Service-Learning and Social Justice: Manifestations and Challenges in an Elementary Classroom

Service-learning and social justice education are often viewed as separate pedagogical and curricular approaches within elementary education. Yet, when the boundaries between these two discourses are blurred, a powerful new framework for teaching and learning emerges. In this paper, the author explores and builds upon recent scholarship conceptualizing "critical" or "justice-oriented" service-learning and articulate the possibilities and challenges for such work with young students. Utilizing action research methodology within her own third grade classroom, the author explores three central themes of justice-oriented service-learning: questioning social order and injustice, empowering student action and service, and valuing reflection as a means for authentic learning. The author also examines the challenges teachers face when incorporating justice-oriented service-learning into the elementary classroom, including the demands of No Child Left Behind and struggles with parents, colleagues, and students. This chapter adds to and informs a growing body of research on elementary school service learning by sharing one image of the possibilities and limitations of justice-oriented service-learning with young students.