This paper reports the findings of a case study on a critical approach to designing and organizing service-learning (S-L) programs with university students in Hong Kong. It discusses how this approach contributes substantially by rethinking the meaning of S-L and supporting students in using their service experience to address community needs. A community bridging program adopting the methodology of social design serves as a case to examine how the course instructor, practitioners, and students work together to co-construct alternative practices in S-L in Hong Kong. The findings indicate that both practitioners and students tended to hold positive attitudes toward critical S-L but also encountered various difficulties and challenges in actualization. This may be due to the insufficiency of community resources available to students to empower service users and community members in the local context. Moreover, the findings demonstrated how an egalitarian working relationship between the course instructor and students and the active roles played by students in the design and implementation of S-L programs facilitated the co-creation of the instructor’s and students’ identities as collaborators. All these helped students generate knowledge from their own reflections and experiences, seek both personal and social changes in their modes of practice, and construct alternative discourses that focus on students’ meaning-making, experiential knowledge, and mutual support via S-L. A deep analysis of these findings can give directions for educators to reconceptualize S-L as co-construction, reflexive, and empowerment practices, as well as to reconsider the directions of S-L.

Authors:
Siu Ming To, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Siu Ming To is an Associate Professor at the Department of Social Work, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). His research interest is in youth empowerment. He was the Director of the Service-Learning Centre of Chung Chi College, CUHK.

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Siu-Ming-To

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