Intentional Pedagogy: Case Study of a Critical Service-Learning Course Partnership With the Juvenile Justice Center

• In Event: 67.070 - Sheraton Roundtable 14 - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 67.070-7 - Service-Learning: A Pedagogy of Partnerships for Justice

Abstract

Pedagogical decisions in higher education courses that implement critical service learning are crucial but not often examined. This paper analyzes the praxis employed in a critical service learning course connected with a girls’ program in Juvenile Justice Services. Even at teaching colleges, support for understanding critical pedagogy is sparse. In this course, the professor and coordinator at JJS encouraged students to examine relations of power by promoting authentic dialogue within those contexts. Also, they questioned knowledge as objective “truth,” noting instead how it is hegemonically situated through historical sociopolitical power dynamics. The project was designed to intentionally name and address social inequities that result from the intersections of multiple systems of oppression in the girls’ lives.

Authors

• Marilee Coles-Ritchie, Westminster College

• Cathleen Power, University of Utah