Service learning as charity/social advocacy

摘要

There is a division of thought in the emerging celebration of service learning within agricultural education programs. According to the article entitled "Partnering for Service or Development" in the September 1999 FFA Advisors Making A Difference newsletter, the division emerges between that kind of service learning that provides direct, charitable services to the needy in our communities (e.g., planting flowers around town, repairing the park equipment at the elementary school or picking up trashalong the side of the road), and that kind of service learning that engages students in social advocacy. Most service learning activities nationwide are of the former sort. In fact, "social advocacy" service learning has been widely discredited across the academy, due to its potential to "politicize" education (Lisman 1998). Discrediting social advocacy service learning seems strange, however, when one considers the claims service-learning proponents often make regarding the socially beneficial resultsof participating in service learning.