Service, learning, and social justice.

Abstract

This service learning research describes changes in teacher education students' attitudes and social justice concerns as they worked with children and families in government-subsidized housing. This research is unique because the participating students generally came from the same low-income, Latino, Spanish-speaking background as those they served in the community. Yet, their assumptions and attitudes changed as a result of participation in service learning. Examining and reconstructing their attitudes about the children's cognitive abilities and the families' levels of academic concern resulted in developing social consciousness.

Introduction

In the past two decades, an increasing number of higher education campuses have joined the service-learning movement that focuses on improving the quality of their neighborhoods (Musil, 2003). Effective implementation of the service-learning paradigm facilitates this movement by connecting the curriculum goals and learning objectives of the academic courses to serving the community's needs (Root, 1997). For the most part, research studies highlight service-learning initiatives in which students are involved in serving communities that differ greatly from the setting of the higher education institution that the students attend (Suyemoto & Kiang, 2003). However, there is a lack of research that investigates the effects of service learning in settings where the cultural backgrounds of the higher education students are the same, or similar, to the community they serve. The focus of this article is to describe the attitudinal changes of students towards children and families residing in low socioeconomic (SES) neighborhoods. The students, who are predominantly Latino, are enrolled in community-oriented teacher education courses at a public, commuter university. In this study, the cultural background, language, and demographics of the university students, for the most part, are similar to the community in which they serve.

What is Service Learning?

There is no one clear and concise definition of the term service learning. For the purpose of this article, service learning is defined as an educational, course-based service experience that attempts to meet community needs and is part of the academic curriculum (Bringle & Hatcher, 1996). This is consistent with Erickson and Anderson's definition (1997) that service learning is a "pedagogical technique for combining authentic community service with integrated academic outcomes" (p. 1). Thus, the various service-oriented activities included in these projects were not extracurricular or add-on assignments.

How Service Learning Changes Attitudes

Service learning extends beyond enhancing the institutions' commitment to the community; it serves as an impetus for change. Active participation in a well-designed and well-managed service-learning project transforms the theoretical to the practical by extending the boundaries of the classroom to the cultural setting of the community. Thus, traditional classroom-based instruction is substituted with course-based service-learning experiences, civic participation, and community-oriented activities. Unlike other teacher preparation practices, (e.g., field-based experiences or student teaching), service learning's transformation of theory to practice is amplified by the inclusion of civic participation. Students are actively, rather than passively, exposed to community-based social issues. Civic participation, in combination with reflection, often results in students becoming aware of their tacit assumptions (Carlan, in press). Any changes in perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs often occur as a direct result of engaging in the deliberate act of experiencing the "process of serving" and reflecting on the "process of learning." This dynamic paradigm shift occurs as students critically examine and respond to their assumptions regarding the academic, economic, and social issues of the community they serve.

Confronting and questioning tacit assumptions becomes the cornerstone that supports self-knowledge--the process of students examining and reconstructing their attitudes. Thus, serving the community through direct, civic participation and developing self-knowledge through reflection, serve as a powerful connection between the students and the "reality" of the compelling problems within the cultural setting of the community. This powerful connection initiates self-evaluation, cultivates thoughtful reflection, prompts social analysis, and invokes social consciousness. According to Friere's critical pedagogy (1973), critical, socially conscious teachers can "identify societal power relationships of oppression and privilege and believe them transformable through resistant action" (Jennings, 1995, p. 244). As students debunk their negative biases regarding the community they are serving, a paradigm shift occurs and their negative attitudes are replaced with an ethos that extends beyond an "ethos of service and caring" (Erickson & Anderson, 1997, p. 10) to that of an ethos of critical social consciousness. Only after students have developed social consciousness can they move forward to seek social justice.

Need for the Study

Proponents of the service-learning movement argue that teacher education students should be provided with structured opportunities to learn by serving in the community (Levesque & Prosser, 1996). Cochran-Smith's (1995) research findings report that involvement in the community provides teacher education students with opportunities to reassess their assumptions about family values and practices in cultures unknown to them. However, few studies exist in which the students come from minority backgrounds (Suyemoto & Kiang, 2003). Studies are especially lacking among Latino students in higher education, who live in the same or similar communities as the families they serve. In this study, most of the students' cultural backgrounds, fluency and comprehension of Spanish, and previous (in some cases current) socio-economic status are similar to the families they serve. For example, over 75% of the students enrolled in the teacher education courses are native Spanish speakers.

Methodology and Setting

Data were collected during three different service-learning projects, which involved five different education courses and two assistant professors. All three service-learning projects took place in low SES neighborhoods in close proximity to the university. The low SES neighborhoods, along the United States-Mexico border, are situated in one of the poorest counties in the country. These neighborhoods are identified as having high unemployment, high illiteracy, sub-standard housing, high health risks, high poverty, and a high crime rate (Acevedo, Rodriquez, & De Los Reyes, 2002). All three service-learning projects involved residents who lived in government-subsidized housing.

Service Learning Projects

Project 1 This project was conducted during the Summer of 2003. In collaboration with the local housing authority officials, and in an attempt to provide ample space, approximately 35 children (ages 4 to 13) were transported by bus to a nearby government-subsidized learning center. The university students conducted age and culturally-appropriate activities in Spanish and English with the children four times a week, for approximately two hours each session. The learner-centered, small-group activities included cooking, art, music, mathematics, language arts, science, and social studies. These activities provided students with several opportunities to interact with the children formally and informally during the four-week program.

Project 2 During the Spring of 2004, the second project was conducted in a government-subsidized learning center. Approximately 50 children (ages 5 through 17) participated in this service-learning project. Graduate and undergraduate students teamed up to plan and implement several cooperative-learning activities that focused on various healthy habits, such as proper nutrition, oral hygiene, and diabetes prevention. Consistent with the healthy habits theme, the students and the children collaborated to write and illustrate books, in Spanish and English.

Project 3 In the Fall of 2004, ten graduate students enrolled in a literacy course conducted "Read-aloud Meriendas" in a government-subsidized housing area. "Merienda" is a Spanish term for snack time. Five mothers of young children volunteered their homes and invited three to five other women from the neighborhood and their children to attend the "Meriendas." During the gatherings, the graduate students shared various language-development techniques with approximately 20 families on two occasions for a total of 10 "Read-aloud Meriendas."

Data Sources

The university students were asked to respond in writing to a survey that included various open-ended questions. The surveys were administered before and after the students participated in all of the projects. Immediately after each activity, the students were also asked to respond to open-ended reflection questions in writing and/or participate in class discussions. Data were analyzed using an emic, inductive approach. Each assistant professor looked for patterns in their own students' surveys and reflections and then reviewed the patterns found by the other researcher. This provided a peer check of the findings (Patton, 1990).

Findings

Although the projects differed, all university students worked directly with residents of two low SES neighborhoods close to the university. The following findings report changes in the students' attitudes about the children's academic abilities, motivational level, and behavior. In addition, the university students changed their attitudes about the families.

Attitude Changes towards Children of Poverty Several of the university students began the service-learning projects with negative attitudes regarding the children's academic ability and motivational level. Some students expressed that the children would have difficulty learning and lack motivation to learn. After the students worked with the children, the changes in their attitudes were captured through their written and verbal reflections. These changes are evident in the following reflections:

   I learned that they, a lot of these students, were very intelligent.
   When I first heard about these children, I assumed that they would
   be unmotivated and unwilling to participate. They were very eager to
   participate and listen to the story being read to them.

   My attitude toward students who live in government assisted housing
   changed after working with them. They do want to learn. They know
   more than what I thought. I was so surprised at the intelligence and
   ambition to learn during this lesson. Our students were highly
   interactive throughout the lesson and truly seemed to retain a
   great deal of knowledge.

It should be emphasized that not all university students participating in the service-learning projects began with negative attitudes or low expectations about the academic abilities of children, but even those who began with positive attitudes grew in their awareness. Before service learning, one student wrote, "I do not have negative attitudes. I lived in government housing when I was a child." After service learning she admitted, "I underestimated them at the beginning but I now think that they are over achievers." In addition to concerns about the academic ability and motivation of the children, the students also expressed concerns about their behavior, but these concerns dissipated as they worked with the children. In her reflection journal a student wrote, "They also seemed to really work well together ... and they respected each other." The following reflection is representative of many of the other students' attitudes.

   My assumption was that these children would sort of have attitudes,
   and that they would be loud and say bad words. On the other hand, I
   was wrong about my assumption because the children knew a lot and
   were very respectful and focused on their work.

A Feeling of Pity The third pattern detected in the reflections was an attitude of pity and condescension toward the families and the children. The students began to realize the strengths and potential of the families through experience, reflection, and class discussions. One student wrote, "The second extremely important thing I learned is that I need to stop feeling sorry for the children because like you said in class, I am always thinking 'pobrecitos'" (poor little ones). Another student began by saying that children from a low SES background have "disadvantages." At the end, he wrote, "I think that they are human like everyone else. Just because they live in that type of housing does not mean they are not smart."

Beliefs about Families of Poverty Prior to participating in service-learning projects, many of the students assumed that families of poverty, such as those living in government-subsidized housing, did not care about the academic success of their children. A student's comments prior to participating in a project are typical of this view.

   I feel that due to their financial difficulties and other problems,
   the families do not give adequate time to their children. There are
   probably too many children, and they do not get help at home.
   Parents have other priorities, and I do not think they really care
   about their academic progress.

Even though the student did not have an opportunity to work directly with the families, she learned about the families through their children. She wrote, "My attitudes have changed. The children are motivated to learn and are well-behaved. The families are just like us. They are normal families like everyone else."

Another student, whose attitudes about low SES families changed, wrote that after working with the children she was convinced that the families did care about their children's academic success. "If they didn't, they wouldn't send them here to learn and have fun." The greatest changes in attitudes about families of poverty came from those that worked directly with the families as part of their service-learning projects. These graduate students, who are teachers in local, public schools, were invited into the families' homes in order to teach the mothers various strategies that they could use to improve the literacy skills of their own children. The students repeatedly commented on how the participating families expressed concern about the academic success of their children and how they were willing to learn and use new ideas in order to help their children succeed in school. One student wrote, "I learned that there are many parents that are supportive and caring enough to help their children succeed and will educate themselves in order to help educate their own children." Another student's reflection revealed, "I did, however, learn that all families whether educated or not, desire the best for their children and are receptive to new information."

Building Confidence The graduate students, who are all currently educators with teaching experiences ranging from one to 25 years, also reported feeling more confident about their abilities to help families. The students, who worked directly with the families, also became aware of the need to help families as part of their jobs in the public schools.

   I learned that we should offer ourselves to people that want to
   learn and help their children ... I will be aware of families that
   want to seek help but are not able to and then I can intervene and
   make myself available to them and help with the success of their
   children.

   This experience made me realize that parents are willing to learn
   how to better prepare their children for a successful academic life.
   I've already asked my principal for permission to share the read
   aloud strategies with our parent volunteers. I'm planning to meet
   with them during my conference time. Later I will invite them to
   read to our students, too.

Discussion

The findings from this study support previous research that stresses the importance of incorporating service-learning projects as components of teacher education programs (Levesque & Prosser, 1996). Although many previous studies indicated changes in attitudes among service-learning participants working with families significantly different from their own (e.g., Cochran-Smith, 1995), this research study extends the body of knowledge by examining the attitudes of students who generally came from low-income, Latino, and Spanish-speaking backgrounds similar to those of the families they served. These findings suggest that service learning promotes social awareness, even among students who come from similar backgrounds to the community members served. The university students discovered they had low expectations about the academic abilities, motivation, and behavior of children from government-subsidized housing. In addition, they changed their attitudes about the families' willingness to learn and to help their children succeed in school. These findings also underscore the importance not only of service learning, but also of self-reflection and discussion during the service-learning experience (Musil, 1993). University students transform their thinking and even their behavior by reflecting and interacting with other university students involved in the same service-learning projects (Carlan, in press).

Conclusion

This research study indicates that service learning not only changes the attitudes of students who come from different communities and cultures than those they serve, but also raises consciousness among those who come from similar communities and culture. Thus, service learning affirms diversity and serves as a catalyst for activism and social justice in a variety of settings.

References

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Root, S. C. (1997). A review of research for teacher educators. In J. A. Erickson & J. B. Anderson (Eds.). Learning with the community: Concepts and models for service learning in teacher education (pp. 42-72). Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education.

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Veronica Galvan Carlan, The University of Texas and Texas Southmost College

Renee Rubin, The University of Texas and Texas Southmost College

Galvan Carlan, Ed.D. and Rubin, Ed.D. are assistant professors of Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education. Both authors include service learning as a component in their undergraduate and graduate courses.