A Semester of Service-Learning and Catholic Social Teaching in Philadelphia

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Research and Practice in Catholic Education

Abstract

This narrative inquiry examined undergraduate students’ development of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) as a framework for social justice in a semester of service learning in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. The students attended a Catholic university in the Mid-Atlantic region. During the semester of service, they lived with the Daughters of Charity in the neighborhood of Germantown. The students served in different locations. In the accompanying 3-credit course, students explored CST.The students’ reflections and narrations indicates their development of service from the lens of CST, but further research on pedagogical practices in service-learning is needed. This study supports the application of CST in a semester of service learning as a “framework for action”

Author

• Michelle M. Ohanian, Mount St. Mary's University