Stepping Up and Out: Strategies for Promoting Feminist Activism within Community Service-Learning

Abstract

© 2015 by the board of trustees of the university of ill inois Too often, the thought of wishing our students could step into our teaching shoes tends to cross our minds only when we feel particularly underappreciated or misunderstood. During an especially exasperating moment, we might reason that if students could only grasp the sheer amount of information, logistics, and patience that we balance every day, they would actually recognize the value of our instruction. Ironically, however, the authoritarian nature of traditional pedagogy is frequently what prevents this sensitivity from forming. Distanced from one another by the conventional power dynamics between student and professor, there is little opportunity for students to recognize the full scope of what teaching entails. While the result for us can be frustration, for students, the lack of active participation in their learning can lead to more significant disadvantages in their intellectual preparation. Teaching, as we know, allows one to “try out” what one has learned and articulate that knowledge to others. It builds skills. Without having their own turn at it, students can leave the classroom—and eventually the university—without a clear direction of how to perform their educations. In turn, this can prove detrimental to the job-seeking graduate, and it can further undo the very premise of our instruction. In particular, for those of us who identify as feminist instructors and see teaching as a conduit to promoting social justice, ensuring that students can “do” what they have learned seems essential. Indeed, rather than simply wanting students to take a spin at teaching so they can better relate to us, the real solution may lie in expanding such a fitful wish for gratitude into an overall teaching philosophy. In other words, pressing for a more reciprocal teaching environment in the classroom might not only garner us our students’ empathy more often, it could also pave the way for the greater social change we seek. Reciprocal collaboration, however, requires finding more opportunities than those typically offered in a traditional classroom setting. Even within feminist studies, where students’ participation in their individual educations has long been a central tenet of curricula, exercises that emphasize sharing what students have learned are frequently confined to campus or classroom activities. special issue, “feminist campus-community partnerships: intersections and interruptions”