Creating Space for Marginalized Voices: Re-focusing Service Learning on Community Change and Social Justice

Abstract

Although service learning was established as a method for combining relevant student learning opportunities with community engagement, recent critiques highlight the shift from achieving community-defined goals towards a predominate focus on assessing student learning. Focusing on a community's decision-making process regarding a homeless shelter, this article describes a cross-curricular project that combines critical service learning with participatory action research. Using community and participant defined goals and interactions to steer the research process enabled achievement of both student learning and attempts at community transformation.