Reconceptualizing Service-Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Reflections and Recommendations

Abstract

Service-learning is a pedagogy combining academic study with community service and reflection and fostering students’ deeper understanding of subject matter and capacity for critical thinking. The balance between service to community and academic learning varies; service-learning may be more “SERVICE-learning” while at other times more appropriately denoted as “service-LEARNING,” depending upon which goals are primary, with the hyphen symbolizing the process of reflection. Our school offers seven service-learning courses (including an international one), with a variety of populations, to undergraduate students from across the campus, the majority of whom are not social work majors. When the current health crisis necessitated the suspension of in-person service, instructors were tasked with redesigning courses to adapt to remote classroom learning. This chapter delineates the process of reconceptualizing four such courses: two with older adults and two with youth. The authors offer a description of the courses, including the unique strengths and vulnerabilities of the service recipients, and the process of supporting agencies to keep students’ “hearts and minds” engaged as they transitioned from “service-learning” to more of a “service-LEARNING model.” The lessons learned may be helpful to those faced with reconfiguring in-person service-based courses in a time of crisis.