Chapter 12: Moving From Traditional To Critical Service-Learning: Reflexivity, Reciprocity, and Place

We develop a critical model of service-learning that treats stakeholders as cocreators in the production of socially-just knowledge. Following thinkers such as Himley (2004) and Adams, Bell, and Griffin (2007), such a model critiques the notion that service-learning is unidirectional. Instead, we offer three heuristics for rethinking the foundations of service-learning: reflexivity, reciprocity, and place. Drawing on our efforts to deepen the conversation on service-learning at a midsize public university, we discuss best practices for encouraging reflexivity, reciprocity, and place-based service. These methods include developing assessment tools for improving the outcomes of service-learning courses, creating a faculty fellows program that encourages cross-disciplinary collaboration, and introducing conceptual models of social justice within a culture-bound institution and its surrounding community.