Date of Award
Spring 2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Higher Education Policy and Student Affairs
Committee Chairperson
Orkideh Mohajeri, Ph.D.
Committee Member
James Tweedy, Ed.D.
Committee Member
Nicole Barkley, J.D.
Committee Member
Jacqueline Hodes, Ed.D.
Abstract
This thesis critiques traditional service-learning from a neoliberal perspective. More specifically, I address how whiteness and competitiveness insert themselves into traditional service-learning in colleges and universities revealing their connection to neoliberalism. This Critical Action Research thesis explores reaching Transformational Service through models and theories of moral reasoning, feminist ethics pedagogy, and critical consciousness. In this thesis I propose a Social Change and Awareness Pilot Program for fourth-year students, which will impel them to understand and target their passions of social justice and dispel toxic traditional-service-learning ideologies. Solid leadership of this program would involve long-term collaboration and effective communication with communities, critical thinking, reflection, and moral reasoning. I propose an evaluation that focuses on pre-surveys, post-surveys, and narratives. This topic and intervention are significant because traditional service-learning has negatively warped volunteerism within the college environment by upholding whiteness, while imposing neoliberal values on students. Service remains a valuable arena for individual development during the undergraduate years, but it needs to be re-evaluated to match up with underlying structural social justice issues and to meet the needs of communities.
Recommended Citation
Demcher, Abigail, "Severing Ties with Traditional Service-Learning in a Neoliberal Society: Implementing Transformational Service through Moral Reasoning, Feminist Ethics Pedagogy, and Critical Consciousness" (2021). West Chester University Master’s Theses. 198.
https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/all_theses/198