Potential of Service-Learning to Promote Sustainability Competencies in Pre-service Teachers: A Case Study

Source: Teaching Education, Volume 26, Issue 4, 2015, Pages 341-365

This study investigates the potential of service-learning to develop a situated, embodied and critically reflective human agency for sustainability.
It employs document analysis to review the intended curriculum and the institutional contexts of national and international cases wherein service-learning is a component of pre-service teacher education.

Exploration of intended learning outcomes and project and assessment experiences across three cases reveal the potential of service-learning to develop in pre-service teachers sustainability competencies involving participative action with community partners to achieve agreed-upon outcomes.
Furthermore, the findings reveal the potential of service-learning to develop in pre-service teachers critically reflective capacities and understanding of how, in their future classrooms, schools and communities, they can serve as adaptive, lifelong learners and agents for social and environmental change.
Findings also suggest that explicitly linking service-learning activities, guided by social justice and equity principles, with a (social) sustainability agenda may further validate the utilisation of and investment in service-learning and civic engagement in teacher and higher education settings.