Forging L.I.N.C.S. Among Educators: The Role of International Service-Learning in Fostering a Community of Practice

Findings drawn from the Learning Integrated with Needed Construction and Service (LINCS) program at the University of Pittsburgh. This program of local, community-based action was designed to further faculty and student participants' global sense of self and community. We consciously worked to create a community of practice among educators at all levels (teacher certification candidates to professors). Further, our community brings together students (from eight countries) with colleagues in rural Peru, who were our partners in the project of building a preschool. The common threads that run through our two semester course sequence are: a focus on local-global sensibilities of place and membership, a concern for social justice through service, fostering critical education professionals, institutional capacity-building for (international) service-learning, and creative means of evaluation and communication about our project. This article uses the theoretical framework of communities of practice as a means to understand the transformative potential of participation within a group of learner-educators. First, I will briefly introduce the international service-learning course sequence, and the sources of data used in this article. Then, I turn to relevant hallmarks of a community of practice. Finally, I illustrate how the international
service-learning program offers several integrated dimensions of participation that engage participants, inspire them to imagine clearer futures in education and development, and challenge them to align their priorities and career aspirations with their principles.[author]