Teaching and Learning with the Seventh Generation: The “Inward Bound” Experience

Abstract

How can a college course for students planning healthcare careers promote compassion in the form of service to others? This article describes a community action learning program in which pre-health students from the University at Albany, State University of New York, worked at a traditional Native American community in upstate New York in return for lessons in Iroquois spirituality, healing, and ecology. Included are citations from educational research, quotes by community residents and students, and a description of the holistic, integrative curriculum in which the community action learning took place. Although a description of a student vision quest is included, this article problematizes the appropriation of Native American traditions, as well as the danger of “great white hope” philanthropy. It suggests that reciprocity between community members and students helped to alleviate these problems, leading to a deepened recognition of compassion and a broader definition of healing of oneself others, and the planet.