Community Arts and Teacher Candidates: A Study in Civic Engagement

Abstract

Within an afterschool community arts program for underserved children, teacher candidates tested prescribed teaching methods, experimented with teaching styles, and worked cooperatively with peers and faculty to enhance the children’s creativity and sense of accomplishment. Students connected theoretical classroom knowledge to real-world experience, increasing their awareness of the social aspect of teaching and leading them to question traditional classroom practices. A qualitative action research study determined that the volunteer service-learning project promoted a pedagogy of collaboration in which teacher candidates valued underserved children holistically within an atmosphere that defined them beyond grades, discipline, and bell schedules. The culturally relevant service-learning educational model provided an alternative to traditional, hierarchical, competitive learning and stressed the cooperative nature of learning and the responsibility that the group had for each other.