Community-Based Service-Learning for Youth Empowerment in Palestine

Abstract

Palestinian youth face developmental, cultural, and political barriers that impede them from fully engaging in civic life. Non-traditional, youth-centered pedagogies of engagement, like community-based service-learning (CBSL), have shown promise to motivate marginalized populations and provide space and roles for them to form individual identities while developing civic skills. Using data collected through focus group interviews, this paper reports how West Bank youth who participated in a non-governmental organization's CBSL leadership program were impacted.

Key words:

• character education
• citizenship
• civic engagement
• community-based learning
• empowerment
• international and comparative education
• Palestine
• service-learning