Teaching Environmental Literacy: Across Campus and Across the Curriculum

11 Environmental Literacy and Service-Learning: A Multi-Text Rendering

11 Environmental Literacy and Service-Learning A Multi-Text Rendering Nicole Schonemann, Andrew Libby, and Claire King Office of Service-Learning Service-learning and environmental education are natural allies. Service-learning relies on the community as a text through which the lecture, reading, discussion, and reflective experience of the learner is writ large. Similarly, environmental educators have long held the premise that there is a text among the assigned readings for a course, required alongside the books, essays, and electronic reserves itemized in the syllabus, yet never found in the library or bookstore. The text is the world, the earth, the planet, the biosphere, the environment. That there is a profound bioecological connection between physical location and the act of cognition has been well established. Equally true is the fact that learning in natural places plants seeds of commitment to that environment and o√ers students a chance to put down roots in the places where that learning happens. Such a benefit should be of compelling interest to state economies and regionalprivatesectorsthatlamentthelossofgraduatestocompetingjobmarkets out-of-state. Perhaps of greater importance is that situating service-learning in environmental contexts, a possibility in any discipline, can simultaneously ad- 136 ⭈ nicole schonemann, andrew libby, and claire king vance the key content, skills and values that help students make connections between environmental literacy and their everyday lives. As the 2000 study by Patricia Madigan, Corporation for National and Community Service Fellow, explains: ‘‘Environmental service-learning helps students connect what they learn with how they live. High quality environmental service-learning programs are able to promote student leadership and decision-making, integrate and value the community voice, foster civic stewardship, develop cross-cultural connections, and plan for the program’s sustainability.’’ As a program type, service-learning includes myriad ways that students can performmeaningfulservicetotheircommunitiesandtosocietywhileengagingin academic reflection of study that is related to the service. As a philosophy of education, service-learning reflects the belief that education must be linked to social responsibility and that the most e√ective learning is active and connected to experience in some meaningful way. (Honnet and Poulsen 1989). Because servicelearning is a form of experiential education where students perform a service that is clearly connected to the academic content of a course and meets a genuine communityneed,itisastrongmatchforenvironmentalliteracyandsustainability education. The Basics of Service-Learning Service-learning is often presented as a balanced approach (Furco 1996). In contrast to a practicum or volunteering, in service-learning the recipient and provider of the service are both intended and equal beneficiaries of the experience . Ideally, service-learning is a reciprocal relationship, a three-way partnership involving the course instructor, students, and community. This takes quite a bit of work and commitment on all parts—as each is a potential beneficiary, each also must expend e√ort in establishing and nurturing this relationship and experience . Because of the additional e√ort involved, we find instructors who adopt a service-learning approach to be among the most dedicated and committed to teaching. Community partner agencies must also realize that taking on a servicelearning class entails a good deal of work on their part. It is important that community partner agencies understand that service-learning when done well yields benefits to the agency, but as with any group, student work varies. And since the service-learning commitment extends to the limits of the academic calendar, there may be a good deal of e√ort expended on the part of the agency in preparing the students for work for which they will no longer be responsible once the academic session ends. Despite these cautions, partnerships as a result of service-learning can be a tremendous experience for students, faculty, and community alike. To assist students in making academic connections between what they are Environmental Literacy and Service-Learning ⭈ 137 learning in their course and the work they perform at their service site, reflection is built into classroom activities and assignments. Reflection is the bridge between the service and the academics, making the course an integrated service and learning experience and providing an opportunity for the practical and the theoretical to merge. Without reflection intentionally and regularly built into the course, the students might enjoy a parallel service experience but without the understanding of how this ties to the academic content of the course. Reflection can be built into class discussions, group work, journaling, online...