%0 Journal Article
%T Moving Into Communities: Developing Cultural Competence with Pre-service Educators through Community Service-Learning Experiences
%A Heather Coffey
%J Partnerships : A Journal of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement
%D 2012
%I University of North Carolina at Greensboro
%R 10.7253/partj.v0i0.439
%X Research in teacher education suggests that field experiences in community settings can offer pre-service teachers a context for understanding the link between theory and practice. This paper documents the experiences of pre-service educators who participated in service-learning partnerships for thirty hours in multiple community settings in the southeast United States. Pre-service teachers not only volunteered in the community, but they also engaged in critically reflective journal writing and participated in evaluative class discussions. Students praised the benefits of a service experience in both school and community placements and discussed how interactions with the community agencies gave them the insight into how community organizations often play a significant role in the lives of the underserved students they will eventually teach. The author argues that the inclusion of a service-learning component in early pre-service teacher education field experiences has the potential to facilitate the examination of the relationships between community organizations and schools and encourage development of cultural competence among pre-service teachers.   KEYWORDS service-learning, pre-service teacher preparation, community partnerships
%U https://libjournal.uncg.edu/index.php/prt/article/view/439