Academic Service-Learning as Pedagogical Tool and Strategy to Promote Critical Thinking Among Preservice Teachers

• In Event: 65.079 - Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: 65.079-5 - Service-Learning as Pedagogy, Civic Engagement, and Reflection

Abstract

Academic service-learning (AS-L) is a pedagogical strategy for promoting critical thinking among pre-service teachers. Results of this case study reveal many well- intentioned young education majors' frames of reference about urban education indicate a dissonance of experience. Public urban education in the United States (US) is increasingly stratified; teachers represent White, female, middle income backgrounds and resultant perspectives, but public school children in the US represent families of color and communities that are predominantly poor. AS-L truly promotes critical thinking about teaching and learning, especially when the tensions surrounding difference surface. Findings indicate that pre-service teachers must first overcome bias, negative expectations, and stereotypical beliefs before they synthesize the elements of the instructional process leading to reflective praxis.

Authors

• Margaret-Mary Sulentic Dowell, Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge

• Estanislado S. Barrera, Louisiana State University