A Place to Begin: Service-Learning Tutor Education and Writing Center Social Justice

Abstract

[This essay shares the results of an assessment of a writing center community partnership that suggests the efficacy of service-learning tutor education for social justice. Descriptive coding of reflection essays from three semesters of the tutor education course revealed four themes: first, an increased capacity for connection and identification; second, a recognition of reciprocal, mutual learning; third, the development of civic identity; and, fourth, the prospect of transfer, as tutors articulate explicitly how their service-learning experiences significantly alter their daily practice of tutoring in the writing center. The study suggests that this model of service-learning tutor education is transformative in the way that Nancy Barron & Nancy Grimm posit: multi-directionally, and both within and beyond institutional bounds. Because it facilitates intellectual, social, and civic engagement, service-learning tutor education enables tutors to develop cross-racial and cross-social class affiliations and empowers our service-learning partners, Baltimore city high school students, to claim their rights to educational opportunities and situates them as partners with the tutors.]