Abstract: This research assesses (a) students' perceptions of civic either a charity or social perspective, and (b) relationship among six dimensions of civic (Knowledge, Skill, Efficacy, Value, Responsibility, and Commitment) for developing a charity or social perspective. Pre- and post-course analysis showed that (a) charitable view of civic was dominant; and (b) six dimensions were distinct constructs in describing civic involvement. ********** An often-stated goal of service-learning is to prepare students for civic involvement, defined in this study as involvement in civil (Gottlieb & Robinson, 2002, p. 2), or to participate in democratic process. Other authors may use terms such as civic participation, civic engagement, or to describe or activity related to participation in democratic process. Rhoads (1997) noted that different visions of democratic society will produce different meanings of citizen and citizenship. Westheimer & Kahne (2004) also maintained that is not enough to argue that democratic values are as important as traditional academic priorities and we must ask what kind of values, because different and ideological interests are embedded in or are easily attached to varied conceptions of (p. 257). Forms of Civic Involvement Models or paradigms have been developed to theorize or explain different forms, visions, orientations, or approaches to civic involvement, and discussions mainly focus on concept of charity and social and their relationship to each other. Some theorists see charity and social as two ends of a continuum with social as preferred outcome (Barber, 1994; Delve, Mintz, & Stewart, 1990; Kahne & Westheimer, 1999; Maybach, 1996; O'Grady, 2000; Reardon, 1994; Rhoads, 1997; Wade, 2000); others see these two forms of as distinct paradigms and do not think one is superior to other (Deans, 1999; Foos, 1998; Leeds, 1999; Morton, 1995). Delve, Mintz, and Stewart (1990) were among first to emphasize movement charity to social as a goal of service-learning. They developed a model of service-learning to describe different phases of social responsibility and specified a goal of transition one phase to another, i.e., to move students from charity to justice (p. 26). Barber (1994) believed that citizen education through service should be about political responsibility. Thus, to develop students' political responsibility, a service-learning course must be developed so as to intentionally foster student awareness of social and the place of ethnicity, religion, race, class, gender and sexual orientation in a community (p. 91). Kahne and Westheimer (1999) summarized goals for service-learning into three domains: moral, political, and intellectual, with two approaches for each domain: charity and change. For political domain, two approaches are responsible citizen (charity) and critical democrat (social change). The charity approach emphasizes importance of altruism and joy that comes giving. The change approach emphasizes participation in political action and providing solutions to structural problems. Kahne and Westheimer claimed that citizenship in a democratic more than kindness and decency; it engagement in complex social and institutional endeavors, and it requires that individuals work to create, evaluate, criticize, and change public institutions and programs (p. 34). The view of civic preferred by Kahne and Westheimer included active engagement in social issues and efforts to examine, critique, and change social policy--in addition to concern for one's fellow humans. Advocacy for service-learning with a social approach is based on a belief that a successful democratic form of government active citizens who question current practice and work to develop new forms. …
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 27
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