Developing an Ethic of Tension: Negotiating Service Learning and Critical Pedagogy Ethical Tensions

In this paper, the author uses critical pedagogy to examine the ethical tensions within service learning curriculum. Specifically, he conducts a case study, analyzing the course materials for an upper division class titled "Refugee Health and Development," which was offered at a large public university in the Southwestern United States. The author articulates four ethical tensions: a) the allowance of different points of view vs. supervision, b) concentration on cultural others vs. self-reflection, c) completion of preparation vs. community education, and d) "skills" development vs. perspectival growth. Through this examination of the ethical tensions emergent in service learning curriculum, the author articulates an ethic of tension, in which each ethical dialectic cannot be resolved by simply applying deontological or teleological reasoning, but must constantly be negotiated in tension.