Chapter 10: Advancing Democracy in Teacher Education: Service-Learning in Third Space Partnerships

This chapter presents a multiple case study of an innovative approach to teacher education, one that supports teacher candidates’ development as citizens and as emerging professionals through engagement in third space partnerships for service-learning. Conceptually, third space represents an epistemological shift in teacher education practices from knowledge development through academic and campus-centered approaches to an epistemology that privileges diverse and democratic sources of knowledge and expertise from the community in the preparation of future teachers. Third space partnerships for service-learning were designed to address inequality in Appalachian Ohio and prepare teacher candidates for the roles of democratic citizenship. Described in this chapter are the design principles of third space partnerships and the core pedagogical perspectives that undergird the development of course-based and cocurricular service-learning experiences. Participants in the study include teacher candidates (n = 52) from four separate cases: two social studies education methods courses offered in the Fall semesters of 2015 (n = 15) and 2016 (n = 18) and two co-curricular service-learning opportunities offered in the Spring semesters of 2016 (n = 10) and 2017 (n = 9). Qualitative data, in the form of teacher candidates’ reflective journals and semi-structured interviews, were collected and analyzed thematically. Findings demonstrate the potential of third space partnerships for service-learning as transformative experiences in the development of teacher candidates. The chapter closes with a critical appraisal of the author’s experiences designing third space service-learning partnerships and offers suggestions for practitioners who are interested in this approach.