The Role of Academic Service-Learning in Helping Preservice Teachers Develop a Prosocial-Multicultural Teacher Identity

• In Event: 16.057 - Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: 16.057-3 - The Role of Service-Learning in Teacher Preparation

Abstract

By 2020, students from a racial minority background will comprise one of every three students in public schools (NCES, 2000), while the nation’s teachers remain overwhelmingly White, female, and monolingual English speakers (Zumwalt & Craig, 2005). Helping teacher candidates learn to become multiculturally aware has been critical in teacher education in the last decade. The current study sought to determine the role Academic Service Learning plays in teacher candidates’ development of pro-social and multicultural awareness. Teacher candidates who had engaged in Academic Service Learning were interviewed to explore questions of teacher identity and multicultural awareness from the service learning experience. Evidence suggests that academic service learning may serve to increase important competencies for prospective teachers.

Authors

• Allison J. Hart-Young, Western Michigan University

• Jeffrey N. Jones, Western Michigan University

• Mark Barajas, Western Michigan University