Chapter 8: DATING VIOLENCE EDUCATION: Teaching Campus and CommunityThrough Experiential Learning

One of the most pervasive human rights violations across the globe is domestic violence, often referred to as intimate partner violence. Nearly one third of the world’s women will experience abuse in their relation-ship, according to the World Health Organization (Garcia-Moreno et al., 2005). Numerous studies have found that women are at greater risk in the home than anywhere else (Garcia-Moreno et al., 2005). While women of all ages are vulnerable to abusive relationships, college-aged women in the United States are uniquely at-risk (Fisher, Daigle, & Cullen, 2009). It is essential, then, that campuses educate students about the risk factors for abuse, the underlying causes of it, the dynamics of abusive relation-ships, and resources for help. Further, given that dating violence is a community problem, not an individual one (Davidson & Bowen, 2011), campuses should also work with community agencies and activists to ensure that prevention efforts are comprehensive and multifaceted. A growing body of literature emphasizes the need for such topics to be addressed in ways that invoke a sense of agency, that pedagogy of hope described by Giroux (2017) in the introduction. That is, rather than a “just the statistics” approach, a robust campus dating violence educational program should inspire students to help those in need and to engage in activism that can prevent abuse. Using experiential learning is one way to both educate and inspire, as well as to couple campus and community.