Educating Reflective Practitioners: Learning to Embrace the Unexpected through Service Learning

Abstract

Service learning projects are characterized by complex processes of knowledge production, which are contingent on narratives that inform the identities of educators, students, and community members. By encouraging students to critically reflect on their positionality and the social processes that inform such coproduction of knowledge, educators can use service learning to educate reflective practitioners capable of working productively with multiple actors. In a service learning course focusing on environmental justice at the University of Texas at Austin, students worked with a variety of community partners to document children’s knowledge of environmental hazards, reflecting critically on unexpected challenges during their fieldwork.