Rhetorical Analysis

Julier, Livingston, and Goldblatt argue that service-learning has the potential to engage students with their community while developing rhetorical efficacy and critical thinking skills. This pedagogy embraces Dewey’s hands-on approach while connecting with Freire and bell books’ student-centered approach towards writing. Macrorie and Elbow connect the power of truth telling (own personal feelings) to “a sense of honesty and truth in the world they know,” which promotes “the desire to connect personal commitments to social and political realities (56). Julier defines community-pedagogy as “experimental learning grounded in the understanding of writing as a situated social act” and in this pedagogy “students work in relationship with a community

She states that the relationship between action and reflection (“reflective learning”) are crucial to this pedagogy. She stresses that “significant planning and communication” should be practiced throughout the service-learning experience (63). The types of writing assignments for this type of course are endless and include newsletters, blogs, and other media outlets. Additionally, students will become “working writers” learning to communicate and negotiate with the public, which prepares them for their professional future (65). The effectiveness of service-learning for the student and the community can be difficult to measure, but Julier suggests that the outcome can be contingent upon the relationship between the learner, teacher, and the community partner. Goldbaltt states that “power relations, historical oppression, and the role of the dominant culture” are factors that a teacher needs to consider before participating in a program promoting social change (69). To insure a mutual benefit, instructors should communicate with their community partners about the goals and outcomes they wish to establish with this partnership and insure it correlates with the goal for the students’

The value of service-learning is based on two main dimensions, which are normative and pedagogical effectiveness. The focus of this study is on the pedagogical effectiveness dimension and how service-learning provides unique experiences and situations where the students must adapt, which is the “essence of the impact or active ingredient” for learning in this format (8). Service-learning encourages students to obtain more responsibility and are given more opportunities to view education as an “evolving process” instead of an “end product” (8). Through reflection, students develop and challenge their skills of critical thinking and connects them to a common goal with the community that promotes their “affective, civic, social, and cognitive development” (8). Proponents say there are many advantages for this type of learning including: allowing students to become participants instead of passive “sponges,” and expanding the limits of the classroom to the outside world allowing students to participate in the community. Dewey and Barber advocate service learning “within the context of education” and Barber views it as a key element for “promoting liberty” (7). Critics claim the schools should concentrate on the