'Like a Slap in the Face, but a Good One': A Service-Learning Project and a College Student's Agency and Vulnerability in an After-School Fifth-Grade Writing Club
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| Title: | 'Like a Slap in the Face, but a Good One': A Service-Learning Project and a College Student's Agency and Vulnerability in an After-School Fifth-Grade Writing Club |
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| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Laurie MacGillivray, Bryan Walker, Sarah Burson Langley, Kimberly Owens-Pearson, Wideline Seraphin, Jasmine Worthen |
| Source: | Journal of Service-Learning in Higher Education. 2025 20:52-72. |
| Availability: | University of Louisiana System. 1201 North Third Street Suite 7-300. Baton Rouge, LA 70802. Tel: 337-482-1015; Fax: 337-482-5374; e-mail: service@louisiana.edu; Web site: http://journals.sfu.ca/jslhe/index.php/jslhe |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 21 |
| Publication Date: | 2025 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Research |
| Education Level: | Higher Education Postsecondary Education Elementary Education Grade 5 Intermediate Grades Middle Schools |
| Descriptors: | Service Learning, Elementary School Students, Grade 5, College School Cooperation, Writing (Composition), Clubs, Undergraduate Students, African American Students, After School Programs, Self Concept, Racism, Student Attitudes |
| ISSN: | 2162-6685 |
| Abstract: | This study focuses on a pivotal discursive interaction with a university instructor and "Roseanna," an undergraduate situated as a writing mentor in a service-learning course centered around an after-school writing club with Black fifth graders. Course instructors sought to humanize pedagogical practices by establishing an asset-based writing club. University students and instructors regularly reflected on their interactions with fifth graders to explore how unconscious assumptions can impede one's ability to affirm children's writing identities. The guiding question is, "How did an undergraduate writing mentor in a service-learning literacy course negotiate the positions made available by instructors in an asset-based after-school writing club?" We grounded our investigation in positioning theory (McVee et al., 2018) and mutual vulnerability (Brantmeier, 2013) to analyze Roseanna's discourse in relation to her social identities and privilege. Our findings capture how a dialogic exchange was pivotal to her ability to reflect and act from a more humanizing and asset-based position with children in the writing club. Next steps include moving students toward a deeper understanding of systemic racism. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2025 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1480895 |
| Database: | ERIC |
| Abstract: | This study focuses on a pivotal discursive interaction with a university instructor and "Roseanna," an undergraduate situated as a writing mentor in a service-learning course centered around an after-school writing club with Black fifth graders. Course instructors sought to humanize pedagogical practices by establishing an asset-based writing club. University students and instructors regularly reflected on their interactions with fifth graders to explore how unconscious assumptions can impede one's ability to affirm children's writing identities. The guiding question is, "How did an undergraduate writing mentor in a service-learning literacy course negotiate the positions made available by instructors in an asset-based after-school writing club?" We grounded our investigation in positioning theory (McVee et al., 2018) and mutual vulnerability (Brantmeier, 2013) to analyze Roseanna's discourse in relation to her social identities and privilege. Our findings capture how a dialogic exchange was pivotal to her ability to reflect and act from a more humanizing and asset-based position with children in the writing club. Next steps include moving students toward a deeper understanding of systemic racism. |
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| ISSN: | 2162-6685 |
