Powerful Student Thinking During Critical Service-Learning

• In Event: Multidimensionality of Service-Learning in Pre- and In-Service Teaching

Abstract

Drawing on Mitchell’s (2008) elements of service-learning as a critical pedagogy framework, this year-long qualitative study explores how teachers and their middle and elementary grade-level students (1) analyze social systems, (2) create authentic relationships, and (3) disrupt traditional power dynamics. Teacher-participants completed critical service-learning training provided by Need in Deed, a Philadelphia-based non-profit organization. Three rounds of teacher interviews, monthly lesson-observations, field notes, and student focus group data were analyzed. Findings provide detailed images of youth-led learning exchanges, or powerful student thinking, focused on identifying root causes and solutions for social issues. Significantly, the critical service-learning framework was embedded within a traditional standards-based curriculum, demonstrating that students can take up, and enact, social change perspectives throughout the school day.

Authors

• Kathleen Riley, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

• Elizabeth Gayle Soslau, University of Delaware

• Kate Reim, University of Delaware