Critical Reflection 1 — Our Role
What is our role in the community? Is it enough to be an observer or supporter? Or is it time we take action and make the conscious decision to purposefully seek out the imperfections that could be improved, and actively strive to correct them? Unlike traditional education in which an instructor provides a lecture for students to listen and take information from, service-learning is an alternative style of learning in which the student is exposed to different experiences, such as community-based service and critical reflection, to better understand societal issues, pressing academic curriculum, and their role in the community. Such programs are more than just “helping” people. With a goal to advance education and social justice, students are expected to collaborate with shared resources and support to better themselves and the community in which they serve.
“The service-learning program provides training, resources and support for faculty, students and community partners. We strive to foster intentional, collaborative, learning relationships with and between all stakeholders and to support the broader University -wide culture of community engagement that contributes to student success and prepares students to be engaged citizens in the global society” (Dominican University, Service-Learning).
This semester, I will be working with the Spahr Center — syringe access program. Operating in Marin County for almost thirty years now, the Spahr Center provides a safe space for health-related services and prevention/education for those affected by HIV/AIDS. In addition to offering a place to properly dispose of and receive safe injection supplies, their sites encourage community members to “learn about overdose prevention and receive Narcan kits, have rapid HIV and HCV testing, and receive referrals into treatment via a “tele med” screen to begin medically assisted treatment” (Givepulse statement). As a service-learner, it will be my responsibility to encourage this nonjudgmental and supportive environment. It is expected of us to maintain the positive regard and respect the program holds for others while also recognizing the dangers inherent in illicit drug use and acting appropriately to minimize the harmful effects.
While I’ve taken multiple service-learning courses and community partnerships over the past three years, this will be my first community partner experience with a health-related partnership. Up until now, I’ve mostly engaged with the younger students in my community, mostly as an academic tutor. Now that I have the opportunity to learn from a health clinic specializing in an area that I am just beginning to learn about, I look forward to being able to corporate the fresh information I learn from my nursing major lectures with the experiences offered by my community action and social change minor.
As we work throughout the semester, we need to understand key concepts to get the most out of our service-learning experience. In our assigned reading, Is Everyone Really Equal? An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education, authors Özlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo discuss the meaning of critical social justice and what we must do to truly understand it. To best engage with our course material, we need to understand the theory and thinking that comes with critical service-learning. Critical social justice is described as “recognizing inequality as deeply embedded in the fabric of society (i.e., as structural), and actively seeks to change this” (Sensoy & DiAngelo, 2017, p. xx). We will practice this first step through engagement with our community partners. It’s one thing to read about and discuss pivotal issues in class, but another to change perspectives to see and hear from first-hand account.
The next steps in critical social change come hand-in-hand. We use critical theory to “analyze social conditions within their historical, cultural, and ideological contexts” (Sensoy & DiAngelo, 2017, p. 23), and use our basic understanding to think critically about what we have learned and what direction we should then follow. From there, we use critical thinking to constantly seek our more information and expand our mindset. “Thus, thinking critically not only requires constantly seeking out new knowledge, but also understanding the historical and cultural context in which knowledge is produced, validated, and circulated” (Sensoy & DiAngelo, 2017, p. 24). These processes are intended to be an ongoing process of study and practice. Therefore, in order to study society for the better, it is necessary to move past simple opinions, first taking the time and effort to understand and identify the factors leading up to the problem, and solutions to come. In our complex, layered, and divergent society, it is our role as community members to be fully aware of our past and present if we wish to change our future.
