Service Learning: Impacting Change, Promoting Social Justice, Equity, and Inclusion – An Effective Framework for Social and Professional Studies Programs

Background

Service learning is a variety of experiential learning activities, which not only serves as an opportunity for university faculty and students to engage the community in service as well as serve as an effective pedagogical tool. The term service learning was first introduced in 1966 but did not gain in popularity in higher education until the 1980s (Harkavy & Hartley, 2010; Santiago-Ortiz, 2019). The American Association of Colleges and Universities identifies service learning as 1 of its 10 High Impact Educational Practices which are effective in working with students of diverse backgrounds (Kuh, 2008). Service learning affords students the opportunity to develop academic skills, such as critical thinking and writing, college learning skills, develop leadership skills, civic and social responsibility, as well as their commitment to activism (Arthur & Valentine, 2018; Jurmu, 2015; Rogers, 2010). Students are also able to develop their professional identity, grow personally, through their engagement in a service learning course (Bloomquist, 2015; Jurmu, 2015). Service learning is distinguishable from other forms of experiential learning three ways. First, student learning, both academic and civic, is augmented by both traditional and community learning. Second, both the community and the students benefit from the service learning project. Third, community organizations are true partners in the service learning project or activity (Lim & Bloomquist, 2015). Bringle and Clayton (2021) further posit that service learning engages students, community members, and staff, in co-creating strategies that amalgamate scholarly material, community-engaged activities, and critical reflection to advance both learning and social change.

In the wake of disproportionate minority contact in the criminal justice system, healthcare disparities, abuse of police use of force, the inaccessibility of affordable housing, as well as other social problems, and power dynamics, social justice (defined by Stith et al., 2021, p. 9 as the equitable distribution of economic, political, and social rights, opportunities, and power), disparity has emerged as a resounding theme in contemporary society. Colleges and universities have emerged as a solution and do so through service learning (Santiago-Ortiz, 2019; Stith et al., 2021; Taylor et al., 2018). Experiential learning is a form of pedagogy that empowers people to recognize, expose, and eradicate the social injustices that structure their lives within a hegemonic social order (Hayes, 2011, p. 48).