Abstract: Abstract This article presents a study conducted 10 graduate students who were enrolled in a Masters of Bilingual Education Program and were full-time K-12 teachers. The participants completed an Instructional Theory course in which service-learning was studied as pedagogy, theory, and methodology for applying other instructional theories. The participants were asked to design a service-learning project and integrate it into their K-12 classes. The results of this study revealed various empowering affects of service-learning for experienced educators. Introduction In 1996, The National Commission on Teaching and America's wrote What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future. The Commission's plan is aimed at ensuring that all schools have teachers with knowledge and skills they need to teach so that all children can (Curran, 1998, p. vi). With obligatory standards and testing as well as increasingly diverse classrooms, teachers are too infrequently given the preparation and tools to meet these mandates. Furthermore, educators are increasingly directed to help their students develop elements of critical pedagogy including critical thinking skills, analysis, reflection, and problem solving abilities, instead of the traditional method of dispensing facts, better known as banking (Freire, 1970). However, it is often difficult for educators to move from theoretical understandings of critical pedagogies to their application. Service-learning is an innovative pedagogy for teachers to address cognitive dimensions of learning and apply critical theories. Service-learning has been described as a philosophy of education and an instructional method. As a philosophy of education, service-learning reflects the belief that education should develop social responsibility and prepare students to be citizens in democratic life. As an instructional method, service-learning involves a blending of service activities the academic curriculum in order to address real community needs while students learn through engagement (Anderson, 1999). The positive effects of service-learning on student moral and civic development, academic outcomes, and leadership abilities have been well documented by research (Astin & Vogelgesang, 2003; Eyler & Giles, 1999). A less well-researched area is the affects of service-learning for experienced teachers. The limited studies that have been conducted indicate that teachers made significant gains in the complexity of their thinking about social problems, enhancing their understanding of children's needs (Root and Batchelder, 1994). Teachers have also been known to increase their sensitivity to diversity issues and reflect more deeply about their responses to diverse students (Seigel, 1995). Wade (1997) noted gains in teacher self-esteem and self-efficacy, and further found that service-learning can be a means for empowering teachers by providing them authority and affirmation. Yet, in spite of existing research, (Schwerin, 1997) concludes his paper entitled Service-Learning and Empowerment by stating that Future research on service-learning might usefully focus on determining the empowering impact of service-learning on the participants, community members and faculty involved (p. 216). In response to the identified need for more extensive research in this area of service-learning for experienced teachers, this article extends the field of research through assessing and documenting the voices of teachers, who are also graduate students in a Masters of Bilingual Education Program. Through documenting participant voices, who have been educated in the critical pedagogical perspective of service-learning, and who have applied its theory their own classes, this article articulates the affects of service-learning on teachers. It is essential that those implementing service-learning have an understanding of the pedagogy behind it, so that the service does not become disassociated from learning goals, but instead enhances the overall learning experience. …
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-03-22
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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