Transformative Critical Service-Learning

“Transformative Critical Service-Learning, by Dr. Heather Coffey and Dr. Lucy Arnold, delivers a theoretical framework and practical strategies for designing, implementing, assessing, and reflecting on critical service-learning experiences. This work is grounded in the theoretical constructs of critical service-learning and incorporates Nicole Mirra’s work on critical civic empathy as an impetus for reflection and self-awareness. The authors introduce the Critical Service-Learning Implementation Model (CSLIM) as a tool for critical service-learning design and provide examples of this work to better understand the pragmatics and affordances of implementation. This book is a superb resource for faculty implementing or teaching about critical service-learning.”

Barri Tinkler, Ph.D., Interim Dean and Professor, Missouri State University

“Deeply grounded in the historical roots of critical service-learning – as well as current theory and practice – Transformative Critical Service-Learning offers us more than the what and the why – it provides a much-needed map to the how. While much of the existing scholarship on critical service-learning focuses on questions of definition and theory, Coffey and Arnold offer a well-scaffolded guide to what critical service-learning actually looks like in practice in K-12 schools and higher education. Community-engaged scholars, practitioners, teachers, and teacher educators at all levels will benefit from this book. The authors engagingly delineate strategically crafted instructional activities, implementation models, case studies, asset mapping schemes, assessment strategies, and an array of thoughtful tools for effectively implementing critical service-learning. Coffey and Arnold demonstrate a deep commitment to transformative learning – not simply for students, but for faculty, community partners, and all collaborators in critical service-learning experiences. Coffey and Arnold keenly recognize that critical consciousness isn’t something that randomly happens – rather, critical consciousness is a heightened level of awareness and action that we can intentionally grow – but only when we create the enabling conditions, spaces, relationships, and deep learning experiences which best foster its development – Transformative Critical Service-Learning is a thoughtfully constructed guidebook to the creation of these necessary enabling conditions.”

David Malone, Ph.D., Professor of the Practice of Education, Director of the Service-Learning Program, Duke University

“Heather Coffey and Lucy Arnold have produced an exceptionally readable, researched, and useful book on critical service-learning. This brief, but comprehensive text provides a panoramic guide for becoming a critical service-learning teacher in schools and colleges. Coffey and Arnold invite and equip teachers to embrace service-learning as a pedagogy for democratic social change in education and society. Their panoramic and systematic excursion in the theory and practice of critical service-learning is also a book of love and hope for improving the world. This work is a bright light in dark times.”

Ira Shor, Ph.D., Professor, College of Staten Island

“Transformative Critical Service-Learning invites university educators to challenge traditional understandings of both ‘service’ and ‘learning’ and reorient their practice toward the design of mutually humanizing partnerships grounded in commitments to equity, empathy, and justice. Coffey and Arnold offer educators the theoretical and practical tools they so urgently need to navigate the social, cultural, and political dimensions (and tensions) of critical service-learning alongside students and communities in ways that foster individual and collective transformation.”

Nicole Mirra, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Urban Teacher Education, Rutgers University

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Preface

Introduction: Positioning Ourselves as Critical Service-Learning Faculty

1. The Case for Developing Social Justice Through Critical Service-Learning

2. The Pedagogy of Critical Service-Learning

3. The Critical Service-Learning Implementation Model

4. The Critical Service-Learning Implementation Model in Action

5. Planning for Identity Exploration With Critical Service-Learning

6. Implementing Critical Service-Learning Through Reflective Cycles

7. Faculty Development for Critical Service-Learning

8. Conclusion

Appendices

About the Authors

Index

Heather Coffey

Dr. Heather Coffey is a Professor in the Department of Middle, Secondary and K-12 Education at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. She serves as the Director of the UNC Charlotte Writing Project and the Teaching Fellows Program. Dr. Coffey's primary teaching responsibilities include graduate English language arts methods as well as service-learning courses. Her research interests include ways to develop critical literacy with urban learners, bridging the gap between educational theory and practice in teacher education, and supporting in-service teachers in urban school settings through professional development. Dr. Coffey's record of publication includes book chapters and articles in refereed practitioner and research journals. She is currently investigating the ways in which urban learners can develop agency through research and writing and work for social justice in their communities. Heather is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina and considers herself lucky to be partnering with the community that supported her growth and development throughout her childhood. When she is not teaching, researching, and serving, Heather enjoys running and hiking in the mountains with her husband, two daughters, and sweet labradoodle, Finn.

Lucy Arnold

Lucy Arnold is an assistant professor of English at Limestone University where she also coordinates the English Education program. She earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and her M.A. in English Education from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her B.A. in English was awarded by the University of South Carolina. Lucy has been a member of the National Writing Project since 2002 and has been a part of the NWP leadership team at UNC-Charlotte for years. She has published articles in state and national publications, including the English Journal and Radical Teacher. She teaches coursework on literacy, assessment, American literature, and writing. In her spare time, she reads and listens to a number of podcasts; she also runs, practices yoga, bakes, and plays video games.