“I DO MORE SERVICE IN THIS CLASS THAN I EVER DO AT MY SITE”: Paying Attention to the Reflections of Students of Color in Service-Learning

This chapter aims to illuminate the experiences of students of color in service-learning classes by presenting challenges and concerns of traditionally underrepresented students in dealing and working with their White peers. The classroom became the service site over the communities, which were often more comfortable and more familiar. Instead of experiencing the classroom as a site for learning, students of color were too often teaching their White and economically privileged peers. For students of color in service-learning experiences, the classroom where their peers are learning about the community creates a site that requires them to be on guard, prepared to defend, and situated to forfeit their learning and process for the benefit of peers. Service, for students of color, can also be helping White classmates learn about the communities where they serve and challenging their peers to understand that White and middle class are not normative perspectives.