Service-Learning as a Counter-Hegemonic Practice: Evidence Pro and Con

Multicultural Education, Spring 2004 by Cipolle, Susan

Introduction

Service-learning is a wide-spread educational strategy in K-16 education. Currently 64% of all public schools and 83% of public high schools have community service. Half of all public schools have service-learning programs (Billig, 2000). Service-learning programs benefit from the support of both Republican and Democratic political leaders, conservatives and liberals, and business and activists, all who find common ground in the concept of service to the community.

Educators and legislators see service-learning as a way to improve the community and invigorate the classroom, respond to needs in the community, build self esteem, and develop higher-order thinking skills (Kahne & Westheimer, 1996). Service-learning has ample federal funding and a national structure through the Corporation of National and Community Service (CNS) to support its implementation.

The President's 2003 proposed budget for CNS was $1.035 billion which reflected a 40% increase from the previous year (CNS, 2002). The W. K. Kellogg Foundation conducted a four-year $13 million national research project which included the National Commission on Service-Learning, chaired by former United States Senator John Glenn and the Learning-in-Deed initiative to broaden the use of service-learning, promote quality service-learning practice, and to institutionalize its use across the country (Education Commission of the States & Learning-in-Deed [ECS/LID], 2002, p. 11).

However, the question remains: What impact does service-learning methodology create?

Researchers have proclaimed the many benefits of service-learning in terms of student empowerment, but does it have the power to create a counter-hegemony that provides an alternative worldview to transform society? In this literature review, I will examine the effectiveness and limitations of service-learning practices and present recommendations to move service-learning outcomes from individual student empowerment to social transformation.

The method for gathering the literature was a cross-reference of related educational issues: service-learning, social justice, multicultural education, and citizenship education. Although the opinions and analyses presented in the literature are varied, both supporters and critics concur that service-learning has the potential to be a powerful tool for transformative social change.

Key Terms

As a preface to the discussion of service-learning as a counter-hegemonic practice in educational institutions, it is necessary to define key terms.

The term "service-learning" was first defined in the National and Community Service Act of 1990 as a method under which students or participants learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service that:

* is conducted in and meets the needs of a community, is coordinated with an elementary school, secondary school, institution of higher education, or community service program, and with the community; and helps foster civic responsibility; and

* is integrated into and enhances the academic curriculum of the students, or the educational components of the community service program in which the participants are enrolled; and provides structured time for the students or participants to reflect on the service experience. (Pearson, 2002, p. 5)

The National Commission on Service-Learning defines service-learning as "a teaching and learning approach that integrates community service with academic study to enrich learning, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities" (ECS/LID, p. 9). While there are many definitions of service-learning, Billig (2000) concludes there is a general consensus of the major components: active participation, thoughtfully organized experiences, focus on community needs and school/community coordination, academic curriculum integration, structured time for reflection, opportunities for application of skills and knowledge, extended learning opportunities, and development of a sense of caring for others. Many articles "trace its roots to the writings of John Dewey and Jean Piaget, and some even go back as far as Alexis de Tocqueville" (Billig, ¶10).

Service-learning, also called community-based learning, is often confused with community service and volunteerism. The National Commission on Service-Learning maintains the most distinguishable difference between service-learning and community service is the "strong curricular connections and ongoing opportunities for students to reflect upon service experiences" (ECS/LID, p. 9). Andrew Furco (cited in Billig) clarifies this difference by pointing out that service-learning is intentionally designed "to equally benefit the provider and the recipient of the service as well as to ensure equal focus on both the service being provided and the learning that is occurring" (¶ 13).

Hegemony as defined by Peter McLaren (1998) "refers to the maintenance of domination not by sheer exercise of force but primarily through consensual social practices, social forms, and social structures produced in specific sites such as the church, the state, the school, the mass media, the political system and the family" (p. 177). McLaren further explains that "the dominant culture presents a 'common' worldview, disguising relations of power and privilege through organs of mass media and state apparatus such as schools" (p. 179).