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by Linda A. Chisholm
Based on the work of Joseph Campbell and using excerpts from the journals of such people as Jane Addams, Langston Hughes, Octavio Paz, Samuel Johnson, Mary Kingsley, and Kathleen Norris, Charting a Hero's Journey is a guide to the writing of a journal for college students engaged in study abroad, off-campus study, and/or service-learning. The book may be used as a text for academic courses in fields such as intercultural studies, service-learning, and English literature or composition, and may be adapted for use in freshman or senior seminars that focus on student development and education in the college years. Funded by a Cooperative Grants Program of NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
Charting a Hero's Journey by Linda A. Chisholm
2000. 328 pages. Illustrated. Includes notes for teachers.
Price: $28.00
Volume orders: $25/each for 10 copies or more
ISBN: 0-970-1984-2-6
Item # 58-0503
Availability: In stock; ships in 24 hours.
Table of Contents
Preface for Teachers and Advisers
Acknowledgements
Introduction for Students
The Monomyth of the Hero's Journey
Journals and Journal Writing
Stage I: Hearing the Call
Stage II: Preparing for the Journey
Stage III: Departing and Separating
Stage IV: Crossing the First Threshold
Stage V: Taking up the Challenges
Stage VI: Battling the Beasts
Stage VII: Passing through the Gates
Stage VIII: Recognizing Guides and Guardian Spirits
Stage IX: Celebrating the Victories
Stage X: Discovering the Boon
Stage XI: Charting the Course
Stage XII: Returning Home
Afterword
Notes
Annotated Bibliography
What educators are saying about Charting a Hero's Journey:
"Prolonged study and work in another culture has a profound effect on young people, but it is hard for them to make sense of their experiences. By assembling examples of earlier journeys and linking them to a grand overarching myth, and by asking penetrating and apt questions, Linda Chisholm succeeds brilliantly in helping students link their sense of the world to their sense of themselves. This book, by an experienced teacher and traveler who has lived the myths she writes about, should be a part of the equipment of every young person leaving for another culture, and every educator charged with helping students understand themselves and the world."
--Humphrey Tonkin, University Professor of Humanities and President Emeritus, University of Hartford
"Written by one of American higher education's most knowledgeable leaders of the service-learning pedagogical reform movement, Charting a Hero's Journey gives us a badly needed rationale and template for the most important component of the "learning" in service-learning: reflection. With Charting, Dr. Chisholm also makes a significant contribution to the growing literature on the undergraduate journal writing process, helpful to both educators and students equally. While primarily for students engaged in service-learning, this volume could also be used in first-year and senior-year seminars which encourage reflective thinking in writing, journaling, and/or service-learning. The use of allegorical myth and legend is particularly powerful and potentially instructive, as is the use of one of literature's oldest motifs, the idea of growth and transformation through journey. In today's society, undergraduates yearn for and need this kind of personal and intellectual stimulation as they seek out-often in vain-their own heroes and models to emulate in their individual lives and service to colleagues, companions, campuses, companies, community, and country."
--John N. Gardner, Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Senior Fellow, National Resource Center on the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition
"This book is about guided reflection, an essential-and often neglected-part of the study abroad experience. Grounded in literature that in itself is a joy to read, it connects the real experience of students and others who live in foreign cultures with those who went before them. The students become part of a long line and great history of heroes who have shared the joys and challenges that accompany this transforming adventure. Essential to the experience of living abroad are: absorbing new perspectives, discovering oneself as a cultural being, construing the experience in ways that provide new meanings, and making transitions with attention to and integration of personal change. Living abroad is intense experiential learning. Charting a Hero's Journey provides a structure that enhances the learning that occurs during intercultural transitions, giving it a framework that makes it more comprehensible, academically applicable, and personally meaningful."
--Margaret D. Pusch, Associate Director, Intercultural Communication Institute
"Learning is deeper and lasts longer when students are encouraged to reflect on the connections between what they know, do, and value. At last, we in higher education have a resource that will help us make those connections."
--Louis S. Albert, Vice Chancellor for Educational Services, San Jose/Evergreen Community College District
"Charting a Hero's Journey is doing wonders for the students. I feel it is making the ideal meet the real, and making the best of it. In past semesters, students used to record in their journals the menu of the tasty food they had at their homestay and the fun time they had at the discos, with a little bit of reflection. The readings have made the difference in terms of the students never forgetting what they set out for when they signed up for the program, and how earthly this spiritual journey can be. I, too, have been doing my own deep reflections. My colleague has commented that he thinks the book is extremely valuable and plans to use it with his graduate students."
--Guadalupe Delgadillo, Professora y directora del Intercambio, Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara
If you are one of the many college/university teachers using Charting a Hero's Journey as a textbook, please let us know how and with what results by emailing us your comments.
