Abstract
Homelessness is a critical issue facing societies around the world. The scale of human suffering around homelessness stretches beyond shelter insecurity to include hunger and malnutrition, lack of healthcare, greatly increased crime victimization, deprivation from job markets, and embarrassingly visible marginality within society. Using data from a small, longitudinal study of undergraduate students at a medium-sized Catholic university in the upper Midwestern United States, this chapter considers the potential role of higher education in socializing undergraduate college students to engage in community-based learning around social justice for people living homeless. Student attitudes tended to persist between the pre- and post-tests, with small to moderate changes in the direction of less negative stereotypes regarding the homeless and more accurate knowledge following the sociology course. Initially, students leaned toward negative or inaccurate stereotypes of homeless communities: that homeless people are unclean; predominately nonwhite; have enough funds to live on; and often get permanent housing. By the end of the course, the students shifted significantly on all four items toward greater accuracy in their perceptions. While the findings are not as dramatic as community-based learning advocates might like to see, this research suggests how higher education has the potential to promote attitudes conducive to relieving suffering.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychological Association. (2015). Effects of poverty, hunger, and homelessness on children and youth. http://www.apa.org/pi/families/poverty.aspx/. Accessed 15 Aug 2015.
Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. (2013). Homelessness in Minnesota: 2012 results. http://www.wilder.org/Wilder-Research/Publications/Studies/Homelessness%20in%20Minnesota%202012%20Study/Homelessness%20in%20Minnesota%20%20Findings%20from%20the%202012%20Statewide%20Homeless%20Study.pdf. Accessed 16 Aug 2015.
Anderson, R. (2012). Generation X students reflect on the meaning of life. Paper presented at The Future of Social Science Research Methods Conference and Babbie Center Dedication, Chapman University, 21 March.
Association of American Colleges and Universities. (2014). Bringing theory to practice, civic series teaser. Online video. http://www.aacu.org/bringing_theory/CivicSeries.cfm#CS. Accessed 16 Jan 2014.
Berger, P. (1963). Invitation to sociology. A humanistic perspective. Garden City: Doubleday.
Boyer, E. L. (1990). The scholarship of engagement. Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 49(7), 18–33.
Burawoy, M. (2004). 2004 presidential address: For public sociology. American Sociological Review, 70(1), 4–28.
Campus Compact. (2014). Campus Compact membership survey 2014: Three decades of institutionalizing change, 2014. Boston: Campus Compact. http://kdp0l43vw6z2dlw631ififc5.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/2014-CC-Member-Survey.pdf. Accessed 18 Aug 2015.
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. (2015). Carnegie selects colleges and universities for 2015 community engagement classification. http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/newsroom/news-releases/carnegie-selects-colleges-universities-2015-community-engagement-classification/. Accessed 15 Aug 2015.
Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. (2015). Dorothy Day Center. http://cctwincities.org/DorothyDayCenter. Accessed 16 Aug 2015.
Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. (2016). Major encyclical, conciliar and key teaching documents. https://www.cctwincities.org/education-advocacy/catholic-social-teaching/major-documents/. Accessed 8 Feb 2016.
Corporation for National and Community Service. (2013). Volunteering in civic life in America. http://2013.volunteeringinamerica.gov/. Accessed 18 Aug 2015.
de los Angeles Torres, M., Rizzini, I., & del Rio, N. (2013). Citizens in the present: Youth civic engagement in the Americas. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Driscoll, A. (2009). Carnegie’s new community engagement classification: Affirming higher education’s role in community. New Directions for Higher Education, 147(1), 5–12.
Gallup World Poll. (2015). Civic engagement highest in developed countries. http://www.gallup.com/poll/145589/civic-engagement-highest-developed-countries.aspx. Accessed 3 Jan 2016.
Garcia-Rea, E. A., & LePage, J. P. (2010). Reliability and validity of the World Health Organization quality of life: Brief version (WHOQOL-BREF) in a homeless substance dependent population. Social Indicators Research, 99(2), 333–340.
Johnston, J. B. (2013). Religion and volunteering over the adult life course. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 52(4), 733–752.
Keyes, C. (2014). The eudeamonic and the civic. In D. W. Howard (Ed.), Civic Provocations (pp. 19–22). Washington, DC: American Association of Colleges and Universities Bringing Theory to Practice.
Lee, B. A., Tyler, K. A., & Wright, J. D. (2010). The new homelessness revisited. Annual Review of Sociology, 36, 501–521.
Link, B. G., Phelan, J., Bresnahan, M., Stueve, A., Moore, R. E., & Susser, E. (1995). Lifetime and five-year prevalence of homelessness in the United States: New evidence on an old debate. The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 65, 347–354.
Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self, & society from the standpoint of a social behaviorist. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Melo, F. (2014). St. Paul eyes higher ground as it seeks to upgrade homeless shelter. St. Paul Pioneer Press, January 4. http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_24878509/st-paul-eyes-homeless-shelter-replace-crowded-dorothy. Accessed 29 Jan 2016.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. (2015). Climate. http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/faq/mnfacts/climate.html. Accessed Aug 14 2015.
Mobley, C. (2007). Breaking ground: Engaging undergraduates in social change through service learning. Teaching Sociology, 35(2), 125–137.
Moore, E. W., Warta, S., & Erichsen, K. (2014). College students’ volunteering: Factors related to current volunteering, volunteer settings, and motives for volunteering. College Student Journal, 48(3), 386–396.
Moorhead, M.. (2012). HUD secretary says a homeless person costs taxpayers $40,000 a year. The Daily Show, March 12. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/mar/12/shaun-donovan/hud-secretary-says-homeless-person-costs-taxpayers/. Accessed 15 Aug 2015.
Morse, G. A. (1992). Causes of homelessness. In M. J. Robertson & M. Greenblat (Eds.), Homelessness: A national perspective (pp. 3–17). New York: Springer.
Myers-Lipton, S. J. (1998). Effect of a comprehensive service-learning program on college students’ civic responsibility. Teaching Sociology, 26(4), 243–258.
Nyden, P. (2014). Public sociology, engaged research, and civic education. In P. Levine & K. E. Soltan (Eds.), Civic studies: Approaches to the emerging field (pp. 103–113). Washington, DC: American Association of Colleges and Universities.
Okpala, C. O., Sturdivant, L., & Hopson, L. (2009). Assessment of the impact of service learning on academic growth of college students. Journal of College Teaching & Learning, 6(4), 65–68.
Owen, G., Gerard, M.D. (2013.) Survey shows: 5 key reasons people are homeless in Minnesota. Amherst G. Wilder Foundation. Community Matters Blog. http://www.wilder.org/Blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=63. Accessed 14 Aug 2015.
Snyder, M., & Dwyer, P. C. (2012). Altruism and prosocial behavior. In I. B. Weiner (Ed.), Handbook of psychology (2nd ed., pp. 467–485). Hoboken: Wiley.
Star Tribune. (2015). Welcome, We Day, and thanks, students. November 3. http://www.startribune.com/welcome-we-day-and-thanks-to-minnesota-students/339642951/. Accessed 6 Nov 2015.
Treviño, A. J. (2012). The challenge of service sociology [Presidential addresss]. Social Problems, 59(1), 2–20.
United Nations. (2008). UN-HABITAT unveils state of the world’s cities report. London: UN-HABITAT.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2015). State and county QuickFacts: Minnesota. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/27000.html. Accessed 16 Aug 2015.
Valorose, J. (2015). Instilling the value of civic engagement in youth. Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. Community Matters. http://www.wilder.org/Blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=147. Accessed 22 Dec 2015.
Zhang, Y., & Lin, J. (2008). Vounteerism in China: National policies, student responses, and two case studies of self-organized volunteer programs. Chinese Education and Society, 41(3), 3–13.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to then-undergraduate sociologists Darek Albertson, Olamide Fadahunsi, and Kylee Joosten for data assistance. Kelly Sardon-Garrity, program panager, Office of Civic Engagement, University of St. Thomas, provided useful information on community engagement. Finally, as always, Ron Anderson exemplifies that which is the collegial best in an editor.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Karraker, M.W. (2017). Socializing Students in Higher Education to Alleviate Human Suffering Among the Homeless. In: Anderson, R. (eds) Alleviating World Suffering. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 67. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51391-1_24
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51391-1_24
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51390-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51391-1
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)