Service Learning for Social Justice
In June of 2006, I
was part of a group of twenty faculty members representing various disciplines
from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN who traveled to Namibia,
Africa. We were there for approximately two weeks and our purpose was to
study social justice issues in the country and, hopefully, to use these
new experiences to enhance the teaching and learning experience within
our profession.
Social justice is a broad, somewhat vague term and therefore it can mean
different things to different people, depending on interests or the issues
at hand. Most would agree that social justice is about the process of
treating all people in a society equally and fairly and that people who
have power and privilege are willing to sacrifice and help make society
more equitable.
1 This includes all areas
of society where there is a hierarchy and some people have more (respect,
dignity, food, etc.) than others.
Specifically, we were to study social injustice in Namibia and
then use what we learned to incorporate a service learning assignment for
our students into one of our own courses at Gustavus. Because my interests
lie in physical education pedagogy, especially related to gender issues,
I really wanted to gain a better understanding of what physical education
and sport are like in Namibia.
While our group had monthly meetings for approximately
six months prior to our departure where we discussed various readings and
had speakers, traveling to Africa was new for most of us and we eagerly
awaited the end of the school year and beginning of our adventure.
