Chapter 13: Infusing Servicelearning with Social Justice Through Cultural Humility

This chapter offers findings from a collaborative study that combined service-learning with a social justice oriented university course within a teacher education program. The authors begin by presenting this community-led model for service-learning that engaged a range of partners in collaboration to enhance the offerings in a required diversity course for preservice teachers. The authors explore student learning outcomes emerging from this service-learning program. Rather than seeking “cultural competency” as an outcome, the authors designed the program to foster “cultural humility” in reframing deficit discourse in dealing with immigrant children and other marginalized youth. Drawing on existing literature from the fields of servicelearning in teacher education and multicultural education more broadly, the authors show how this innovative approach presents an effective model for infusing social justice in better preparing preservice teachers for working with diverse children and youth. The research findings come from a range of data sources including qualitative interviews with preservice teachers, field notes, and informal interviews and field observations with community partners. A key finding is that community-led efforts in service-learning can successfully realize the goals of teacher educators as well as those of the community partners.