Critical Service-Learning (CSL) Enacted Across Three Universities: Examining CSL Through a Critical Co-Constructed Auto-Ethnography

• In Event: 66.044 - Student Voice and Action: Cultivating (Re)Constructive Powers of Student Agency

Abstract

We, four researchers from three different universities and disciplines (Criminology, Education, English), ask the question: In what ways have we advanced our knowledge of and our ability to enact pedagogy in post-secondary settings that is “working to redistribute power amongst all participants in the service-learning relationship, developing authentic relationships in the classroom and community, and working from a social change perspective” (Mitchell, 2008, p. 50)? We answer this question collectively using a critical co-constructed autoethnography (Cann & DeMeulenaere, 2012) in which we attempt to untangle dominant white hegemony and colonizing practices from service-learning experiences. As practitioners of critical service-learning (Mitchell, 2008, 2015) we acknowledge and unpack inescapable tensions rooted in unequal power relations as we engage in community-based service-learning experiences.

Authors

• Mark Latta, Indiana University - Indianapolis

• Cristina Corrine Santamaria Graff, Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis

• Kiesha Warren-Gordon

• Laura Weaver