Chapter 2: Reflections On The Enactment Of A Critical Service-Learning Experience

We added a service-learning component to the Foundations of American Education course in a teacher education program in order to provide a lived experience with social justice education. We designed this field experience to foster a critical awareness of the impact institutional structures of schooling can have on learners, privileging some while marginalizing and oppressing others. In a simulated conversation, the coauthors, who come from across different aspects of this experiment with social justice pedagogy, reflect upon the impact of this program on themselves and their learners. These participants include the former academic director of the service-learning site, three faculty who taught the course, and the former director of the Office of Community Services and Service Learning for the university.