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Programs - 2000

On Building Community:
Making Literacy Connections through Service Learning
by Denise Stuart


Increasingly students and teachers are engaging in community service activities that evolve around literacy learning and that connect to community and curriculum in meaningful ways.

This integrated service learning allows students to participate in informal partnerships that may be outside of their own personal experiences.

As students engage in these cross-cultural experiences, there is potential for development of new relationships, new ties to community, and what Nel Noddings describes as "ethics of caring."

Through critical pedagogy students can be guided to consider issues of social justice as they participate in class discussions and reflective writing. Students are challenged to explore the social, political, ethical and personal elements of their experiences.

In the presentation, specific cross-cultural events of preservice and inservice teachers participating in service learning projects as a part of their coursework at one urban university are described.

Voices of the students will emerge as excerpts from interviews, reflective journals and final writing are shared to illustrate the successes, challenges and ways of learning students offered as a result of their service experiences.

In addition, principles and practices of quality service learning, other project descriptions and related resources are presented.

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