Cultural Competence Development, Critical Service Learning, and Latino/a Youth Empowerment: A Qualitative Case Study

ABSTRACT

As universities create service-learning programs, educators are experimenting with pedagogical approaches that enhance learning outcomes while benefiting communities. We present a qualitative case study of a radio-based, service-learning program, grounded in a Freirean foundation and aimed at developing the cultural competence and sense of citizenship of undergraduate students while empowering working-class high school Latino/a students. Undergraduate students benefited the most from the program; they enhanced their cultural competence skills, awareness of social issues, and sense of civic responsibility. Latino/a high school students who stayed in the program for at least a year developed self-confidence, self-esteem, and a sense of self-efficacy.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescents
• community radio
• cultural competence
• diversity in education
• Latino/a
• service learning
• youth empowerment

Notes

¹ We use pseudonyms to refer to all participants.

² SPU’s Academic Affairs Institutional Review Board exempted our application for review, but Author A obtained oral consent from the students at the end of the semester to use their papers for research and promised confidentiality.

³ Usually, service-learning programs create a collaboration between an academic institution and a community, often through nongovernmental organizations, K–12 schools, or government agencies.

⁴ “Ambiguous loss” refers to a concept introduced by Pauline Boss (1999) to talk about losses that, as opposed to complete losses such as a death in the family, are ambiguous. Examples include missing children, patients with Alzheimer disease, and migration loss.

⁵ It is well documented that for a variety of reasons, most working-class Latino/a parents do not participate in school and afterschool programs.