Integrating Service Learning and Difficult Dialogues Pedagogy to Advance Social Justice Training

Abstract

The integration of service learning and difficult dialogues pedagogy is one avenue for enhancing counseling psychology social justice training. We provide an illustration of this integrative model including advocacy and systems perspectives, and propose that the model can be applied to other service learning foci within counseling psychology training. The article presents an ongoing project that provides counseling graduate students the opportunity to implement skills in career and employment counseling with homeless and near homeless individuals, as well as to develop greater cultural sensitivity and humility. The model provides a structural framework for understanding poverty, homelessness, and bureaucratic systems of care as essential to knowledge, awareness, and skill development for social justice advocacy regarding social class and economic inequalities. Difficult dialogues are incorporated during pre-service, engagement, and debriefing stages of the training experience as a means of promoting best practices for social justice training in counseling psychology.