Moral Language and Networks of Engagement

Abstract

Central to the themes of much of the literature on the relationship between service learning and civic responsibility lies the question of whether the environments in which service-learning experiences take place are capable of becoming settings in which the meaning of public life is deliberated and acted on. This article asserts that the service learning experienced by a small sample of students drawn from a series of in-depth qualitative case studies significantly contributed to their development of a moral language about citizenship and highlighted to them the importance of entering into the kinds of processes of engagement that the service-learning experience called forth. By drawing from the students' narratives, the author examines the students' perceptions about human nature and its mutability and the role of reciprocity and obligation to some generalized others as the fundamental components of citizenship.

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