From Charity to Solidarity: A Model for Shifting Service Learning in Engineering

Abstract

Service learning in engineering has been criticized on the basis that it often reproduces colonial and globalist tendencies that ultimately undermine already-marginalized communities. A major problem with sending engineering students into communities of which they are not members is that student learning often takes precedence over project outcomes, and community partners suffer as a result. The motivation for developing this course was to alleviate this problematic aspect of service learning. A curriculum was designed with the goal that students would see themselves in solidarity with, instead of separate from or better than, struggles in their home or campus communities.