The Alliance for Service-Learning in Education Reform states that “Service-learning is a method by which young people learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully-organized service experiences” (Wade, 1997, p. 19). The intention of service learning programs, above and beyond the intentions that exist in a mere volunteer program, is to develop a better, more holistic citizen. The meaning of good citizenship varies, but when your goal is to be a social justice educator, it is clear. A focus on volunteering for volunteering’s sake, without emphasis on contexts in justice, not only fails to instill in students a truly charitable spirit, it creates a paternalistic sense of the work (Cipolle, 2010). To develop students who will work to reduce inequities in our society, students must be guided towards a justice-orientation and away from paternalism through a service learning program.
A good service learning is more than just a formalized community service program. Quality service learning represents activities that are done both for and with others, “working in partnership with those who will benefit from the service activities.” (Wade, 2002, p. 22) This distinction is important for effectiveness in creating students who grow up to be adults with an orientation towards both social service and justice. The city of Tornoto, Ontario required all high school students to complete a mandatory number of service hours for graduation as a part of a program, they found that the amount of volunteering by those students after graduation was actually lower than students who hadn’t been forced to reach the arbitrary hours limit; this represents a serious risk for service learning programs that don’t plan beyond the acts of service.
A truly effective program will have five distinct elements, with an exploration of equity and justice embedded in each:
1. Meaningful Acts of Service
2. Formal Reflection
3. Instruction
4. Connections to Academic Learning
5. Personal Development
Meaningful Acts of Service – Rather than sorting cans in a remote warehouse, taking part in a specific required activity, or organizing a drive for goods, acts of service should be both personal and connected to the other party. Students should get to choose their activities based on their own interests and have the opportunity to see how their action impacts the life of another. The resultant personal connection the student feels can be used to fuel a desire to learn more about the issue and related sources of injustice.
Formal Reflection- Students must have the opportunity to explore their own feelings and reactions when exposed to inequity. This should be done with a mix of guided and self-directed reflection with journaling and group dialogue each having a valuable role to play.
Instruction- Before and after acts of service, students should learn about what they are doing, the community they are partnering with, and the history of the issue. While it is useful to have the organization’s perspective, schools should not overburden partner organizations and should seek to create the instructional opportunities in partnership so that students can understand not just the context of the work they are doing but how to interact with the organization’s clients in a genuine, culturally responsive manner.
Connections to Academic Learning- Supporting the authenticity of service learning can be realized with genuine academic connections. This creates a virtuous cycle that both uses the student’s engagement with the issue of inequity they are working with to engage each of them in strengthening their academic skills while providing a way for the student to give back to the community in a meaningful way through a project. This can be creative; an awareness campaign, a statistical analysis, or a letter to a local politician, and enhances the value of the service learning program.
Personal Development- Students certainly move through different levels of development in their four years, and it is important that a service learning program flex to offer them developmentally appropriate opportunities to succeed. As students are looking for increasing levels of autonomy and then leadership, the importance of opportunities to have these things in their service experience becomes critical both to their experience of service as meaningful and for the service to contribute to their personal development.
Educators daunted by this list should take it not as a reason to be stressed, but as a reason to do less. Rather than trying to force all students into an inauthentic program, start with one elective group or a one-month project rather than a year-long initiative. Most important, make sure that students are coming away with a greater awareness of issues of inequity in their communities and how they can be advocates for change, rather than patting themselves on the back for helping “those people over there.”
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