Spanish in the Social Sciences: Notes on the Challenges of Service-Learning Among Mexican Migrants in Pennsylvania

As an anthropologist who specializes in Latin American Studies and Mexican migration to the United States I have often pushed for giving students the option of working with materials in Spanish. This challenge is especially important as we begin to develop service-learning within the curriculum since students may find themselves working with a population that speaks Spanish as its first language. In what follows I reflect on two instances in which I have used Spanish in the classroom, for a service-learning course on Mexican-American Studies. These reflections will serve as a point of departure for emphasizing the need for greater collaboration between faculty members in the social sciences and modern languages in developing service-learning courses. [author]