Partnership vs. Parternalism: Ethical Quandaries in the Implementation of Service-Learning Courses

This essay addresses some of the ethical quandaries that the author and her students encountered in conducting service-learning courses. The author begins by explicating the service-learning course she taught involving 66 undergraduate students in a training and development course. Data gathered through journal entries, focus group interviews, and post-class assessment documents is offered to underscore the ethical issues that arose in this project. The paper concludes with a discussion of pedagogical suggestions for addressing ethical issues in communication courses.