Multiculturalizing the Academy: University Service-Learning Tutoring of Young English Learners

Youth-serving programs, such as after-school tutoring that directly support the educational "pipeline," are of key importance for improving education and reducing the academic achievement gap for the rapidly growing population of K-12 students from English learning and immigrant backgrounds. At the same time, such programs can help achieve desired institutional learning outcomes that "multiculturalize" the educational experiences of university tutors from more-advantaged backgrounds. The present study analyzed six semesters of written reflections (n=119) by university students participating in a service-learning tutoring course, finding four main emergent multiculturally relevant learning outcomes: participants' development of knowledge about Latino cultures and enhanced cross-cultural and communicative competence; increased compassion for diverse populations and reduction of negative stereotypes towards Latino youth, families and culture; greater knowledge and awareness of the complexities of politicized issues such as poverty and immigration; and increased commitment to action and advocacy in service of social justice, multiculturalism and immigrants. These findings suggest that participation in academic service-learning tutoring programs working with Latino and English learning children has value for university participants beyond simply helping reduce the achievement gap for the tutees, strengthening the case for allocation of university resources to support such programs. [author]