SERVICE-LEARNING IN AN EDUCATOR PREPARATION PROGRAM: IMPACT ON PRE-SERVICE EDUCATORS’ EPISTEMOLOGICAL BELIEFS ABOUT DIFFERENCE AND DIVERSITY

Purpose of the Study:
Personal epistemology, an individual’s beliefs about knowledge and knowing, relates to learning, perceptions, and metacognition in complex ways. These beliefs are both generalized and differentiated, and they influence the way in which students interpret learning and instructional practices epistemologically. The study explored students' course-embedded service-learning experiences, and investigated the impact of the service-learning project as it related to prospective teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about difference and diversity.

Background:
Given that prospective educators will develop their careers within more and more diverse classrooms and within the context of complex global social issues, it is important to examine the mechanisms that may influence educators’ perspectives and epistemological beliefs in transformative and productive ways. In the most economically disadvantaged county in the United States, the course embedded service-learning project in this study placed undergraduate educator preparation program students in tutoring roles in local after school academic support settings where there is high need and sparse resources for under-served, marginalized communities with children and adults living in poverty. This study revealed evidence that informs teacher educators how service-learning impacts beliefs, attitudes and perspectives about difference and diversity in powerful ways. Findings suggest that such a service-learning experience may facilitate future educators’ sense of self-efficacy, agency, and provide a transformative understanding of complex social justice issues.

Research Question:
In an educator preparation program foundational educational psychology course, how does a course-embedded service-learning experience affect prospective teachers’ epistemological beliefs, attitudes and perceptions of difference and diversity?

Methods:
Using an ethnographic approach, data were collected from multiple sources including participant observation field notes, instructional artifacts such as the syllabus and the service-learning assignment rubric, student journal entries during the project, student emails to the professor related to the project, and the students’ culminating reflective narratives. Qualitative data analysis included narrative analysis and an iterative process of thematic open coding. In the context of the students’ transition to the educator preparation program, a close examination of the students’ reflections offered meaningful insights into the mechanisms that may prompt personal epistemology development.