Critical Reflection #1: What is Service Learning?
Initially, when learning about service-learning courses, I believed it was meant to allow students to “volunteer” and “help” within the community. Through three service-learning courses, I’ve know learned through experience that the theory is incorrect and does not represent the program. Service-learning is learning that we gather through service in the community. It allows students to learn through real experience outside of a classroom, then reflecting in the course with other students with different experiences. This semester, I have decided to work with the Spahr Center in San Rafael. The Spahr Center works with LGBTQ+ communities and low income in Marin, providing resources such as STI testing, safe sex information and materials, and syringe exchange. I chose to work with them this semester for the lack of experience I have with these communities, taking advantage of the opportunity to learn more about different communities and people. I previously served at Ritter Center working with homeless and low-income families, individually having conversations with clients. In addition, I served at Senior Access senior day club, working with seniors with dementia. I feel that I have gained so much knowledge and have grown overall as a person.
In past courses, root causes were emphasized through the learning material. Not only was it to be engaged within our community, but to understand the “why” behind all that had been and is occurring within our communities. A large focus was on marginalized communities within the Marin community. Marginalization is a major root cause, we were able to break the information down and learn and reflect as much as possible. For example, I was very fond of a Service-Learning Liberation theology course I had taken my freshman year at the Dominican University of California. In this course, we needed to learn the root causes before being able to move forward in action. Looking at past members of society such as Oscar Romero, working alongside the poor and underrepresented. Our country has countless areas of attention, Marin is where we have our main focus but are open to exploring other locations. Marginalization across communities in Marin is a large issue needing attention.
As supported in the text these courses are meant to push one to dig deeper than just the surface, look into the whys and hows. Once gathering all the information one can learn, we move towards action. The text shares that there is sometimes miscommunication in the term critical, for our class purposes we use critical in terms such as critical theory, where it is “a scholarly approach that analyses social conditions within their historical, cultural and ideological context”(23). These courses cause us to practice theories, reflection and more, striving for mastery, requiring time and experience. The text shares the importance of theory, sharing the role it takes in society. The text shares “two theoretical frameworks will result in very different ways of making sence of, and responding to, the problem”(28). Theories and their roles determine the way others feel about societal issues and expectations. This later effects the way and timing for change.
