Service-Learning: History, Theory, and Issues Review

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Service-Learning: History, Theory, and Issues ReviewADED 5610 - Planning and
Evaluation of Instruction
3-24-06
Book Report #2 (due April 2, 2006)
Speck, B.W. and Hoppe, S.L. (ed). (2004). Service-learning: History, theory,and issues. Westport, CN: Praeger Publ. Co.
I chose this book to read because I intend to incorporate a community service component into the Honors Program I am planning for Laramie County Community College. This book edited by Speck and Hoppe contains essays concerning the use of service to others as a method of building community. American culture has lost its sense of community. Postmodern deconstructionists show how all aspects of society must be "deconstructed" so that hidden intentions are revealed, usually a desire for power and control. Colleges and universities used to be in the past, models of a cooperative, social, supportive community, but they, too, have come to be dominated by materialism, individualism, and competitiveness.
When theory in the classroom is linked with student participation in a community activity outside the classroom, academia can help remedy the problem of a dysfunctional community. As the two concepts of service and learning become intimately connected, the term "service-learning" came to be used in the literature to show that the two are no longer separate activities, but are intimately linked as theory and praxis, or action.
To create a classroom that is consistent with the goals and values of service-learning, new classroom roles, relationships, and expectations must be instituted between instructors, students, and society. The classical Greek idea of an aristocratic liberal education benefiting only the individual must be dropped and replaced with a democratic idea of education as an instrument for individual and social change. This concept that the purpose of education is the empowerment of the individual to ultimately change their society may today seem radical and revolutionary, but it was a dominant theory in the early years of progressive adult education.
The book is divided into three parts. The first part deals with historical issues related to service-learning, with its roots in ancient Greece, but most firmly tied to progressive education as John Dewey expounded. One of the concerns with academia linked to social change is in the ability to maintain "value neutrality," since academia is often more liberal than the community. However, most examples of classroom theory being turned into community praxis show only benefits for the community such as in internships.
The second part of the book addresses the three major theoretical underpinnings of integrating learning with service to the community. The first theory covered includes the role of modeling and encouraging philanthropic behavior in teachers and students. This philanthropic model states that classroom pedagogy should be designed to nurture students' desires to help others. Opposing this is the opinion that the philanthropic model justifies privilege for the educated, undermines equality, and inhibits democratic participation by the uneducated. The civic model proposes that a purpose of higher education is to socialize the next generation of citizens so that these citizens actively promote democratic ideals such as equality and become agents of social change. Opponents charge that this is not value neutral, but is imposing the values of the educated on the uneducated. The third model is the communitarian model, the position that citizens are social creatures who naturally seek community and that the best interests of the individual are served when they accept the community and share a common lifestyle. Taking issue with this is the belief that individuality and self-fulfillment will be sacrificed, and the community will not advance but stagnate.
The third part of the book deals with issues of an ethical nature. These include the ethics of classroom advocacy, its evaluation, and its application to the philanthropic, civic, and communitarian models of tying learning to service.
I feel the authors of each chapter were very successful in their intent to put into a coherent, written format the belief that many educators hold that education implies a responsibility to improve not only the life of the individual, but the community in which this individual resides.
My personal reaction to the book is that it opens the dialog between educators for them to consider the broader personal and social implications of education. The book doesn't give answers, what is does give is the raw material to base discussions and decisions on. Education empowers individuals. Is it the responsibility of the educator to ensure that this empowerment is for the benefit of the individual and of society? Is the empowered student responsible for deciding how to use this power, for strictly personal gain or to help others, too? Is there a need to revitalize social progressivism in education, or is this an outdated ideal no longer compatible with a materialistic, individualistic society? Any book that generates so many philosophical questions in the reader was obviously successful in encouraging critical thinking.
This book is extremely useful for someone involved in program planning in articulating how a program can or should benefit the community. One of the points that Caffarella specifically brings up in her Planning Programs for Adult Learners is identifying personal beliefs related to program planning and making ethical decisions in the program planning process. I believe Service-Learning is a valuable resource for program planners in articulating benefits of community service components within programs.
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