A community service learning experience with student teachers of English in Argentina: Challenges and difficulties as sites of opportunity.

MELINA PORTO

Seminario; Advanced Research Seminar Research in progress: Looking at the dark side; 2021

CETAPS. Research in progress: Looking at the dark sideA community service learning experience with student teachers of English in Argentina: Challenges and difficulties as sites of opportunityMelina PortoIn this session I will describe a service learning experience carried out by volunteer university student teachers of English during 2017-2018 in a non-governmental organisation in Argentina. In collaboration with their university teachers, they taught workshops using intercultural literature in English for underserved children aged 8-12. The aim of the service learning experience was to challenge and improve the conditions of possibility for the children involved. The study was planned as an outreach project in a university context using Byram?s (2008) theory of intercultural citizenship and Rauschert and Byram (2017)?s notion of intercultural service learning, which both combine language learning with citizenship goals and a social justice and human rights foundation. The development of the project was threatened at several points during implementation and here I will share with you the challenges and difficulties we faced and the lessons we learned in terms of research. Byram, M. (2008). From foreign language education to education for intercultural citizenship. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Rauschert, P. & Byram, M. (2017). Service learning and intercultural citizenship in foreign language education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 48, 353?369.