Aligning intention with action

Community Service-Learning Resource

This week the Community Service-Learning office at the University of Alberta published a Canadian Community Service-Learning Studies Resource Base, a comprehensive list (including links) of mainly Canadian research on service-learning.  Having personally spent the past six months reading article after article, I was curious to see how many of the resources I had knocked off the list.  Turns out I’ve only read a handful of the 130 listed (and by a handful, I mean one).  Clearly my service-learning journey has only begun!

Canadian Community Service-Learning Studies Resource Base

The 2015 Faculty Institute on Community-Engaged Learning

The University of Toronto held its annual Faculty Institute on Community-Engaged Learning, hosted by the Centre for Community Partnerships.  The keynote speaker was Dr. Tania Mitchell, Assistant Professor from the University of Minnesota.  Inspired by her own student experience, Dr. Mitchell uses critical service-learning pedagogy, focused on social justice in her teaching practice  

The focus of Dr. Mitchell’s keynote address was on the importance of aligning intention and action in community engagement.  She mentions a several questions practitioners should ask themselves before engaging in critical service learning:

• Am I partnering with people and organizations that are working toward systemic change?
• Do their practices reflect their philosophy toward system change?
• How does my work and the work of the students advance their missions?
• How do I engage individuals who have been systematically excluded, and am I working in  ways to include them?
• What is my vision for a more just world? How do I bring us closer to the vision? 

Dr. Mitchell makes it clear that she believes the function of critical service-learning is about social justice and social change.   She does not  believe it is enough for students to go through a service experience unless the final outcome means change.  This philosophy of service-learning is not without its critics including other faculty, students and administrators.  For this, Dr. Mitchell makes the distinction between traditional service-learning “that emphasizes service without attention to systems of inequality” and the critical service-learning “approach that is unapologetic in its aim to dismantle structures of injustice” (Mitchell, Spring 2008, p. 50).  

Specifically, the focus of the critical service learning includes (p. 53):

·        Working from a social change perspective

·        Working to redistribute power amongst all participants

·        Developing authentic relationships in the classroom and in the community

One course she ran began by finding a specific need within the local community.  For this particular course, the need was helping to pass a bill of rights for foreign workers in the state of California.  Dr. Mitchell then designed a course that would engage students in political and social activities aimed at petitioning the government and participating in activities designed to advocate on behalf of migrant workers.  Migrant workers were also hired (at competitive rates) to teach classes and lead discussions.   It was important to Dr. Mitchell that the course be about the work and not the number of hours it took to get the job done. The bill passed on its third attempt, and the class needed to be offered 4 times, the outcome was a viable systemic change.  

Critical Discourse

Although I had not planned on discussing critical discourse this early on, given the nature of the topic I thought I would at least introduce some further reading for those who may be interested. 

Service-learning is often described as a values-laden, even ‘liberal’ or socially minded practice.  Some practitioners embrace this idea, as we have seen from Dr. Mitchell, while others attempt to demonstrate the neutrality of service-learning by using research that demonstrates learning outcomes that compliment academic and educational outcomes.  Butin (2010) argues this is done because “service-learning advocates want to show that service-learning is a legitimate practice” (p. 37). 

Supporters of critical service-learning do see it as a non-neutral practice and use it explicitly as a vehicle for social change as it “necessitates the exposure of implicit presumptions and power dynamics within service-learning and content knowledge; it fosters deep, consequential, and long-term experiences within the field; and it fosters an openness to others’ voices and perspectives” (p. 46).

Regardless of your approach to service learning, Chambers (2009) recommends that as practitioner's you begin by reflecting on what your philosophy and approach is toward service-learning.  He groups service-learning approaches into three categories, philanthropic, social-justice and social transformation.  By doing this, you will be better able manage the course, the learning outcomes, answer student questions and finally, allow you to align your intention with your actions.

References

Butin, D. W. (2005). Service-learning as "postmodern" pedagogy. In D. W. Butin, Service-Learning in Higher Education (pp. 89-104). New York, NY: Palgrave-MacMillan.

Chambers, T. (2009). A continuum of approaches to service-learning within Canadian post-secondary education. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 39(2), 77-100.

Mitchell, T. D. (Spring 2008). Traditional vs. critical service-learning: Engaging the literature to differentiate two models. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 50-65.