas, preconceptions. In some ways I think we’ll harden, and in someways I hope we soften. I hope we find, in getting to know people andwhere they come from, that we’ll end up with a fine balance betweengreater wisdom, realism, understanding, and greater idealism, biggerdreams.

This is going to be a really, REALLY hard semester, sobering and chal-lenging and totally delightful and stirring . . . I get the sense that I’ll findmyself with tears of frustration and sadness as often as I’ll find mebouncing off the wall for love of the little victories. I hope that we can allbe patient and supportive of each other for both times.

Our inquiry began with introductions—introductions to each other—to ourcommunity partners—to the statistical reality of poverty in our community—to authors Bowles, Durlauf, & Hoff (2006); Chamberlin (1991); Gans (1995);Katz (1989); Kozol (1992; 2005); and Payne (2005)—to Paul Gorski, authorand outside consultant to the project (Gorski, 2006)—to random individualson the street to whom students inquired about poverty in the community,and to community members themselves living in poverty. In our first weeks,through dynamic interaction with these knowers, and through juxtapositionof theory against direct experience, the process of building relationship withour subject began.

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Living the Questions 221

Embracing Ambiguity

We embrace ambiguity not because we are confused or indecisive, butbecause we understand the inadequacy of our concepts to embrace thevastness of great things (Palmer, 1997, p. 107).

Ford and Dillard (1996) offer, “through cycles of external interactions withothers followed by internal reflection on those interactions, cycles of insta-bility and changing perspectives are experienced” (p. 234). During thisperiod of introductions, student journals evidenced such cognitive conflict:

My scope of what poverty is and the need that is present was far too small.

Posing the questions “to whose benefit?” are things structured as they areis quite a bundle to wrap one’s mind around . . . I keep looking at thingswith a critical eye now.

I have been struggling with my own inadequate thoughts and under-standings to even get this far in the journey, with so much more to go.

It is hard to have all these different thoughts in my head and have noclue what to do with them. I keep trying to place the “blame” somewhere,and everywhere I turn, I’m sent somewhere else, or something else isthrown into the mix. It’s difficult not pointing the finger to a specificplace identifying the deficit, because I feel like somewhere there has to beone. I want to fix things, but I don’t even know where the problem is.

I think, as academics, we lack courage, often clinging to the safety of aclassroom, the warm security of ideas. We can talk about it all day, turn“poverty” over and over in our minds, and we can say we thrive onlearning . . . but feeling it? Asking us to experience even a small taste ofwhat it’s like to live in poverty risks our sanity and stability, in a smallway. If we’re open to learning it through feeling it, there’s a very goodchance that everything we thought we knew could no longer make sense.

Helms (1990) offers that individuals engaged in such exploration oftenexperience a deconstruction of previously held tenets—“realities that indi-viduals have been taught to believe” (p. 58). Newly constructed truths canthen be a catalyst for anger to emerge, as individuals begin to question thefoundations upon which their knowledge is based.

How many times I have asked myself why the richest country in the world notonly still experiences poverty, but is rife with it to a greater degree than anyother country in the industrialized world. Understanding capitalistic exploi-tation, far from making me feel better, just suffuses me with a draining anger.

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I spoke with a very educated, very nice woman, a teacher actually, thisweek. She told me how she sent her kids to a certain high school so thatthey wouldn’t have to deal with “those kinds of situations”. Then she wenton to say that the school started to bus kids from the inner city to her chil-dren’s school, so it “didn’t quite work out the way they were planning”.WHAT THE HECK ARE WE AFRAID OF? Are we worried me might getsome on us? Wouldn’t it just be the most God-awful thing to have to beaffected by coming in contact with someone with a different backgroundthan you? Man, the horror! How terribly inconvenient! I was MAD. This isridiculous.

Such systematic dismantling and reconstruction of prior understandings onthe part of students was consuming. As students came into fellowship withthe subject, an honor and respect began to develop which disallowed apathy.

I’m exhausted . . . I haven’t been able to shut my brain up, and I haven’tslept very well . . . just the weight of the week and the ideas that have beenstewing around inside me have tired me out.

Welcoming Creative Conflict

We welcome creative conflict not because we are angry or hostile, butbecause conflict is required to correct our biases and prejudices aboutthe nature of great things (Palmer, 1997, p. 104).

In order to juxtapose poverty in our community, to that of a major mid-western city, the group took a week’s journey to examine poverty from alarge, urban perspective. We spent a week engaged in “first-voice pedagogy”(Chicago Center, 2007) learning from a myriad of cultural communities expe-riencing and addressing the poverty of the city. Issues of homelessness,immigration, globalization, racism, gentrification, and predatory lendingwere addressed as we met, spoke with, and learned from knowers repre-senting the diversity of the city. Group processing was integral to the experi-ence, as nearly every evening, we would gather to decompress from theweight of the day’s events. Additionally, journaling continued throughout theweek, documenting the conflict of new learning against previous ignorance:

We were driving along when suddenly, under the overpass, we sawblankets—no—bodies, at least 50, laying on the ground and huddledtogether to stave the frigid air—cameras were soberly lowered, and silenceenveloped the van. We continued on for blocks without a spoken word.

We finally arrived at the spoken word café after our long trek south. Theanticipation of the event is replaced with the realization that we are theonly white faces in this crowd—angry, political performance informs us

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Living the Questions 223

of the power and privilege we conveniently enjoy at the expense ofothers—the artists don’t hide from us that our presence is questioned andour motivation questionable.

It would seem that, instead of revising strategies to eliminate poverty, oreven “control” it, the government has simply decided to give up on poorpeople. And, lest they be confronted with the evidence of their failuredaily, they have begun to expel the poor from their midst, through suchmeasures as manipulation of the housing market, the raising of propertytaxes, and redlining in the allocation of loans. In a world where thosewho resent you may ignore your human rights at their leisure, loss of thatmembership constitutes, for all practical purposes, loss of your humanity.

A rawness and vulnerability were felt upon our return from the city. As studentswrestled with incompatibility between worldview and the reality of theurban poor, they acknowledged an unsettling sadness and disillusionment thataltered the group dynamic during this period of reorientation to our work:

Since we returned from the trip, conversations are muted, there is littlelaughter. When I move, it’s like moving through water. It’s like I gotplugged into this too massive power source and my circuits are on over-load. To be witness to so much pain, to feel so much . . . it’s like it friedmy nerve endings, and now I’m number even than I was before.

This trip was a heavy dose of reality that America has kindly blinded myeyes to for 21 long, desensitized, complacent years. This isn’t the placeI thought it was, America. I have always grown up thinking that peoplewho treat people inhumanely are “un-American.” This week I was struckby several different forms of systemic injustice, mandated, and legislatedby our government.

I think paying taxes has given people license to forget about those whofreeze on the streets because there’s a sense that you’ve already “doneyour part.”

I’ve never experienced what TV and the movies portray as a hangover,with the sunglasses and the headache and the general impatience for thepace of real life, but I think this week looking back on our trip, is the firsttime I can relate. This was a spiritually difficult week.

I think that overall these issues just hurt my heart. Unlike many otherlearning experiences, this learning does not necessarily bring a newsense of comfort.

The train ride home was somber. People like us don’t like to feel helpless.Active, not passive, I think we’re a group that likes to have answers more

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often than not. Why should people be homeless? How can there not besomewhere for them to go? How can humans let other human live likethat? Are we really that cruel?

All week I’ve kind of felt like I’ve had a lump of food in my stomach thatwouldn’t digest . . . I know it’s the city and the things we saw andexperienced . . . I’ve been slowly, slowly hashing it out in my mind, andbased on the atmosphere of our classroom, I would say that’s likely to betrue for everyone . . . it felt like we just didn’t . . . laugh as much this week.

Well I guess my ivory tower was higher than I thought, because I’ve justnow hit the ground. I should have known it would hurt to live, to be inthe world.

Rilke (1903) wrote,

You must not be frightened if a sadness rises up before you larger thanany you have ever seen . . . You must think that something is happeningwith you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; itwill not let you fall” (p. 32).

The disillusionment experienced during the first month of the seminar wascritical in our relationship to the subject. As in other life relationships, aslayers are peeled back, new facets are exposed, some of which are lesstolerable than the surface structure. Still, there was a growing realizationamong the group that in order for the strongest relationship with the subjectto develop, atrocities needed to be embraced and known to the fullestextent possible in order that the truths we sought would emerge.Practicing Honesty

We practice honesty not only because we owe it to one another butbecause to lie about what we have seen would be to betray the truth ofgreat things (Palmer, 1997, p. 108).

At this point in the seminar, students were charged with creating a begin-ning work plan through which to accomplish our objectives. How could we“give voice” to families living in poverty? How might we further a publiccommitment to the work of eliminating poverty in our community? Amongthe myriad of knowers we had encountered, subsequent knowledge wehad gained, and with so many questions still unanswered and yet to bedefined, how might we proceed?

We worked over several days to dialogue in earnest. Our traveltogether had forged relationships among the students, affording a cogni-tive, emotional, and psychologically safe environment. Students couldthus express honestly that which they had experienced with both head

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Living the Questions 225

and heart—that which had called them. They then considered togetherhow best to respond. Our subject had invited students to furtherinquiry—providing direction for future work. Mapping the inquiry intowhich students had been summoned then provided a frameworkthrough which to track our work. In the midst of our process, studentsoften reflected on the experience of collecting, digesting, and synthesiz-ing. Exhilaration, anxiety, frustration, and fatigue characterized theirconsumption of experience and subsequent construction of newschema:

In the midst of the processing, we’ve also been envisioning, and I’ll tell youwhat—I’m excited. The past few weeks, we’ve been reaching our arms out,gathering ideas, hearing speakers, debating, reading, discussing . . . wewere safe in our surroundings . . . until the trip - there was still that samereaching out, but it was no longer as safe—we felt the hurt of desperatecircumstances. We were slapped by the cold. We saw bits of both ouridealism and confusion shatter against hard words, hard situations. Itwasn’t nearly as safe or comfy or idealistic, you might say, but we spentthe week, again, gathering “knowledge” that people were throwing at us(which kind of felt like someone was poking me hard in the chestrepeatedly).

My sister is pregnant, and the other day I was writing about that andsaid that there’s a baby being put together inside her belly. It’s kind oflike that, honestly. Something is getting put together inside us andinside that classroom, and eventually, something will get born. AndI’m . . . over the moon. I’m thrilled. It feels so good to start makingteams, planning, envisioning . . . and trying to decide how we can, ina graceful, intelligent way, be good stewards with all of this “knowl-edge” we’ve collected and will continue to collect. . . . We’re in process,and birth looks very far away right now, but we’re crashing throughthe weeks already. If we can keep our heads on our shoulders and oureyes wide open, I think the process will be amazing and the birth willbe beautiful.

We all need each other here, but this particular subject and style ofworking together lends a hand, sometimes, to feelings of inadequacy andconfusion. . . . Several of us, myself included, had mini-breakdowns thisweek, and as painful and silly as I felt standing there crying all overmyself, there was beauty in that. To care so much about what we do, tocare that the work we’re doing matters – you know, there’s beauty in that.To care so much about other people? There’s beauty in that. And to feelfatigue and sadness and hope for the lives of the people we’ve gotten toknow—there’s beauty in that. Honestly, as tiring as the work is, I tell peo-ple time after time that it’s so satisfying to me—I wouldn’t rather be doinganything else this semester.

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We named our babies on Monday this past week . . . and by that I mean,we decided on our topics for the radio shows. WHOOO! Now we havedirection. Now we have purpose—it’s exciting and terrifying all at once.So here we go.

Experiencing Humility

We experience humility not because we have fought and lost butbecause humility is the only lens through which great things can be seen– and once we have seen them, humility is the only posture possible(Palmer, 1997, p. 108).

The concept maps created by the students outlined topics they had beenmost called to explore, but most importantly, detailed voices students identifiedas essential in their quest for truth. Revered on their list were communitymembers living in poverty. Overwhelmingly students expressed a desire tolearn, with humility and grace, from the individuals whose lives definedtheir subject. There was an expressed understanding that these voiceswould drive the content of the work, not some predetermined idea of whatthat content might be. Students respected the subject enough to let it liveand breathe—to not make decisions for it, but rather to let it inform them.

As students began to interview members of the community, it becamemost clear to them the power of the voices in communicating a commit-ment toward the work of eliminating poverty. Students were humbled inadmitting surprise in the extent to which members of the community livingin poverty could articulate so clearly their hopes and dreams, and wrestledwith prior stereotypes which disallowed this potential. With such humility,the truth of a common humanity emerged, liberating students from the limi-tations of past prejudice, and moving them forward in connecting voicewith vision. Community members’ voices regarding perceived views of pov-erty and membership in the CirclesTM Campaign facilitated students’ unionwith their subject, and afforded new understandings. These voices gave alife to the subject of poverty in their expressions of both hope and despair:

Sometimes it’s so bleak . . . there’s that lingering notion that I’m notworthy . . . you lose the very essence of being human.

A lot of the people who don’t have material things have so many othergifts that help open hearts and open minds . . . just because you havethings and have money doesn’t mean you’re whole . . . sometimes thepeople that are the most whole, are the ones who have the least.

I thought that I didn’t have anything to give, but what I’m finding is that thatis really not true. . . . I hadn’t really realized that there would be anythingthat I could do or say or live that would be of value. . . . I have a lot of gifts.

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Living the Questions 227

I saw people having dreams, and those dreams were coming true, some-times way more than they ever hoped for, and it dawned on me . . . closeyour eyes and relax for a change, and dare to dream.

I think that people’s biggest fear is feeling alone . . . so if you feel you havea structure, a group, something you can fall back on, then it’s not justyou fighting the world, then you’re more likely to succeed in life.

Becoming Free

We become free men and women through education not because wehave privileged information but because tyranny in any form can beovercome only by invoking the grace of great things (Palmer, 1997,p. 108).

Lorde (1984) suggests, “the transformation of silence into language andaction is an act of self-revelation” (p. 42). Gay (1985) discusses the “post-encounter” phase in which individuals evidence a social commitment to act inways that support their new worldview. Banks (1988) defines “multi-ethnicityand reflective nationalism” as the stage of development where individualshave “internalized the universalistic ethical values and principles of humankindand have the skills, competencies, and commitment needed to take actionwithin the world to actualize personal values and commitments” (p. 197).According to Palmer,

It is our commitment to the conversation itself, our willingness toput forward our observations and interpretations for testing by thecommunity and to return the favor to others. To be in the truth, wemust know how to observe and reflect and speak and listen, withpassion and with discipline, in the circle gathered around a givensubject (p. 104).

Through a newfound commitment to action, students realized the productionof four radio programs, one documentary profiling a community member’sjourney toward self-sufficiency through the Circles™ Campaign, and onepublic service announcement emphasizing poverty in our community as“unacceptable”. Both video pieces were broadcast on Public Television, andthe radio programs, featuring community voices on subjects of economicdevelopment, housing, neighborhood revitalization, and the CirclesTM

Campaign, were broadcast as a weeklong segment on Indiana Public Radio.This work, in addition to many print materials developed to further thework of our community partner, were showcased at a community forumattended by over 200 individuals, and each student was charged with publiclyarticulating new understandings based on their participation in the seminar:

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At the end of this, I can’t intelligently answer many questions aboutpoverty . . . there’s so much more I need to learn . . . what I can say is thatwe came into this semester a group of naïve college kids with a genuinedesire to understand. And we met people who could see that in us. Theywere gracious, patient enough, to forgive us for our ignorance and toteach us. So I still don’t know a lot about poverty, but I know poverty a bitbetter after this seminar, because I have met friends who know it, andthey’re brave and generous. They’ve helped us get to know them and theirstories, and for this, we are incredibly grateful.

I tie this all back into a quote you used one of the first days we met . . ..“Ifyou feel that you have both feet planted on level ground, then the universityhas failed you” (Goheen, 1961). While I’m not leaving quite yet, in noway will I recover from this earthquake anytime soon.

As group of college students with a genuine desire for understanding, we’vedone more than just study a community - we’ve all become a part of it.

This will remain the defining experience of my college years. While itwasn’t easy, it just felt so refreshing to not have to worry about myself. Mygrades. My benefit. I now know what it feels like to be truly committed tosomething. To love it. To take risks. To seek out education where I leastexpected it.

I can’t say enough about the connection I feel to the community. I nowfeel an obligation and a commitment, whereas before I looked at it asonly a temporary home.

As long as you’re simply studying things that are wrong, you don’t haveto be touched by the wrong. Injustice is a very sterile, safe thing from adistance, and that makes it easy to keep it at arm’s length and not getinvolved, not let it change the way you’re living your life. But wheninjustice involves the faces of your friends . . . fortunately, love gets inthe way. When it’s friendship, when you’re no longer an us and a themseparated by misunderstanding, you can understand what poverty is,and you can understand that apathy and ignorance are no longer anoption.

At the forum and in subsequent opportunities for dialogue, communitymembers generously articulated their appreciation for the impact of students’collective contribution:

The team of students who so enthusiastically supported our poverty initia-tive must be commended. Especially in the area of public education andcommunications, we have become more effective in creating awarenessof this debilitating problem in our community.

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Living the Questions 229

There are many barriers to people getting out of poverty. One of the worst,in my opinion, is the lack of public understanding of the real issues sur-rounding poverty, such as the human and financial costs we all bear, aswell as the sheer magnitude of the problem. The only way to correct thissituation is to create communication materials that somehow get to thetruth of the matter and reach people. This is what your students havecontributed. I have seen the videos touch audiences in a way that nospeech alone can do as effectively.

I wasn’t sure at first just what the group of college kids was doing at thedinners but it soon became clear that they were totally involved in learningabout the issues of people in poverty. They brought a liveliness and positivespirit to those evenings and in the process they created an impressive set ofpublic service announcements and a video that has reached a lot of peoplein the community. The fact that many of the students continue, a yearlater, to participate tells me a lot about their sense of social responsibility.

The students made an intensive study of poverty and changed the commu-nity with their thorough and insightful work. They gleaned the stories ofpeople living in poverty and transformed them into informative and heart-changing media packages that are still being used and talked about.

They met and befriended people living in the isolation of poverty and cutoff from the fellowship and support of the rest of the community, creatinglasting friendships that have changed the local view of what universitystudents can and do give back. They gave of themselves to provide socialsupport to people in need, layering their personal concerns and compassionupon their newfound knowledge: that poverty in our country is pervasive,that our nation’s support system is not tooled to help people get out ofpoverty, and that it takes whole communities of caring citizens to addressthe problem.

The students epitomized the kind of social capacity it will take to endpoverty in this country, and I have no doubt that a fire now burns ineach of them to devote a lifetime to that pursuit.

DISCUSSION

Sharing common elements with engaged pedagogy (hooks, 1994), criticaltheory (Giroux, l983), and multicultural theory (Nieto, 1996), Palmer’s Com-munity of Truth (1997) afforded students a constructivist framework throughwhich to develop both a personal and collective critical consciousness pre-viously unearthed in their more conventional undergraduate studies.According to Florence (1998), such education “desocializes students fromtraditional relationships and norms of being and knowing . . . by linking

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social contexts to academics and honoring scholarship both within and outsidethe academy” (p. 82).

The interdisciplinary nature of the seminar additionally broadened theextent to which students’ were able to engage in inquiry around the subjectof poverty. With such a vast range of academic disciplines represented bystudent participants, the multiple facets of this community condition wereexplored more readily than if the lens was limited to a fixed disciplinaryorientation. A resulting interdisciplinary cognizance afforded students anemerging understanding of poverty through relationships between subjectareas that were previously disconnected.

Furthermore, Dewey (1938) and Vygotsky’s (1978) imperative regardingthe social construction of knowledge was exemplified as seminar studentsconstructed new realities through interactions with the many knowers whoso generously engaged in collective inquiry around our subject. Thisco-construction of new schema alongside peers and community membersengendered a kinship, which invited caring and commitment to the subjectand to each other. Through processes of cooperation and collaboration,many voices converged, and unified understandings unfolded.

Dewey (1938) so eloquently informed us, “There is no greater deficitin traditional education greater than its failure to secure the activeco-operation of the pupil in construction of the purposes involved in hisstudying” (p. 67). Through vast and varied experience and activity in theseminar, students and the faculty fellow followed an emergent curriculum(Jones & Nimmo, 1994) of their own discovery. Never was the destinationpredefined; rather, new questions required articulation and planning ofnew experiences. This process allowed discovery to inform direction andempowered students to be architects, as well as inhabitants of their owndesign. The mutuality of teacher and student (hooks, 1994) further sup-ported the accountability of all members of the learning community toadvancing inquiry.

According to poet Anais Nin, “the life deeply lived always expands intotruths beyond itself” (Nin, 1966). During the course of the 16-week seminar,students deeply lived. With passion and discipline, they lived the questions.Their work stretched beyond the boundaries of self as they lived a web ofrelationships, which brought them into community with new realities.

Eric Hoffer (1963) offered, “To dispose a soul to action, one mustupset its equilibrium.” With courage, the students committed to worktoward clarity, to persevere through confusion, and to dedicate them-selves fully—physically, psychologically, and spiritually, to the work ofmobilizing a community to affect change. With humility and grace, tenstudents came into communion with their subject. It was a process notwithout angst or exhaustion, but one from which they emerged with greatjoy and celebration—with new truth, and with questions they continue tolive and love.

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