Challenging Privileged College Students' Othering Language in Community Service Learning

Abstract

In a previous article for the “Engagement on Campus” column in the Journal of College and Character, the authors described the weaker sense of community experienced by students of color and students from low-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds in a university-based community service learning program, as well as how students from these identity groups described and understood their experiences within the program (Novick, Seider, & Huguley, 2011). In this article, the authors turn to qualitative interviews with participating students from this same community service learning program who identified as White and/or affluent. The descriptions by these students of conversations within the program about race and class offer further insight into the dynamics that contribute to a discrepant sense of community in courses or programs involving community service learning.