Project proposal

For my senior project I plan to document the process of designing and implementing a service learning course. Research will include pedagogic theory and will be applied using the course as a laboratory. This project will serve as a capstone to my prior research on learning communities and pedagogy and will also serve as a ‘student teaching’ opportunity.

In line with my concentration, Pedagogy for Social Change, the course will introduce students to an environmental issue, mountaintop removal (MTR), and will subsequently focus on methods of addressing the environmental and human rights issues latent within MTR. Furthermore, the course will have the broader objective of activating students to become agents of their own learning, confident in their ability to construct knowledge and be influential members of communities.

As mentioned, this course will be a laboratory where various pedagogic theories and methodologies will be tested. Most, if not all, of this praxis will draw from concepts such as radical pedagogy and critical pedagogy.

In addition to a theoretical framework and analysis of pedagogic praxis, a journal will be kept to document how these concepts faired in the classroom along with reflections on why things worked out the way they did. These journals will follow the model of: What were the objectives for the class?, What happened? What can I learn from the success/failures of the class?

Upon completion of the course, a final reflection will be made where the entire project will be assessed and recommendations will be made to others who may embark on a similar journey.