Children's responses to coerced service-learners.

Abstract

Concerns have been raised as to the impact of service-learning since students are required to perform work in conjunction with courses. In order to assess the impact of service-learning on clients, elementary school children's views of mature university students who provided computer tutorial assistance through a service-learning project were analyzed. Observational data and interviews with the children revealed generally favorable attitudes toward the working adult university student tutors with indications that the children experienced increments of 'cultural capital.' The essentially coercive context of service-learning seems not to have impacted the work done by the tutors or to have intruded upon their relationships in any way discernible to the clients who were apparently benefited by the service.

Introduction

Service-learning has been widely implemented in American universities, particularly within the California State University (CSU) system, the largest system of its kind in the world. Funds have been dispersed, special centers created, abundant release time assigned, student assistants employed and professors urged to include service-learning components in their courses. The two assumptions underlying service-learning are that it benefits CSU students and that needed service to the community is provided. While there is much evidence that, indeed, service-learning does promote both learning and a service orientation (Hall, 2000; Roschelle, Turpin & Elias, 2000) and some to suggest that it does not (Pfeiffer, 2000), there is not much to indicate that the work of university students in the community offers much benefit to those who are supposedly served or even if it is well received (Gronski & Pigg, 2000).

Volunteerism and interning among university students has a long history, but here we have a new phenomenon: students are required to perform service in conjunction with courses that may be outside their majors, irrelevant to their career interests, and performed for reasons other than professional development (Marullo & Edwards, 2000). Service-learners might feel coerced, reluctant, and unconcerned about the service they must fulfill in order to obtain course credit. They might convey these feelings to clients during their work, counteracting any benefit their services may yield.

For this study, we decided to focus on service recipients in one specific placement to determine how they were experiencing the services provided by the university students. We wanted to understand the children's perceptions of the service-learners. Presumably, the children as clients would be sensitive to the feeling states of the service-learners and their responses could provide indirect, yet credible data regarding whether the coerced nature of participation in a service-learning project would impact the quality of the service providers work. Moreover, data regarding client reactions could reflect whether the service provision was beneficial and favorably received. In order to access the perceptions of service-learning clients, we chose to obtain our data in an environment that was developed specifically for service-learning. The senior author had implemented a service project in the computer lab of a local elementary school that fell under the Title I Program (Ruby Drive, 2002). This school, the Ruby Drive Elementary School, also qualifies under Title VII, the Reading Excelling Act (REA) because of the high ratio of English learners. The school is about 70% Hispanic significantly over half of whom are categorized as "Limited English Proficiency." Moreover, 73% of the students qualify for free or reduced cost lunch.

The project was designed following the model developed by Farkas (1996) who used well-trained university students as reading tutors to enhance the "cultural capital" of at-risk children. This notion refers to the cognitive skills, study habits, learning dispositions, and self-concepts of children that derive from early language experience. The children involved in the computer-tutoring project were presumed to have deficiencies in cultural capital formation due to their attendance at this particular school. The computer tutoring project, The Ruby Circuit, addressed the issue of the "digital divide" that so deeply impacts the population of this elementary school who are overwhelmingly low SES, minority and limited English proficiency children (US Department of Commerce, 2000). Adult college student service-learners were scheduled to serve as tutors in the computer lab and be available to provide assistance to children who would raise a help placard, thus indicating their need. The primary purpose of the service was to help the children with their assignments and to convey basic computer literacy. Furthermore, it was hoped that the university students could develop some rapport with the children, enhance cultural capital and promote prosocial orientations supportive of longer-term academic goals, in accord with Farkas (1996).

Method

Since we viewed this research as an exploratory project, we employed a number of basic approaches to examine diverse dimensions of the experience. These included a survey pre-test of service providers' orientations to the task, systematic observation of service-learner-client interaction, informal talks with providers and clients, de-briefing self-evaluations by the providers, and, most centrally, intensive focused interviews with the clients. The service-learners were mature working adults enrolled in upper division evening sociology classes taught by the senior author that required the provision of service as a 10% component of the course. They were informed that their service would not be graded and that supervision and verification of hours served would be the responsibility of the junior author-project administrator. A minimum of ten hours was required and an additional six hours could be used to compensate for class absences. While over two-thirds served between ten and sixteen hours, the remaining group performed in excess of sixteen hours of service during the semester.

A matched group of university students were surveyed prior to going into the field regarding their attitudes toward performing "voluntary" service as a course requirement. Specifically, they were asked to write anonymously about their anticipations of their service work, how they viewed the requirement, whether they considered it sufficiently justified in academic terms, if they thought it was weighted properly in the grading formula, and whether they felt they could have any real impact on their clients. Virtually, the entire population of approximately 600 children participating in the computer lab of Ruby Elementary School was systematically observed during interaction with university service-learners over a period of four months. Approximately 150 hours of observational research was conducted providing material for interpretive analysis.

Formal intensive interviews with the children were conducted in May 2001 by the second author who had coordinated the entire project during the spring semester. Questions were both open- and closed-ended. The open-ended responses were recorded precisely as spoken by the children since the purpose of the study was to capture their subjective meanings. Six boy and six girls who were determined by the researchers to be demographically and ethnically representative of children in grades one through four were selected for the intensive focused interviews (Ruby Drive, 2002). Each child was interviewed in the lab environment when classes were not in session.

Findings

Helpers

A matched group of thirty-two service-learners responded anonymously to a prompt soliciting anticipations of their work with mixed views. Three concerns were uppermost in the minds of the respondents: finding time to perform the service, entering into a new environment to help unknown clients, and being required to provide service. Many respondents, who were night session, fulltime employed students taking a substantial academic load, cited scheduling problems and apprehension that time constraints would make their already hectic lives even more challenging. One student wrote, "For people who work, go to school and have children, the 10 hour time commitment seems taxing." Another did not understand the justification for devoting time to service as a course requirement, "I don't understand how giving community service pertains to this class." Another respondent submits, "It's a thoughtful thing to consider upcoming and less fortunate children and give them some type of guidance ... but for me, time is very important to me. The volunteer time will take away from my personal study time." While all respondents acknowledged that the service requirement was an issue in their minds, about 40% of the respondents expressed opposition to this requirement as a component of an upper division course. Regarding the coercive dimension, one student wrote, "I feel it should be considered unethical on the parts of professors and administrators." Others, however, responded by embracing the coercive aspect with such statements as, "I like to think of myself as compassionate and understanding towards my fellow man, but in reality I've done very little to help others."

Service Performance

Extended observations revealed few signs of the ill feelings toward service-learning indicated in the above comments. When actually in the lab setting, the service-learners did not convey overt expressions of their opposition to the requirement. Instead, some friendly banter, low-key indicators of reciprocal gratification and collaboration, and gradually developing server-client solidarity were noted. The technical/instructional environment itself muted excessive displays of personal communications. Thus, despite admonitions by the elementary school's instructional staff that small talk between tutors and children, high fives, joking and the like were not acceptable, violations were rampant. The tutors recognized that computer assistance was just the surface function of their activity and established fuller relationships with the children. Once involved, they generally committed themselves to the task with clear purpose and resolve, their initial reluctance apparently forgotten. One student's self-evaluation report cogently expressed the prevailing sentiment:

   My first reaction to the service component was bothersome and hard to
   make time for; however, it turned out to be an interesting
   experience. At first it was somewhat boring and seemed like a waste
   of time. After a couple of weeks, I got to know a lot of the
   children on a first and last name basis. They also knew me on a first
   name basis as well (without my name tag). I speak Spanish and got to
   use it frequently during my volunteer work. Overall, it was an
   interesting and rewarding experience.

Others

Perhaps the most notable finding derived from the focused interviews was that the children saw the tutors in an entirely different light than teachers, lab supervisors or parent volunteers. The tutors, while seen as an additional source of help beyond those employed at the school or those who volunteer at school, were generally perceived not quite as peers but possessing the authority of young adulthood. Thus, it would seem that the children defined the tutors distinctively, and we summarize this view with the phrase, 'the other helpers.' Looking more closely at the variety of terms used by the children themselves during the focused interviews, we heard such attributions as "the helpers" (Lauren, 9 and Paul, 6), "the people from university" (Mark, 8 and Ashley, 10), and "the other people" (Mary, 9 and Joel, 7). The tutors were not so much perceived in relation to the information they provided or to their function. Rather they were viewed as individuals who were there to be nice and help with their questions.

Educators

Another notable finding is that a majority of the children perceived the tutors as educator role models. According to Ashley, "they encourage us to keep on typing with the papers that we do." Louie shared Ashley's view. He saw them as a source of encouragement and support. "I feel like they're always gonna help," he said. "I'm not afraid, not afraid that I'm gonna do something wrong." The children knew that even if they made a mistake, if they needed to get out of a particular program, or if they needed help, the tutors were there to help fix their errors. The majority of children saw the tutors as people to emulate. Answering the question, "Do you want to be like the tutors when you grow up?" eight out of the twelve responded in the affirmative. Gender and age did not seem to be an indicating factor. Wanting to help other people by showing them how to do things better seemed to attract these children.

The children all saw the tutors in a positive light. They viewed their helpfulness as something that they would also want to do for others. For example, Mary said that she wanted to be like the tutors because she hopes "to help other people." Louie explained more specifically that he wanted to be like the tutors when he grows up, "so I can help other people get a good education." And in order to do that, he asserted that he needed to "work hard, show that you can be friendly, learn a lot so that when they (other children) ask you something, you don't get stuck." The children viewed the tutors as people who "care." Knowing that they care created positive psychological and emotional effects. Five of the children reported highly positive feelings when the tutors were present during their lab period. Mary and Kelly both said they felt good when they saw the volunteers. Mark did admit that he felt, "a little shy around them." Children said that the tutors showed them kindness and friendliness and the children expressed that this made them feel good about themselves.

Discussion

The tutors were perceived by the children to be in a state of privilege, that is, they were understood to hold no formal role but were thought of as personally supportive. They were not easily located in a conventional role; there was no precedent for a group of unrelated, unofficial adults to be present and helpful in the school environment. The tutors were not quite teachers and too adult to be real friends. But they were viewed as friendly, helpful, responsive and caring. The tutors, as nonprofessionals with limited technical knowledge, collaborated with the children and established relationships of mutuality and trust (Ward & Kelly, 2000). Some children experienced empowerment, an enhancement of self-worth, and a sense of future possibilities for themselves as a result of these kinds of interactions (Bembry, 1995; Okagaki, Frensch & Dodson, 1996). This case study was accomplished with mature, adult college student service-learners. Further research could be conducted to determine if similar results would obtain if a more traditional population (18-22 year olds) had been involved.

The essentially coercive context of service-learning seems not to have impacted the work done by the tutors or to have intruded upon their attitude in ways discernible to the researchers or, more importantly, to the clients who were apparently well-served by them. Our data only permits us to suggest that while the service-learners may have felt pressured to perform additional work for their course credit, the nature of that work softened them. Perhaps the tutors hid their hostile feelings for the sake of the children, forgot them once in the lab environment, reconciled themselves to the requirement or chose to make the best of the situation. For some, service-learning impelled them to do what they ultimately wanted to do, but needed a small push to actualize their intentions.

The data suggest that children's "cultural capital," the cognitive skills, study habits, cultural dispositions, and beliefs about self and learning, rooted in linguistic culture can be positively impacted by the presence of university-based tutors. This very modest social action project and the qualitative data derived from this small study supports Farkas' work (1996), which suggested that tutorial assistance by trained university students could enhance schoolchildren's assets and compensate in some measure for early socialization deficiencies. More generally, the project and the study indicate that service-learning and social action projects can be conducted to the benefit of clients despite the initial misgivings and reluctance of some students. The following practices are recommended:

1) Service-learning projects must be properly and fully linked to course content;

2) Rationales for required service should be clearly and forcefully presented to students, field supervisors, and clients (if possible);

3) Service learners should be adequately supervised in case animosities or other contingencies arise;

4) Training must take into account the diversity of both service and learning goals;

5) Research to uncover 'best practices' could well constitute an ongoing element in service-learning; and

6) Program evaluation should involve self-perception reports as well as objective measures.

Acknowledgements

The children, teachers and staff of Ruby Elementary School, Placentia, California and students of California State University, Fullerton who participated in the Ruby Circuit Service-learning Project, Spring, 2001.

Note

A version of this research was presented to The Society for Applied Sociology, 19th Annual Meeting--Kansas City, MO., October 19, 2001.

References

Bembry, J. X. (1995). Project SUCCESS: A model for university-school community partnerships," Social Work in Education, 17 (4), 256-262.

Farkas, G. (1996). Human capital or cultural capital?: Ethnicity and poverty groups in an urban school district (social institutions and social change), Aldine de Gruyter.

Gronski, R., & Pigg, K. (2000). "University and community collaboration: Experiential learning in human services," American Behavioral Scientist, 43, (5), 781-792.

Hall, C. M. (2000). "Clinical sociology in service-learning," Sociological Practice, 2, (1), 33-39.

Marullo, S., & Edwards, B. (2000). "Service-learning pedagogy as universities' response to troubled times," American Behavioral Scientist, 43, (5), 746-755.

Okagaki, L., & Frensch, P. A. & Dodson, N. E. (1996). "Mexican American children's perceptions of self and school achievement," Hispanic Journal of Behavioral -Sciences, 18, (4), 469-484.

Pfeiffer, K. T. (2000). "A critical consideration of the introduction of community-service-learning projects to courses in the sociology of social problems," Great Plains Sociologist, 12, 22-36.

Roschelle, A. R., Turpin, J. & Elias, R. (2000). "Who learns from service-learning?" American Behavioral Scientist, 43, (5), 839-847.

Ruby Drive Elementary School, (2002). "Demographic data," Placentia, California, updated 1/00 and 2/02.

United States Department of Commerce. (2000). "Americans in the information age: Falling through the net," http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/digitaldivide/.

Ward, K. & Wolf-Wendel, L. (2000). "Community-centered service-learning: Moving from doing for to doing with," American Behavioral Scientist, 43, (5), 767-780.

Myron Orleans, Chapman University College, CA

Sharon De Leon, Casa Colina Adult Day Health Care, CA

Myron Orleans, is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Sociology at Chapman University College, and Professor Emeritus of California State University, Fullerton. Sharon De Leon, a recent graduate in sociology at CSUF, is a social worker assistant and will be pursuing an MSW.