Multicultural Valuing - Service

General Education Capstone Course

Event/Experience Details and Guideline Form

Gen. Ed. category event should be listed under: Multicultural Valuing

SCC competency addressed by event:

1. Students should be able to identify, analyze and articulate their own values as well as those of others and recognize how these values affect opinions, decisions, and behaviors.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices/products and perspectives of the cultures studied.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the evolving nature of societies and the interdependence among all peoples.

Event experience title:  Attend a new religious service.

Anticipated learning outcome. 

Through this exercise students should develop a better understanding of the diversities and complexities of the cultural, social, and religious world, and come to a better informed sense of self and others.   

Guidelines for accomplishment of event

Instructions for Students:  Attend a religious service different from any you've previously witnessed. Depending on your own background, this may be a Jewish Synagogue, a Muslim Mosque, a Hindu or Buddhist Temple, an Evangelical Protestant or Eastern Orthodox Church, and so forth. The Saturday edition of the St. Louis Post Dispatch has a listing of services in the area, and might give you some ideas of where to start (contact information for the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt, the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis, and the Hindu Temple of St. Louis are given below). This event is based upon respect for the beliefs and dignity of others, and you should check to make sure visitors are welcome and try to be courteous and culturally sensitive in your visit. In your structured journal entry based on your attendance, analyze everything you observed. Were there any actions which seem designed to reinforce feelings of community and solidarity? Were there other actions which seem to reinforce a social hierarchy (of leaders and followers in the faith)? Were there any repetitive motions or words which give meaning to the worshippers? What was public and what was private during the event? Did the service primarily present beliefs and knowledge already held by the practitioners, or did it convey primarily new information (e.g. stories for living)? Feel free to take this social analysis in any direction you find meaningful, considering both the multicultural and valuing aspects of the experience.

Assessment rubric for instructors: Are they able to write a coherent essay about the experience. Are they able to get beyond questions of "who's right" and look for the cultural patterning of the event - looking for the shared beliefs that direct the behavior as well as the implications of those behaviors themselves for the group? Do they demonstrate empathy, the ability to successfully deal with cultures other than their own, and/or an attempt at objective analysis? Were they able to find something meaningful in the experience?

Provide at least one the following: 

Event contact name: St. Louis Post Dispatch Saturday edition

Event contact phone number: Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt (west of 270, 314-434-0531); the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis (in Manchester, 636-394-7878); Hindu Temple of St. Louis (636-230-3300); among many others

Event contact Web site URL: http://www.hindutemplestlouis.org/

http://www.explorestlouis.com/factSheets/factislamic.asp?PageType=4

SCC event creator: Wm. Griffin

Estimated time for full completion (include: making contact/appointment; attending activity; travel; and journal consideration and entry) 4