Beyond "Critical" Instruction: The Challenges of Addressing Social Hierarchies Through Service-Learning

• In Event: Advancing the Public Good: Experiential Education and Service-Learning Answer the Call

Abstract

As an ideal, “critical service-learning” is presented as a progressive pedagogical intervention that disrupts social hierarchies (Mitchell, 2008). Yet, the practical dictates of such programs typically leads to a reliance on simplistic conceptions of social hierarchies that are limited in capturing the ways in which social hierarchies actually manifests. We connect Freire (1968) and Bourdieu’s (1984) work to illustrate the challenge, as well as potential ways for addressing the reliance on simplistic conceptions of social hierarchies. We argue that critical service learning needs to be extended to take into account the subtle mechanisms in which hierarchies are enacted in community based learning. We illustrate this argument through a case study of Public Achievement, a service-learning program based on critical principles.

Authors

• Tafadzwa Tivaringe, Spencer Foundation

• Roudy Hildreth, University of Colorado Boulder