The Tamaula Project

This chapter discusses an experience in service learning in a rural community in central Mexico, developed by students from a private university located in the area. The aim is to identify if this educational approach builds on interactions that support individual and collective improvement simultaneously. Service learning was introduced and tested at this institution to enhance the academics' educational tool box. This development was embedded in a core (not elective) module focused on developing students writing and research skills. Problems emerged when students were asked to organize and execute a project. They started planning based on preconceived ideas before visiting the place. As a result, the project initially involved a top-down design for restructuring a community. Even though this might be useful, the project required incorporating service learning principles. These consider issues such as capacity building that may start from community needs or aspirations; a bottom-up approach that was not recognized initially by students. The expectation was to develop something ‘different' in a community that had been receiving aid from different sources and had not yet thrived.

Preparing Pre-Service Teachers' Expectations and Resilience

The purpose of this study is to describe an ongoing service-learning project that brings pre-service teachers in an MA graduate program in Teaching English as a Second Language to tutor English language learners in a low-income urban high school. Excerpts from nine different teachers on sessions with the same learner offer snapshots of the learner's progress as he interacts with them. Impact on teacher expectations and demonstrated resilience working with this student is evaluated in concert with how well the project embodies the standards of service-learning as mutually beneficial practice. An analogy will be drawn between the behaviors of passengers in a stopped subway train and the varied ways teacher candidates and the project as a whole embodies culturally responsive teaching.

Building a Foundation for a Philanthropic Future

This chapter will outline an instructor's attempts to incorporate service-learning into an online college course in the fall of 2014, utilizing a well-respected institutional philanthropic program. The chapter will describe the pedagogical challenges faced by the instructor as she attempted to integrate the service-learning components into an already established curriculum and will share the tools and strategies that she employed with her students. The chapter will address the benefits and challenges as identified by the instructor and the students in the class and will also share several unanticipated rewards that occurred as a result of the philanthropic partnership. The chapter will also offer some practical application ideas for others wishing to incorporate service-learning component into their online classes.

Alternative Service-Learning Projects in Mathematics

A discussion of the development, implementation, and results of two service-learning projects from different mathematics courses is presented. In an Honors Mathematics and Social Justice seminar, where the focus was on fairness and access to quantitative and financial literacy, the students developed financial literacy brochures that would be relevant to students and the community at large. The pamphlets were used in two ways: they were distributed across campus and they were used in an adult ESL curriculum. In a History of Mathematics course, students developed a lecture series at a local senior day center on historical highlights from the world of mathematics. The students learned how to differentiate between learning and unpacking mathematics for other audiences. In this chapter, the use of reflection is discussed, as this is an essential component of any service-learning project. Encounters with resistance are discussed as well.

Collaborations between Elementary Schools and Higher Education

This chapter examines service learning efforts and community partnerships formed between elementary schools and higher education around science education. The types and characteristics of the efforts are considered using a newly developed framework for service learning and community engagement. The potential benefits of these collaborative efforts for higher education faculty, college students, elementary school students, teachers, and school communities are explored, highlighting what is known from the existing research literature. The match between these projects and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are considered, highlighting the ways which community engagement efforts can utilize standards in developing and implementing projects. Finally, recommendations are made regarding how to optimize community-based science education collaborations and expand our knowledge-base regarding these efforts.

Civic Minor in Urban Youth and Communities

Service-learning is commonly employed in teacher preparation within the bounds of discipline-specific methods courses. This chapter presents an overview of the Civic Minor in Urban Youth and Communities program, which takes an interdisciplinary approach to service-learning as an ethos rather than a limited experience bounded by content area or grade level. In this three-course sequence, students examine the relationship between education and citizenship, design and implement their own service-learning projects, and learn how to implement service-learning in their future classrooms. This immersive experience provides students with a de-centering experience that promotes an asset-based, service-oriented approach to diverse communities.

“Who's Schooling Who?”

In this chapter, we highlight twenty-first century practices of Freirian dialogue (mutual and reciprocal “schooling”) in two community-engaged programs that work full circle with K-12 youth, college students and university faculty. We argue that in our current socio-economic context, uncovering, theorizing and institutionalizing these practices are essential to the practice of “revolutionary critical education.” We also argue that the specific practices—namely, hip hop pedogogy and community-engagement as movement rather than project--powerfully open authentic spaces for the Freirian endeavor of mutual humanizing to happen, and that these practices have wider implications, particularly for teacher education.

Planning Service-Learning Abroad for Teacher Candidates

The purpose of this chapter is to provide guidelines to education college and university faculty members who are considering the implementation of an international service-learning experience for their teacher candidates. The chapter begins with a review of literature supporting the benefits of service-learning for teacher candidates. Next is a description of a service-learning trip to Costa Rica planned and implemented by an education faculty member in conjunction with a cultural diversity course designed to prepare candidates to meet the needs of English Learners (ELs). Following the description of the Costa Rica service-learning trip, the author provides guidelines and a list of questions for consideration. The guidelines are designed to assist faculty members who are considering implementing a similar service-learning experience for their teacher candidates. Finally, the chapter concludes with quotations provided by participants of the Costa Rica service-learning experience that show the overall benefits of the service-learning experience.

In Search of Transformative 21st Century Pedagogy

Research has shown service-learning to be an effective pedagogy producing student gains in cognitive and affective domains; however, discrepancies in theoretical foundations and definitions of service-learning cause critics to also note its potentially damaging impact on students, communities, and societies. This chapter calls for the implementation of critical service-learning, a pedagogy that enlightens, empowers, and transforms communities, by explaining important elements and exposing existing tensions in our current education system. It also specifically details the learning that the pedagogy promotes, explaining how that learning takes place with young children. Because few studies have provided substantive data on the employment of critical service-learning in elementary schools, the chapter concludes with an analysis of existing research of critical service-learning projects, presenting case studies and implications for putting theory into practice so that more educators can integrate critical service-learning into the elementary curriculum.

Calling for Children Friendly Community Life

The concept of service learning for children has recently attracted more and more attention in China, and along with its incorporation into society, there are specific issues that should be considered. This chapter applies qualitative and quantitative research methods to explore the current situation of children's service learning in China in order to analyze the possibilities of community-based learning and to better understand its expectations. By utilizing these methods, the authors found the fragmented worlds of children in the case-study community, which can be regarded as a miniature representation of Chinese children's service learning. Based on this study, the authors make further recommendations for future exploration in this domain.