Service Learning, Diversity, and Teacher Education

Students' academic success depends in great part on the quality of their teachers. Although this idea is accepted by educational scholars and policymakers alike, the practice of preparing teachers with the dispositions, knowledge, and practices necessary to provide all students—particularly those students who historically have been left behind by the public school system—with high-quality opportunities to learn remains a formidable challenge. Evidence suggests that many teachers lack an understanding of the cultural communities from which their students come, and lack the pedagogical know-how to connect students' learning and knowledge out of school with their experiences in school. Research also indicates that in general, teachers hold lower expectations for students of color, low-income students, and English language learners in ways that translate into lower-quality learning opportunities for these students. The promise of teacher education rests on its ability to interrupt these dynamics by preparing teachers to be successful in the increasingly diverse context of U.S. public schools.

For decades, university-based teacher education programs have implemented a number of approaches to better prepare teachers to work with students from diverse backgrounds—students of color, English language learners, and low-income students. Such efforts have involved the inclusion of multicultural education coursework in many teacher education programs beginning in the mid-1970s, the placement of preservice teachers in schools with students from diverse backgrounds for their student teaching placements, and more programmatic efforts such as social justice teacher education. In addition, a number of teacher education programs have implemented service learning as a strategy for improving the preparation of teachers to work with students from diverse backgrounds. First, this approach aims to improve teachers' dispositional stance toward such students while challenging them to broaden their vision of what it means to be a teacher. The intent is to shift preservice teachers' vision from focusing solely on students within classroom contexts and schools to seeing students as people who traverse and learn in multiple contexts from families to communities to schools. Second, this strategy, depending on how it is implemented, provides preservice teachers with a tool that they can use in their teaching practice. From this standpoint, service learning becomes a specific strategy aimed at engaging K–12 students in real-world issues focused on democratic participation and citizenship.

This entry discusses the conceptions of service learning prevalent in the field of teacher education. Two important approaches to service learning in teacher education are identified. In one approach, the preservice teacher is the service learner, but in the other approach, the preservice teacher is learning about the pedagogy of service learning for his or her future practice. The goals and features of each are described. This entry concludes with a consideration of the benefits and pitfalls of service learning in teacher education and suggests new directions.