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Approaching Critical: Tool Kit for Moving Toward Critical Service-Learning: Reflection Prompts & Individual Reflections

The Indiana Campus Compact Faculty Fellow 2016-2017 Cohort have created this toolkit to help guide practitioners and researchers as they move from traditional forms of service learning to more critical perspectives.

Reflection Prompt Set 1

Provided at the onset of the project.

Source: Great Lakes Equality Center. (2006, March). Equity dispatch: Becoming an equity-oriented educator through critical self-reflection. Retrieved from LINK.

  1. What are my multiple cultural identities and how do they inform and/or effect my practice?
  2. How do I create a physically, intellectually, socio-emotionally, and culturally safe and inclusive learning community?
  3. How will I acquire accurate information about the cultural histories and community practice of my students? (Paris & Alim, 2014)
  4. How will I acquire accurate information about the cultural histories and community practice of my community partner and/or target community?

Reflection Prompt Set 2

Provided after initial exploration of critical service learning and project directions, but prior to taking assessment scales.

Source: Indiana Campus Compact (2016, October).

Please reflect on the process and topic(s) explored thus far.

  1. How are you feeling about / what are your thoughts on the process we have taken thus far – researching critical theories, critical service-learning, critical reflection?
  2. How are you feeling about / what are your thoughts on the intersection of/between critical theory and critical service-learning? How does critical reflection fit in? Does it fit? If so where? If not why not?
  3. What is your current knowledge level of critical theory, critical service-learning, critical reflection? Has it changed? If so how has it changed?? How do you feel about your current level of knowledge?
  4. If you were not part of this learning community and were trying to work through this on your own, how would this experience potentially be different? Better? Worse? Would you keep going? Why/Why not?
  5. Any other thoughts….