Article 32. Teaching Social Justice Through Service Learning.

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Ideas and Research You Can Use: VISTAS 2011organization could learn how to promote social justice from an infrastructural level, viathe class presentations of their peers.School Counseling Service Learning ProjectService learning is a teaching method where guided or classroom learning isdeepened through service to others in a process that provides structured time forreflection on the service experience and demonstration of the skills and knowledgeacquired. By definition service learning connects classroom content, literature, and skillsto community needs. As a result of completing a service learning project students willlearn to (a) apply academic, social and personal skills to improve the community; (b)make decisions that have real, not hypothetical, results; (c) grow as individuals, gainrespect for peers, and increase civic participation; (d) gain a deeper understanding of self,the community, and society; and (e) develop as leaders who take initiative, solveproblems, work as a team, and demonstrate their abilities through helping others (C.Parker, personal communication, October 19, 2010).Through the process of service learning, students engage in activities that caninvolve one of three types. First, Direct Service: students’ service directly affects andinvolves the recipients. The interactions are person-to-person and face-to-face, such astutoring younger children or working with parents related to prevention or intervention toenhance academic success (C. Parker, personal communication, October 19, 2010).Through the provision of direct services, students also learn about the social justice needsof those they serve as it relates to education and can move from direct service to socialjustice advocacy. Second, Indirect Service: indirect activities do not involve service toindividuals; however, these activities benefit the school, community or environment as awhole. One example might be conducting a workshop for faculty on classroom strategiesdesigned to help students as they prepare for success in college (C. Parker, personalcommunication, October 19, 2010). Helping underrepresented students gain entrance intocollege helps to meet one of the many social justice needs of culturally diversecommunities. Finally, Research: research activities involve students locating, gathering,and reporting on information in the public interest. For example, students may developsurveys or conduct formal studies, evaluations, experiments or interviews on leadershiptopics related to children, parents, teachers or other stakeholders (C. Parker, personalcommunication, October 19, 2010). The outcomes of the research can often lead to theidentification of social justice issues that could then lead to direct social justice advocacy.Service learning that includes a focus on social justice issues requires students tofollow a process so that learning and social justice advocacy is maximized (C. Parker,personal communication, October 19, 2010). Steps involved in social justice learninginclude preparation, action, reflection, and demonstration. Preparation involvesidentifying a need, investigating and analyzing it, and making a plan for action. Theprofessor and student will work together to set the stage for learning and social action.Action is the direct result of preparation. The plan developed during preparation is carriedout and is expected to involve no less than three hours of involvement. Reflection (in theform of a journal) is a vital and ongoing process in service learning that integrateslearning and experience with personal growth and awareness. Using reflection, studentsconsider how the experience, knowledge and skills they are acquiring relate to their ownlives and their communities; one entry per week is required. A reflection is a one page6
Ideas and Research You Can Use: VISTAS 2011double-spaced written comment that refers to the topic and expresses the student’sthoughts about past experiences or insights that have new meaning based on what isbeing learned. Reflections are designed to help students make better discussions orimprove relationships when working with people, in particular, those who are culturallydiverse. Finally Demonstration (Presenting/Evaluation) provides evidence of whatstudents have gained and accomplished through their community service learninginvolvement. Presenting will allow students to teach others and acknowledge whatinformation and skills have been learned. The result of this activity is that students learnthe importance of giving back to their communities and learn the meaning of socialjustice advocacy.Social Action: A Mandate for Counselors (SAMC)Rawlins (as cited in Henriksen, 2006) described an activity that is completed byboth faculty and students. This collaboration exemplifies the pressing need for all mentalhealth professionals and educators to embrace social justice promotion. SAMC differsfrom many traditional service learning activities in that it begins, as the first step, withstudents and faculty defining their roles in social justice advocacy. This involves preservicetime spent in the classroom, discussing the paradigm shift in thought regardinghow counselors take a collaborative stance as advocates instead of volunteers (Henriksen,2006).The second step in the SAMC preprocess, as illustrated by Rawlins (as cited inHenriksen, 2006), includes the actual volunteer service provided by the students out inthe selected community agencies. The unique element that distinguishes the SAMCproject is that the counseling student creates his or her own activities within the preexistingcommunity agency. The final step of the SAMC requires students to reunite intoa group counseling-type setting and discuss their service learning experiences with oneanother. With this step, each student is able to learn vicariously from one another’sservice learning experience, reflect upon how the experience may have transformed anyattitudes toward oppressed groups in society, and process through what it means tobecome an advocate for social justice (Henriksen, 2006).Implications for Counselor Educators and Counseling StudentsThe counselor’s most important tool is the use of self (Corey, 1996). To that end,the multicultural service learning experience can assist to enhance a counseling student’sself-esteem and increase social competence (Williams, 1990). The education ofmulticulturally sensitive counselors should include activities that generate an awarenessof ones’ own assumptions when working with others from a different culture (Das, 1995).The service learning activity not only increases the counseling student’s confidence whenworking with a client from a different culture, but can also help to generate a genuineconcern for the client’s welfare within the context of the oppressed. Counseling studentswho were trained under a strong multicultural program reported being more willing torecognize how cultural differences may have a bearing on their work (Parker, Moore, &Neimeyer, 1998).According to Burnette et al. (2005), service learning for counseling studentsprovides a meaningful experience that bridges educational theory with social justice7
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