Second language education and service-learning: Disrupting discourses of disempowerment

Abstract

In this chapter, we extend our previous work and research at the intersection of language education and service-learning to analyze the institutional discourses that describe community-based service-learning (CBSL) partnerships. Employing multimodal discourse analytical tools, we document how three texts produced at different points in time and disseminated through different media contribute to an overall narrative that favorably weighs the contributions of university actors in relation to community partners. Our findings highlight the ways in which the language of service-learning and community-based learning can be problematic in achieving desired reciprocity. A major implication of these findings entails developing an alternative vocabulary and discourse through which university students, administrators, program coordinators, community partners, and faculty describe their community involvement forming conscious strategies for ethical practice; in the conclusion of this chapter, we demonstrate a way forward.