The Banneker History Project was a service learning project in which students investigated the history of the Benjamin Banneker School, a segregated school that operated from 1915?1951 in a Midwestern college community. This article discusses the research these students conducted and the perceptions they adopted as a result of their work.

Explores the understandings developed by 65 preservice elementary and secondary school teachers from an experience in community service learning for multicultural teacher education. Findings suggest that community service learning for teachers should include more opportunities for reflection and more critical concern for inequity. (SLD)

A field experience involving community service learning was linked to multicultural education for preservice teachers. Results suggest that community service learning motivated, engaged, and gratified community leaders, tapping into local community associations. The spirit of shared control recognized the strength of a pluralistic…

This qualitative, interpretive case study used ethnographic techniques to explore preservice teachers' experience of service learning in a multicultural education course. Three roles and perspectives related to multicultural learning are described and analyzed: playing it safe, teacher/helper, and companionship. The study concluded that preservice…

The influence of philosophic perspectives on interpretations of service learning is examined in this paper. Suggestions for a philosophical framework for service learning, relating philosophic orientations to aims for multicultural education and to perspectives commonly held among preservice teachers are given. Considers the implications of this…

Preservice teachers' constructions of meaning within a multicultural education course are explored in this study. The study considers whether prior expectations have an impact on service learning, what meanings preservice teachers make from service learning, and whether reflection has an influence on meaning making. This interpretive case study…

Presently, service learning is utilized as a tool for learning about something other than service, such as: gaining civic dispositions, learning subject matter, practicing inquiry techniques, or questioning inequality. What might happen if, instead, an exploration of service itself grounded classroom studies and field work, fostering explicit…

A qualitative, interpretive case study utilized ethnographic techniques to discover what happens, and what preservice teachers think about what happens, within a credited community service learning component for a multicultural education course. Subjects were 24 preservice teachers studied as one case. Three roles and perspectives that emerged…

In this article, I argue that the social studies methods course is an appropriate place to practice and reflect upon doing democracy. I review the literature on kinds of citizens the methods course might support. I consider pre-service teachers' prior and present experiences with doing democracy. I pose a framework for doing democracy centered on…

Teacher preparation for multicultural education centers around learning about cultural diversity, examining relations of power and inequality, and responding affirmatively to sociocultural differences in schools and classrooms. This paper suggests that community-based service learning is an important part of this process. The document explains…

The Banneker History Project (BHP) reconstructed the history of a local, segregated school. The Benjamin Banneker School served African American youth from 1915 to 1951. Oral histories from surviving alumni as well as primary documents from the times were sought. This article focuses on ways that one group of participants, 24 preservice teachers…

This book explains the complex interplay of service learning, multicultural education, and teacher preparation. It shows how the author collaborated with community partners and preservice teachers to jointly construct the service learning supplement to a multicultural education course, from the bottom up. The seven chapters are: (1) "A Sense of…

We describe what happens in a justice-oriented, service learning course and field experience and what university participants thought about it. Based on this examination, we consider promises and problems for service learning for social justice, and we suggest next steps for this kind of work. In this article, we consider one Alternative Spring…

Creates a topology of preservice teachers' responses to community-based service learning within several courses, investigating meanings they made from their community experiences. Data came from interviews and student essays and papers. The article considers the potential value of community- based service learning as an aspect of multicultural…