Learning through listening: applying an action learning model to a cross-cultural field study experience in Native America

We discuss our experience using an action-learning model to teach an interdisciplinary field course about the complex cross-cultural issues Native American populations face in Oregon today. This approach took students out of the traditional post-secondary classroom setting for I week and emphasized learning through active listening and the creation of partnerships between students, the teaching team, and community stakeholders. Our hybridized teaching model is based on Freire's (Pedagogy of the oppressed, Contimurm, New York, 1970) problem-posing approach and combines a number of pedagogical techniques including experiential learning, collaborative models of group learning, the use of field experience and the use of the Internet. Within this unique pedagogical environment, students were empowered to take charge of their own learning and explore the myriad of ways in which systemic and institutionalized discrimination affects Native American people in a small rural town in Oregon. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.