Collaborative inquiry into service learning: ethical practice through a Pedagogy of CARE

Abstract

Practitioner inquiry is an ethical process that begins from a stance of caring. When one cares about the principles of democratic participation and social justice, one wants to advocate for them through modelling them in practice. When teachers engage in practice-based research that is democratic and radical in its intent and process, they act as ethical role models. The aims of this inquiry were to explore ethical principles of practice through a ‘students as researchers’ approach to service learning at the high school campus of an international school in Central Switzerland. The research question that drove the inquiry was; ‘How does meaningful teacher and student involvement as collaborative inquirers into service learning model a pedagogy for service learning?’ The participatory methodology of practice-based, collaborative inquiry involved a teacher-researcher and student researchers engaging in a pedagogy that was based on mutual understanding and respect and critical reflection. A rich variety of qualitative, practice-oriented methods were employed within cycles of inquiry and spirals of action and reflection. Through modelling and reflecting on the pedagogical strategies that were part of the collaborative research process, a framework for a ‘Pedagogy of CARE’ was developed. The acronym CARE, whilst representing the underlying stance of caring, stands for the required and desired personal attributes within collaborative inquiry; one is conscious, active, responsible and experimental. At the same time, it also embodies pedagogical principles; one engages in a practice of consciousness, action, responsibility and experimentation. This framework, conceptualised as a non-hierarchical pyramid model, can be used by teachers and educational researchers within international education and beyond to inform a practice that is ethical in both its process and intent.