Ethnic Studies as a Site for Political Education: Critical Service Learning and the California Domestic Worker Bill of Rights

Abstract

Service learning in political science is driven by a commitment to expanding what is meant by civic education. Following this tradition, this article presents an example of a course informed by critical service learning centered in a grassroots social movement. Partnered with the California Domestic Workers Coalition and the National Domestic Workers Alliance, this course involved students in direct political engagement to explore cultural citizenship, the legislative process, and the possibilities and limitations of grassroots movements for social change. Challenging traditional notions of what counts as service and who counts as an expert, the example of this course speaks to the promise of service learning pedagogy as a strategy to connect students in meaningful ways to critical social issues and as a tool for political education.

Civic Engagement Scholarship: What We Can Learn from the Research

“…Instead, they should seek to develop working relationships that are mutually beneficial to the participant and the communities being served. This concept is also addressed in "Ethnic Studies as a Site for Political Education: Critical Service Learning and the California Domestic Worker Bill of Rights" by Tania Mitchell and Kathleen Coll (Mitchell and Coll 2017) which posits that a critical service learning (CSL) approachwhich approaches service learning with an explicit social justice aim -offers a departure from "traditional service learning" which risks a de-politicized exercise in which students engage in charitable endeavors which focus on the symptoms of systemic disparities rather than understanding the deeper dynamics at play. The CSL approach makes a commitment to a just and equitable society explicit in order to help students experience the transformative potential of active political engagement.…”

Responsibility and Co-Responsibility in Light of COVID-19 and Education for Sustainability through an Aristotelian Lens

“…Aligning service learning with social justice can lead to students examining their political agency and their justice-oriented commitments (Mitchell & Coll, 2017). Learner engagement in experiential communitybased learning projects emphasizes personal and community awareness as well as the value of giving and sharing.…”

Leadership Educator as Social Justice Educator

“…For example: Janitors teaching their fellow union members how to have effective 1:1s by telling their stories, listening, and agitating; Members of a bus riders union in the Deep South facilitating a workshop to illustrate the effects of institutional racism on their daily commute; or, Marginalized folx self‐publishing zines in order to share stories of oppression and liberation and to give a call to action. If leadership educators in the academy are committed to a social justice pedagogy then these are the places—these places on the margins—where we have the most to learn about our own pedagogies of leadership education. These are the spaces that will give us the opportunity to center social change, develop authentic relationships, and intentionally redistribute power (Mitchell & Coll, ).…”