Community Service Learning: Pedagogy at the Interface of Poverty, Inequality and Privilege

abstract

Using empirical data from three different community service learning (CSL) courses offered at a South African university, in this paper we discuss the promises and pitfalls of this pedagogy for meaningful change within communities. The paper makes visible the challenging contradictions of CSL as a practice seeking to promote social change and CSL as a form of charity or paternalism. Drawing on in-depth qualitative data collected from interviews with lecturers, focus groups with students involved in CSL and interviews and focus groups with community members who participated in CSL, we examine the interface between poverty, inequality and privilege that occurs when universities and poor communities endeavour to partner. We argue that CSL ought to promote social change through fostering a sense of agency, empowerment, sustainability and capabilities formation amongst students and within communities. However, when CSL course design (and resultant implementation) does not sufficiently take account of the complex relations of power and privilege, particularly in the context of extreme poverty in communities, CSL practice risks undermining the social transformation that it seeks to foster. We draw on the work of Davis and Wells [2016. “Transformation without Paternalism.” Journal of Human Development and Capabilities. doi:10.1080/19452829.2016.1145198] to propose procedural principles for democratic CSL design and implementation.

Keywords:

• Community service learning
• Social justice
• Paternalism
• South Africa
• Inequality
• Poverty

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the anonymous peer reviewers for their detailed and constructive comments which, we believe, have significantly contributed to the final quality of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

About the Authors

Ntimi Mtawa is a Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Research on Higher Education and Development (CHRED) at the University of the Free State, South Africa. His work is focused on higher education and society with particular emphasis on university-community engagement and service-learning. His work explores how universities can and/or are contributing to advancement of social justice, citizenship and public good professional.

Merridy Wilson-Strydom is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research on Higher Education and Development (CRHED) at the University of the Free State, South Africa. Her work is focused on higher education and social justice, with a particular emphasis on access and equity at the undergraduate level, explored using mixed methodologies, including fine-grained student life narratives and participatory visual research.

Notes

1 Pap is a traditional stable porridge made from maize meal.

Additional information

Funding

This research was made possible due to the funding provided by the South African National Research Foundation Research Chairs Initiative [Grant number U86540].