Service-Learning: An Essential Process for Preparing Teachers as Transformational Leaders in the Reform of Public Education

This essay places service-learning within the context of national school-reform efforts in public education and teacher preparation. The reader will have a deepened understanding of the potential contributions made by educators who design and integrate service into the curriculum. The essay begins by exploring the need for reform of public education and presents a framework for thinking about the critical dimensions of school reform. Service-learning is presented as a process that contributes to each area of the school-reform framework. Service-learning is then explored within the parameters of reform initiatives underway within teacher preparation programs and higher education. The chapter concludes by examining the notion of a K-higher education (seamless) system of education. The reader is challenged to identify ways in which service-learning through teacher preparation can help to shape such a vision and contribute to the reform of teacher preparation and public schooling in America. (authors)