ABSTRACT
A critical service-learning pedagogy seeks to challenge the imbalance and redistribute power through the ways that the service-learning experiences are planned and implemented. The key features of a critical service-learning pedagogy include an orientation toward social change, liberation, and emancipation; a focus on the redistribution of power; and the development of authentic relationships. Some of the mechanism for the revolutionary potential lies in critical service pedagogy's tendency to highlight intersectionality, to create vulnerability, to encourage witnessing and testimony through the development of authentic relationships, and to give students opportunities to make social change. Critical service pedagogy is transformational for social justice education, because it makes critique of the status quo a natural and transparent process, giving teacher candidates space to challenge unjust structures and oppressive institutional operations. Teacher candidates are encouraged to ask why and are supported in understanding the causes of injustice; so educators see themselves as agents of social change.
