Does How Students Serve Matter? What Characteristics of Service Programs Predict Students’ Social Justice Attitudes?

• In Event: Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Creating Social Change: Do Multicultural Service-Learning Opportunities Make a Difference?

Abstract

Community service is often touted as a method to educate college students about social justice by providing students with an opportunity to apply classroom knowledge in a real-world setting. However, many critics have noted that service does not necessarily lead to social justice outcomes and that some forms of service may reinforce students’ negative misconceptions. This analysis estimated the relationship between different service program characteristics and increases in students’ attitudes towards social justice. The analysis found that more time-intensive volunteer programs and programs that included reflection and had a social justice orientation had a stronger relationship with social justice outcomes than other types of programs.

Author

• Joshua Littenberg-Tobias, Massachusetts Institute of Technology