Exploring Cities, Exploring Austin: Experiential Learning and Cultural Understanding
Although an undergraduate University of Texas student may live in Austin for four years, many students do not explore all of its diverse neighborhoods. Pablo Postigo Olsson, a lecturer in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese, designed UGS 302 Exploring Cities, Exploring Austin to allow first-year students to grapple with ideas of community, public spaces, and neighborhoods. He chose to integrate three Flags into the course: Cultural Diversity in the U.S. (CD), Ethics and Leadership (EL), and Writing (WR).
Why incorporate three Flags?
The EL Flag requires the inclusion of practical ethics, which complements the goals of the CD Flag. Understanding processes of marginalization entails ethical engagement and leadership, says Professor Postigo Olsson.
In addition, “The Writing Flag has allowed me to design a series of assessments that puts increasing degrees of agency on their writing,” he says. He elaborates that this allows students to acquire a more sophisticated skill set for brainstorming, writing, and editing. Including all three Flags rewards the work that students do, and places emphasis on appropriate work as “ethics.”
In the first part of the course students learn how the ways cities are arranged reflects relationships within and among communities, including prioritization of certain functions. Through reading assignments, videos, and podcasts, students develop an understanding of how social arrangements appear physically. Then, students are asked to apply that knowledge in Austin through field trips.
Students go on experiential learning trips to different Austin areas: Hyde Park, downtown Austin, Lake Austin, the Montopolis neighborhood, the Domain, Chinatown, and eventually, on a self-guided trip to Colony Park.
Professor Postigo Olsson’s student-centered, flipped-classroom approach helps students reflect on the neighborhoods they visit and the historically perpetuated marginalization of communities living in Austin. This reflection is a key component of the CD Flag’s learning objective that students recognize how personal cultural experiences affect their worldview. Throughout the semester he facilitates group reflection in class and individual reflection through short written assignments and audio recordings.
These field trips are very popular with students. Walker Tait, a first-year student, shared that in seven weeks he went to places he probably would have never gone in four years.
Margaret Martin, another first-year student in the course, valued the transition from classwork to physical exploration: “In class, we can talk about something but being able to walk around and experience it is eye-opening… it is good to know about the community you are living in.”
In the future, Professor Postigo Olsson hopes students will use these analytical skills when they visit new cities and acquire a deeper understanding of their travels. This understanding will influence real-life ethical choices.
The ability to “identify systemic barriers to equality and inclusiveness,” a main learning objective of the CD Flag, is further developed in the second half of the course. Students do ethnographic fieldwork with a group of people who have experienced marginalization.
Professor Postigo Olsson hopes that during this fieldwork students “expose themselves to whatever they are going to experience and see in a manner that is honest and sincere.” He wants them to question the mechanisms in our society that work toward the disadvantage of the people they work with during the project.
Students are aware of the expectations and goals of the three Flags, as outlined in the syllabus. Olivia Hurst, a first-year student, says that since the course has three Flags “you have to expect it is going to be a lot…. but it has all been worth it.”
Walker Tait interpreted the value of the three Flags as “All of that [the Flags] is centered around communication…. a part of every major.” As an aspiring engineer, he connected the Flags to developing communications skills such as discussing social problems, research, and community outreach. “Building these skills now will be helpful later,” he adds.
The Skills and Experience Flags are a unique and innovative feature of all undergraduate degrees at The University of Texas at Austin. The Flags are designed to provide the enriched education that all students will need to become effective future leaders in our society and a constantly evolving workplace.
For more information about the Flags, contact the Center for Skills & Experience Flags office
By Laura Robinson, Graduate Assistant for CSEF
