Service-Learning as Activism: Teachers Learn to Shift Power and Make Space for Student Voice

• In Event: The Role of Critical Service Learning in the Fight for Equity and Justice

Abstract

Teachers in schools serving marginalized populations have an urgent need for instructional approaches enabling them to deliver standards-based curricula that is authentically connected to their students’ lived experiences. One such instructional approach is critical service learning. Six elementary school teachers learned about, and implemented, a critical service-learning framework (Need in Deed’s (NID) My VOICE. The researcher-practitioners problematize the use of inexperienced NID teachers to serve as models for teacher candidates. However, qualitative analysis of observation, interview, and survey data revealed promising successes and informative challenges. Results are meaningful since researcher-practitioners address the lack of critical service-learning research in public schools while also providing an explicit model for practitioners and suggestions for strengthening implementation.

Authors

• Elizabeth Gayle Soslau, University of Delaware

• Sara Gartland, University of Delaware

• Kathleen Riley, West Chester University of Pennsylvania