“The Hardest Thing to Turn From”: The Effects of Service-Learning on Preparing Urban Educators

Abstract

In this article, the author describes her use of service-learning as a pedagogical strategy for developing preservice students' dispositions for urban teaching. Twenty-one students were enrolled in a multicultural education course with a service-learning requirement. This was the students' first teacher education course in a two-year, urban-focused strand of the university's larger teacher education program. Students engaged in tutoring in local urban elementary and high schools. They also conducted observations, interviews, and worked in a community center. The author describes how the action-reflection process differed for students from urban home and schooling backgrounds and those from suburban home and schooling backgrounds. She posits that the service-learning experience facilitated the reflection process in students that led them to be more social justice-oriented in their thoughts about urban teaching. The author also argues that the experience enhanced their commitment to and motivations for urban teaching. Of particular focus is the effect the service-learning had on preservice students of color who were the racial majority in this cohort. The author also discusses some of the challenges faced as a teacher educator attempting to be more holistic in her teaching through the use of service-learning and implications for urban teacher education courses and program design.