Origin of action

Abstract

Students can undergo changes in their personal perspectives through experiential learning (Kolb, 1984). Experiential Learning Theory allows for transformative learning, as researchers discover which factors contribute to a change in point of view. Many students gained knowledge through experiential learning in their communities during the fall of 2015 Religion/Interdisciplinary Privilege and Poverty course. This dissertation qualitatively studied a sample of students in this course to determine the degree to which social justice service-learning, as an example of Experiential and Transformative Learning Theories (Kolb, 1984; Kolb & Kolb, 2005; Mezirow 1981, 1997, 1998, 2000), represented civic learning pedagogy. Research questions focused on understanding how students' civic perspectives were influenced by their participation in social justice service-learning pedagogy. Findings revealed that prior learning generated appeal to participate in the content of social justice service-learning and consideration of students' civic perspective; involvement in effectively facilitated social justice service-learning on campus and off asked students to contemplate their civic perspectives; institutional and cultural factors positively impacted social justice service-learning. The results of this study can help future civic learning course designers to make effective choices, thereby increasing their ability to facilitate a civic perspective for their students. Critical/social justice service-learning is referred to as social justice service-learning in this dissertation, given that educators seek to achieve social justice through this form of pedagogy.