Beyond Linear Learning: Service-Learning as Complex Assemblage in Teacher Education

• In Event: Critical Posthuman and Postfoundational Methodological Configurations

Abstract

Service learning is typically studied in process-product ways that fail to account for its complexity. In this paper, we draw on critical posthuman theory to examine service-learning as a complex assemblage. We argue that preservice teacher service learning involves multiple elements that dynamically interact to produce material and affective encounters which constitute unpredictable yet powerful learning opportunities with the potential to cultivate teachers’ social justice orientations. Through a case study of a preservice teacher service-learning, we illustrate this potential by tracing (1) the emergence of learning through human-material-social assemblages, (2) the evolution of affects that move students from awareness to action, and (3) the development of response-ability through direct engagement with systemic inequities.

Authors

• Celina Salvador-Garcia, University Jaume I

• Kathryn J. Strom, California State University - East Bay

• Erica Eva Colmenares, San Jose State University