Student Voice in the Elementary Years: Fostering Youth-Adult Partnerships in Elementary Service-Learning

Abstract

Service-learning is promoted widely by professional organizations (NCSS, 2001), but often with little reflection on the nature of meaningful student participation and the impact of teacher leadership styles. The authors studied mixed-age “small school” advisory groups involved in service-learning at one elementary school; observational, interview, and focus group data were collected. They present three case studies that represent various leadership typologies of elementary service-learning: The Catalyst, The Synthesizer, and The Commander. The authors then map these leaders' priorities onto a Youth Adult Partnership (YAP) continuum to suggest how student voice, a common component of successful service-learning, might occur in the elementary years.

KEYWORDS:

• service-learning
• elementary school
• student voice
• youth-adult partnership
• civic engagement
• youth participation