COVID-19 has pervaded all aspects of higher education. Instructors are scrambling to ensure students meet predetermined learning outcomes through online communication and teaching. Students are trying to learn, collaborate, and communicate in new ways with fellow classmates and instructors. As `traditional´ service-learning activities shift to accommodate physical distancing measures and remote learning, and students wrestle with the seismic shifts in their socio-political, economic, and cultural lives, critical reflection is now more important than ever. In this article, we draw on their collective experiences to discuss the importance of establishing an open, honest, and trustworthy environment for students to thoughtfully and productively engage in domestic curricular service-learning endeavours. Specifically, we examine the challenges of facilitating service-learning reflection activities for a fourth-year undergraduate media studies course at Western University (Western), a large, research-intensive publicly funded institution in Canada. The article concludes by offering some key recommendations for how instructors can effectively engage students in critical reflection via online platforms.
This article explores the relationship between two significant developments in higher education – the rise of mental health crises on our campuses and the growth in domestic service-learning (SL). Informed by interviews conducted in 2019 and 2020 with Canadian faculty, staff, students, and community partners, the authors examine a range of SL experiences that may positively or negatively impact students’ mental health. Drawing on the framework of “critical hope” (Grain & Lund, 2018), a realistic optimism about the transformative power of SL for both students and attendant communities, the discussion explores how some students feel empowered by working with a community partner for the betterment of society, while others may feel disheartened by the inequity and injustice they encounter. The article concludes with recommendations for how SL programs around the world can proactively promote and protect students’ mental health, actions that will become increasingly important given the current global pandemic.
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