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This Is How We Change Things: Promoting Student Agency Through Service-Learning in First-Year Composition

by David Williams | Xchanges 19.2, Fall 2025


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Contents

Introduction

Justification

Rethinking Authority in the Classroom

Challenges

Conclusion

References

About the Author

References

Allen, H. K., Lilly, F., Green, K. M., Zanjani, F., Vincent, K. B., & Arria, A. M. (2022). Graduate Student Burnout: Substance Use, Mental Health, and the Moderating Role of Advisor Satisfaction. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 20(2), 1130–1146. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00431-9

Amnå, E. (2012). How is civic engagement developed over time? Emerging answers from a multidisciplinary field. Journal of Adolescence, 35(3), 611–627.

Asghar, M., & Rowe, N. (2017). Reciprocity and critical reflection as the key to social justice in service learning: A case study. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 54(2), 117–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2016.1273788

Brack, G. W., & Hall, L. R. (2023). Combining the classroom and the community: Service-learning in composition at Arizona State University. In L. Adler-Kassner, R. Crooks, A. Watters (Eds.), Writing the Community (pp. 143-152). Routledge.

Carlson, E. B. (2023). “Who Am I Fighting For? Who Am I Accountable To?”: Comradeship as a Frame for Nonprofit Community Work in Technical Communication. Technical Communication Quarterly, 32(2), 165–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2022.2085810

Carnicelli, S., & Boluk, K. (2017). The promotion of social justice: Service learning for transformative education. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education, 21, 126–134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhlste.2017.01.003

Carrington, S., Mercer, K. L., Iyer, R., & Selva, G. (2015). The impact of transformative learning in a critical service-learning program on teacher development: Building a foundation for inclusive teaching. Reflective Practice, 16(1), 61–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2014.969696

Caspersz, D., & Olaru, D. (2017). The value of service-learning: The student perspective. Studies in Higher Education, 42(4), 685–700. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1070818

Chong, C. S. (2014). Service-learning research: Definitional challenges and complexities. Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 15(4), 347–358.

Claims Conference. (2018). New Survey by Claims Conference Finds Significant Lack of Holocaust Knowledge in the United States. Claims Conference. https://www.claimscon.org/study/

Cushman, E. (1999). The Public Intellectual, Service Learning, and Activist Research. College English, 61(3), 328–336. https://doi.org/10.58680/ce19991123

Dorman, W., & Dorman, S. F. (2023). Service-learning: Bridging the gap between the real world and the composition classroom. In L. Adler-Kassner, R. Crooks, A. Watters (Eds.), Writing the Community (pp. 119-132). Routledge.

Duffy, J. (2014). Ethical dispositions: A discourse for rhetoric and composition. JAC, 209–237.

Everhart, R. S. (2016). Teaching Tools to Improve the Development of Empathy in Service-Learning Students. Journal of Higher Education Outreach & Engagement, 20(2), 129–154.

Freire, P. (2014). Pedagogy of the Oppressed (30th Anniversary Edition). Bloomsbury.

Giroux, H. (2024). Teachers as Intellectuals: Toward a Critical Pedagogy of Learning. Bloomsbury.

Hammersley, L. (2012). Community-Based Service-Learning: Partnerships of Reciprocal Exchange?. Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 14(3), 171–184.

Iverson, C. (2019). The Long-Term Effects of Service-Learning on Composition Students. Reflections: A Journal of Public Rhetoric, Civic Writing & Service Learning, 19(2).

Jacoby, B. (2015). Service-learning essentials: Questions, answers, and lessons learned (First edition). Jossey-Bass.

Konrath, S. H., O’Brien, E. H., & Hsing, C. (2011). Changes in dispositional empathy in American college students over time: A meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review: An Official Journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, 15(2), 180–198. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868310377395

Leon, K., Pinkert, L. A., & Taylor, K. T. (2017). Developing accounts of instructor learning: Recognizing the impacts of service-learning pedagogies on writing teachers. Composition Studies, 45(1), 39–58.

Petersen, N., & Henning, E. (2018). Service learning and the practice of social justice and care. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 28(4), 436–448. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2017.1418697

Salter, P., & Halbert, K. (2019). Balancing classroom ready with community ready: Enabling agency to engage with community through critical service learning. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 47(1), 5–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2018.1497771

Santiago-Ortiz, A. (2019). From Critical to Decolonizing Service-Learning: Limits and Possibilities of Social Justice–Based Approaches to Community Service-Learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 25(1). https://doi.org/10.3998/mjcsloa.3239521.0025.104

Shumake, J., & Shah, R. W. (2017). Reciprocity and power dynamics: Community members grading students. Reflections: A Journal of Public Rhetoric, Civic Writing & Service Learning, 17(2).

Southern Poverty Law Center. (2023). The Year in Hate and Extremism 2023. Southern Poverty Law Center. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/guides/year-hate-extremism-2023/

Tinkler, B., McGann, G., & Tinkler, A. (2017). Learning from each other: Using a service-learning citizenship course to promote intercultural understanding. Intercultural Education, 28(5), 447–455. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2017.1335861

Wardle, E. (2009). “Mutt Genres” and the Goal of FYC: Can We Help Students Write the Genres of the University? College Composition & Communication, 60(4), 765–789. https://doi.org/10.58680/ccc20097196

Woods, C., & Wood, S. A. (2023). Podcasts in rhetoric and composition: A review of The Big Rhetorical Podcast and Pedagogue. Computers and Composition, 67(2).

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Posted by chanakya_das on Dec 05, 2025 in Issue 19.2

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