"Community-Service Pedagogy" Response

Community-Service Pedagogy

How do you make students care about writing in the classroom? You know, besides grades. One way of doing it is by telling them the real world applications of writing. A better way may be actually putting them out in the real world so they can see that fact for themselves. That is the main idea I’ve gain from “Community-Service Pedagogy,” or as the author Laura Julier prefers to call it, “service-learning.” Of course, since this field is “relatively untheorized,” other ideas and definitions on the subject are battling it out daily in the College English journal and on English LISTSERVs. As for myself, I rather appreciated the hands-on approach this pedagogy seems to instill in teachers and students, but find a few of the debates in this subject unnecessary.

In one of my social science groups, we had a discussion on what American citizens may be lacking in today’s culture. A general consensus was that many people (especially the current 20-something generation) did not respect the general idea of a greater community, nor contain the willingness to maintain it. The generation isn’t blood thirsty or consumed by self-interest, but past his or her family and friends, the average citizen could care less about helping out their neighborhood or nation. I’ve felt this insulation as well in my college years -- I just wanted to do my work and be left alone -- and just now and I’m realizing the democratic value of being a participating citizen, not just a tax paying one. For me, service-learning pedagogy would hit on what I believe many freshmen are missing out on: A wider viewpoint on the world outside their dorms.

Since having a working knowledge of composition and rhetoric are considered cornerstone characteristics of a democratic citizen, I can definitely see why service-learning seems like such a panacea to so many educators. But I also agree with Zlotkowski’s opinion that the pedagogy needs to be defined much more strictly in it’s disciplinary context. Keeping it in just in the English field (which I believe would have less departmental headaches for now), we need to be sure right along with the students what the writing goals are for their community projects. I feel the ultimate form of a “feel-good pedagogy” would come from a student doing twenty hours of work in a soup kitchen and then writing about how it made him feel good about helping his community. There’s no critical thinking about that sort of work; it’s charity work followed by writing about that the feelings associated with charity work. For this pedagogy to work out, at its baseline it needs a heightened awareness in the student’s progression. In order to describe this further, I’ll first need to divide this pedagogy.

One of the arguments that I felt was… well, redundant was the weighing of pros and cons toward either having students write about their community service, or having the writing actually be the community service. The essay seems to look at the English freshmen courses as this one English class that everyone takes, and we all need to decide what needs to be crammed in and what needs to be pushed off to the side. But that’s not true at all. There are many English classes in every college, such as Elementary Composition, Research, Business, and Technical Writing classes, and each class’s goals and format needs to have service-learning pedagogy match them. Many of Julier’s community service examples seemed to have a basis in business or technical writing, like making STD brochures and typing public announcements for the girl scouts. My question was “Why didn’t they just do these projects in a business or technical writing class?” Many of the students and even Julier herself seemed to be perplexed by the technological needs of many of the projects, but I feel like a technical writing class would not only have assisted the students in these projects, but also given them a direct connection to that particular class’s goals, and perhaps even help create a valuable portfolio.

Certainly, any composition class can create a larger understanding of civic virtue and of the communities around the student, but I believe that if a teacher wants a student to reflect on the significance of this realization, then it is best done in an Elementary Composition class, or one that focuses on essay workshops. In this classroom, a student could take on more non-writing jobs, and chronicle the experience by journal. Perhaps at the end of the semester the student could complete an essay analyzing class disparities he noticed in a narrative format, or do a PowerPoint presentation about working for the Humane Society. The assignment should stay student-centered, and be flexible enough to allow the student to change themes or topics in the final format.

As obvious as it is, we must always ask ourselves what we want students to get out these field assignments. If want to instill civic justice, we need to paint a wider picture of what that means to students. Teaching recursively through selected texts on social justice could definitely act as a tool to encourage wider reflection in students. I would also want to hand out reflection sheets to students periodically. Fluff answers aside, I’d like to if they would continue community service in the future, and how important they felt these acts were to being a functioning citizen (I’d be interested in how many benefits could they name. How many would be based on them, and how many on the community at large?).

I also really like the idea of making the student an authority on a subject, which I feel service-learning excels at. One of the things I think freshmen comp classes need to instill in students is that their opinions matter, and they can speak in more than just summaries to an audience. As beneficial as they can be, critical readings of texts won’t help a student much if they simply don’t connect to the author or her message. Letting them select their own community service project (within reason and class protocol) could them “own” their subject, rather than be another opinion on a text they had to read anyway.

Overall, I see service-learning pedagogy to be a pedagogy with a lot of potential to create generative content in students, but I think its setup could make it one of the most intricate pedagogies of them all. This pedagogy isn’t something that can be melded to other routines of the classroom; it requires long-term attention and support from the department, the teacher, and the community around the college. I had numerous problems that I wanted answered, but the essay couldn’t provide any good examples or solutions to them. How will this pedagogy work with students from varying backgrounds and income levels? If these service programs are part of the curriculum, should transportation be provided for them? What about part-time commuters, or those with full-time jobs and families? Will there be enough variety in community work that the student won’t feel pigeon-holed into a particular field of work, forced to join an organization that goes against his/her beliefs? I’m also concerned with the type of work these students will get at these organizations. They would have to be monitored moderately well so the students are not just overworked interns, but real team members who are trying to push their zone of proximity. Once again, I’m not against the idea of this pedagogy, but it feels like it’s the pedagogy that could go south the fastest if not carefully managed by a team of English professors in constant communication with the service sites and students.

Service-learning pedagogy is a teaching process that still needs to prove itself to established academia, but can still be admired for its earnest and democratic intentions. It asks that pertinent, core question on page 140: “What is the purpose of a writing course?,” which I think I’ve gone a bit distant from these past months. After all these pedagogies and theories, what should students walk away with when the last class is finished? Past the critical analysis and communication skills (which cross over into countless areas of life), I believe a student has to walk away with the belief that their writing skills have a direct pragmatic use for them, either in their job or as a citizen. Right now, the best I’ve done in that area is a small speech about how good writing makes life generally easier on the first day of class. What service-learning pedagogy has taught me is that there is so much more I can do, as long as I take the proper planning, and be ready for the risks.