Critical Service-Learning and Critical Intercultural Learning: Toward Pedagogies of Relation

• In Event: 14.046 - Poster Session 1
  In Poster Session: 14.046-4 - Service-Learning and Experiential Education

Abstract

This paper aims to articulate how, through two research projects that utilized service and experiential learning, we each arrived at the conclusion that, if service-learning is to avoid the continuing essentialization of culture and repetition of epistemic violence (Spivak, 1990), there is a need for deeper understandings of the concept and application of critical pedagogies of relation. Our work in the field of cultural education demonstrates that it is productive to focus on the nature of the dialogic, critical relational space between cultures. This includes developing an expanded concept of culture that is not based solely on race and ethnicity, and raising awareness of the socio-cultural, political and historical contexts that influence the ways in which self-other relations are understood.

Authors

• Fatima Pirbhai-Illich, University of Regina

• Fran Martin, University of Exeter