Critical Listening and Community Engagement
As one model for Indianapolis Community
Requirement courses, the CCC has developed a series of ethnographic
research projects wherein Butler students interview individuals
from diverse Indianapolis communities. In one project, students
interview grandparents in the Martin Luther King Community Center's
kinship care program about the joys and struggles associated with
taking primary responsibility for raising grandchildren. In another
project, students record personal experience stories and histories
from members of the Nur-Allah Islamic Center. In yet another
project, students document the life stories of "Natural Helpers"
associated with the Immigrant Welcome Center. These projects are
all part of the CCC's Critical Listening initiative that creates
face-to-face opportunities within Butler's academic curriculum
wherein Butler students can engage with the stories and lives of
individuals beyond the Butler campus and thereby learn and improve
critical listening skills-skills that we believe are essential to
civic mindedness and citizenship.