Pursuit of Liberation

The authors of this volume collectively demonstrate the importance of critical service-learning in this historic moment as we participate in, and witness ongoing struggles for justice around the world. The contributors of this volume offer guidance to educators and scholars alike who are interested in designing, participating in, and studying the potential of alliances formed through critical service-learning.The volume emphasizes theoretical and historical foundations of critical service-learning, pressing questions facing the field, exploration of outcomes of, and ongoing challenges for the pedagogy, and design features and larger scale models of critical service-learning that can be implemented across the educational landscape of elementary, secondary, and higher education.

This volume in the Advances in Service-Learning Research series does not disappoint. Emily Nemeth and Ashley Patterson have amassed an amazing team of authors who take readers on a rewarding journey across diverse cultural communities and educational contexts, revealing the limitations of traditional service-learning approaches in addressing issues of racial injustice. Readers of this volume will gain a greater understanding of the rapidly evolving and maturing nature of higher education service-learning pedagogy and the need to adopt more critical perspectives in the study and practice of service-learning. - Andrew Furco, University of MinnesotaPursuit of Liberation, conceived and written during tumultuous times in the United States, offers hope for the possibility of social justice and liberation in educational spaces. The modern-day brutal lynching of George Floyd, an African American man by a white police officer, and the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the horridness and inhumanity of a country that advertises itself as a beacon of equity and inclusion. This volume is a reminder that social justice and liberation require vigilance. The editors, Professors Nemeth and Patterson, persuade us to understand that the work of inclusion and liberation in education is complex, multidisciplinary, continuous, and iterative. Most importantly, they convincingly assert that communities and educational institutions need to take bold steps toward a more just, hopeful, and loving world through critical service learning. - Shirley Mthethwa-Sommers, University of Mpumalanga

Emily A. Nemeth, Denison UniversityAshley N. Patterson, Penn State University