ABSTRACT
This chapter describes an appropriate relationship between classroom practices and proposed goals of service-learning. It examines what happens to the learning goals of service-learning in the move to institutionalize service-learning into and across the curriculum. The chapter explores what happens when service is seen as a pedagogical tool through which to teach the same materials, themes, or ideas using traditional classroom practices. As an experiential educational experience that brings classroom theories to life, that connects the “real world” with the world of the “ivy tower,” service-learning places students in the role of the knower and instructors in the role of the facilitator. Democratizing the classroom changes the traditional hierarchical relations and responsibilities of members in the classroom. In a traditional classroom, the instructor is placed in a position of power as the knower, the one in control of what is learned and how it is learned. In a democratic service-learning classroom, the instructor plays the role of facilitator or guide.
