Visualizing Critical and Democratic Art Education Through Service-Learning Reflective Activities

• In Event: Roundtable Session 54
  In Roundtable Session: The Power of Art for Democratic Realization

Abstract

This paper addresses ways that reflective practice in service-learning is a form of public scholarship, particularly when made visible to and by the students themselves. When we attend to the nuances of the service-learning experiences through the use of reflections, we assist our students in ‘seeing’ their own learning and understanding of social issues in deep and meaningful ways. Our study of students’ varied service-learning reflective experiences throughout an academic year involved student surveys and analyses of reflective formats including online Blackboard posts, visual journaling, and small-group and whole-class discussions. Through a survey of university students who are pre-service teachers, we found that they learned most from reflections that involved sharing their ideas in public ways.

Authors

• Melanie L. Buffington, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Pamela G. Taylor, Virginia Commonwealth University