Exploring the role of service-learning in human development: perspectives of staff, students and community members

This article reports on a study of student experiences of a Walls to Bridges (W2B) class taught by Faculty of Social Work instructors in a Canadian women’s prison. The Walls to Bridges (W2B) program is based on the U. S. Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program and brings students from the university together with students from the prison to study for a semester long course in correctional settings. The article reports on how the program pedagogy of experiential learning and Talking Circle processes impacted student’s awareness of privilege, marginalization and stereotypes, commitment to social change and action.

Building Bridges: Experiential and Integrative Learning in a Canadian Women’s Prison

지역사회 실천모델(Community Practice Models)

The bulk of research on service learning has focused on student outcomes; however, there is a scarcity of research examining the lived experiences of community partners. Additionally, the few studies that exist to date involve agencies and have not included informal networks and civically active citizens. This study consisted of interviews with nine community partners, a combination of agency employees, and active citizens. All of the partners resided in a rural Southern town that worked with a network of service-learning classes on a variety of community-identified projects. The current study supports the contribution of service learning to communities, the importance of investing in reciprocal relationships, and the value added of including community partners who are members of informal networks and civically active residents. Recommendations for further research and strategies to support reciprocal and meaningful community engagement are discussed.

Community As Agency: Community Partner Experiences With Service Learning

This article investigates students’ experiences of learning about privilege and oppression in the context of an introductory university course in civic engagement and global citizenship. Participants included 24 students enrolled in the course during either the 2013–2014 or the 2014–2015 academic year. The authors collected data through pretests, students’ course work, posttests, and focus groups administered at the end of the course. Using Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning combined with Curry-Stevens’s pedagogy for the privileged, and employing thematic analysis to interpret data, the authors found that several students experienced transformative learning specifically in relation to philosophical, psychological, epistemic, and moral–ethical habits of mind. We provide examples of this learning while also considering limitations of students’ learning.

Transformative Learning in Developing as an Engaged Global Citizen

Although service learning was established as a method for combining relevant student learning opportunities with community engagement, recent critiques highlight the shift from achieving community-defined goals towards a predominate focus on assessing student learning. Focusing on a community's decision-making process regarding a homeless shelter, this article describes a cross-curricular project that combines critical service learning with participatory action research. Using community and participant defined goals and interactions to steer the research process enabled achievement of both student learning and attempts at community transformation.

Kelvin Jasek-Rysdahl

Papers

Creating Space for Marginalized Voices: Re-focusing Service Learning on Community Change and Social Justice