Talking Points #5: "In The Service of What? The Politics of Service Learning"

Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer

Argument:

In this article Kahne and Westheimer argue that Service Learning is a varied curriculum that derive moral, intellectual, and political ideologies of students but promote good, critical thinking, citizens with a higher self-esteem.

Quotes:

1. "helping those they serve, such service learning activities seek to promote students' self-esteem, to develop higher-order thinking skills, to make use of multiple abilities, and to provide authentic learning experiences-all goals of current curriculum reform efforts."

Kahne and Westheimer outline the critical parts of educational reform here. They are saying that by using this curriculum students are able to learn from experience and think critically about issues while promoting self-esteem. Here students are responsible for their own learning. It is an illustration of internships or work studies in which students have the opportunity to experience hands on learning. They are out their in the field learning about a trade. This model supports multiple learners visual, tactile etc. Students have the opportunity to learn outside the classroom and experience the world.

2. "Citizenship requires that individuals work to create, evaluate, criticize, and change public institutions and programs."

Kahne and Wesstheimer show the importance of citizens in the United States democracy. Citizens must be active in their community to create change, challenge government and better the lives of each other. Through service learning students can have the opportunity to be a part of this process. They can begin to see what a difference they can make in the community. Students can also see the problems that people face in urban areas of poverty which can motivate them to advocate for change to their local and national governments.

3. "when asked what they gained from the experience, many students said simply that it taught them 'that people can be different' from what you expect."

This quote from Kahne and Westheimer is in response to parents negative comments towards students performing a concert in the neighborhood school of poverty. This shows that students learned that people in these areas are not what they think. As they learned from their parents the stereotypes of crime, bad kids, misbehaved, and dangerous environment of students living in poverty are mostly untrue. This just goes to show how service learning can change the thinking of students and show them what the world is really like. It is an eye opening experience.

Questions/Comments/Points to Share:

I found this article a little bit difficult to get through. Kahne and Westheimer use a large variety of difficult vocabulary and it was more like a research study. I think I got a good sense of what Kahne and Westheimer are getting at in this article. I believe they argue that service learning can be implemented in a variety of ways and there are some flues in the curriculum, like many other curriculums nothing is perfect, but that they promote moral, political, and intellectual growth while promoting good, critically thinking, informed citizens who can create change in society. I think that service learning is a great way to get students to learn and think critically about their community. Rather than researching, reading, and discussing the world outside of the classroom these students have the opportunity to experience the world for themselves. It is great for students with a variety of learning styles and gives students hands on experience while creating lasting relationships with people in their community. Like Johnson advocates it also creates a dialogue about ideologies and stereotypes which promotes change. Like the students who performed the concert in the neighborhood school of poverty, students are able to see for themselves what the world is like and not see it through the eyes of others who believe in the stereotypes created by society.