Facilitating Learning Through Reflection on Multilingual and Multiracial Experiences in Critical Service-Learning

• In Event: Advancing Educational Equity: Serving Second-Language Learners

Abstract

A key feature of critical service-learning is reflection as it provides space where students can unpack their knowledge and beliefs, make meaning of their service observations and experiences, deconstruct different systems of power connected to the service and communities involved, and envision ways to make important social change. Despite the recognized importance of reflection, implementation in the classroom is more complicated and requires educators to take responsibility for carefully planning, guiding, and evaluating the whole process and how that scaffolds student learning. In this presentation, I utilize teacher research to explore different reflection activities in a critical service-learning course with multilingual and multiracial learners, and how those contribute to reflection experiences that range from surface-level to critical.

Author

• Raquel Wood, Amherst College