"Authentic Realities of the CBL Experience" by Rachid Touhtouh
You can find more information about Community-Based Learning (CBL) in Morocco here, and check out a webinar from November, 2021 with Dr. Rachid Touhtouh, Dr. Mjriam Abu Samra, and Dr. Elena D. Corbett all about CBL.
Wow! I always ask students to reflect on their Community-Based Learning (CBL) experience; now it is my turn to do it. It’s a hard task after five years of teaching American students and helping them find the right placement. In short CBL has taught me one thing: community-based learning is a cross-cultural, deep experience that helps students find a balance between their mind, heart, and feet. I cannot explain everything as it is a very subjective experience, but I would say one thing: CBL will adjust your feet on the ground and elevate you to see the world.
This is the story of most students who join our CBL class in Rabat, Morocco with AMIDEAST; it is a story full of learning and obstacles - each student has to confront their fair share of obstacles. At the initial site visit, the supervisor is excited to have the student as a member of the team and assigns them to a project, expecting them to get to work right away. However, the next time they return to the office, it is difficult to flag down the team members to whom they have been introduced the week before. Like many NGOs in the world, the ones in Rabat are understaffed and overburdened by the volume of tasks they have to do, so students should not expect staff members to be able to guide them through the entire workday. Students will find themselves sitting on the sidelines, getting shuffled around from room to room without contributing anything substantial to the organization’s operations. During the first few weekdays, it is easy to feel like a burden to the organization.
Students often think their linguistic capacities could help, however, it takes a whole other level of professional and cultural fluency to be able to integrate into such a fast-paced work environment. Despite these challenges, by shadowing different employees students will learn more about the services provided by the NGO and ask thoughtful questions about the goals of the organization. By their frequent visits, they will begin to feel that they have established a friendly, yet professional, rapport with their coworkers and are able to work as a team to help support the NGO’s different tasks. Overall, students’ personal engagement with staff members will substantiate their interest and dedication to the organization’s mission, allowing them to build trust in one another and eventually get assigned critical tasks.
From sitting around feeling listless to assisting with what students think are useless tasks for within the placement, with time students have to carve out a role at their placement to feel useful and productive. Working abroad, students are often faced with the uncomfortable feeling that people are helping them more than they are helping the organization. No matter how much students despise feeling that way, over time they have to learn to accept and even welcome feelings of discomfort. This discomfort reminds them to work even harder at integrating themselves into the new environment, until eventually the feeling subsides.
When students reach the phase of loving these moments of discomfort, then they are undergoing the authentic CBL experience because it is the first step towards learning about different cultures. I know that some students have interned in other countries or, of course, the US, and while these experiences give students the ability to adapt to a range of different environments, not one of them will be remotely similar to the experience doing CBL in Morocco. From a sociological, political, and cultural standpoint, students are fascinated to learn about refugees’ lives, migration, sexuality, justice, journalism, development, different ethnic groups, youth, and minorities in a conservative Muslim society. Though stigma, inequalities, and discrimination remain pervasive in even the most progressive countries, students are often delighted to observe how the goals of these NGOs can supersede societal taboos.
This opportunity is no waste of time or money! CBL is applicable to students’ current studies in the US and the work that they want to do in their future career because it proves that polarization can be alleviated through effective messaging and education about the necessity of essential social services. The AMIDEAST CBL experience will show students that this kind of work is one of the best ways to gain insight into the world around them. With COVID as a reminder that everything is transient, it is important to make the most of every opportunity and work through uncomfortable situations.
Rachid Touhtouh is the Academic Coordinator for AMIDEAST Education Abroad in Rabat, Morocco and organizes the CBL placements.
