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This chapter explores the value of a service-learning unit within a pre-service secondary teaching course. It does so through the perceptions of pre-service teachers. The purpose was to determine the potential of a service-learning program to prepare pre-service secondary teachers for the classroom, both personally and professionally. The context for the research is a social justice service-learning unit offered to pre-service secondary teachers undertaking a Bachelor of Education, Master of Teaching or Graduate Diploma of Education. There were 105 participants in the study. Data collection entailed a 25- to 30-minute survey, which participants completed at the conclusion of the unit. The survey contained qualitative and quantitative questions. Data were analysed through content analysis in the case of the open-ended questions while percentages and frequency column graphs were used for the multiple response questions. The results revealed that the personal and professional development of pre-service secondary teachers had been impacted significantly as a result of engagement in service-learning activities. Additionally, participants listed a range of ‘memorable’ experiences, highlighted various challenges associated with service-learning, indicated ways service-learning prepared them for their teaching practicum, and noted the importance of including service-learning as part of a teaching degree. An over-arching theme that emerged repeatedly in the comments of the pre-service teachers was the need to adopt an inclusive attitude in their teaching practice. The chapter concludes with the authors offering recommendations that focus on further research into the viability of service-learning programs in pre-service teaching courses.

This chapter is divided into three main sections. The first section entails an overview of service-learning. Specifically, this section provides an understanding of what service-learning involves, its central components, and its place and value within both higher education and K-12 education. A key consideration stemming from this section is that well-designed service-learning programs have a significant impact on the development of pre-service teachers while at the same time benefiting community partners. The second section reviews the concept of inclusive education. In particular, a working definition of inclusive education is proffered along with ways in which inclusive education is implemented in practice. An important consideration is the development of attitudes and knowledge for inclusive education in both pre-service and in-service teacher training. The third section explores the symbiosis between service-learning and inclusive education. The point being made is that service-learning experiences provide a viable and practical way for people to engage with children and adults who live on the margins of society. This point is especially apposite, as given research suggests that many teachers, especially in Western countries, originate from a middle-class, female population (Grant & Sleeter, 2009), which may prevent interaction with diverse populations. The chapter concludes with the understanding that service-learning has the capacity to engender a greater sense of empathy and appreciation in pre-service teachers that education is an inclusive enterprise.

The Beagle Bay Immersion Program is a Christian Service-Learning experience, which facilitates opportunities for secondary school students to experience unique expressions of cultural diversity found in remote Aboriginal communities of Western Australia. Through engagement in the program, students undergo a process of experiential learning, identifying core social justice issues present in a broader Australian social context, and helping to address identified community needs. This immersion program is conducted as part of the Christian Service-Learning Program at a Perth-based Catholic Secondary College in Western Australia. The Beagle Bay Immersion Program serves as an opportunity for students to engage in acts of discipleship, modeling values of social and cultural inclusivity as a means of enriching their own communities. Underpinned by core Gospel values, the program aims to actively promote a “spirit of solidarity and service to others” (Prendiville, 2016, p. 42) both among the immediate participants and the wider school community. Presented in this chapter is an examination of the values which guide the College’s Service-Learning Program and the ways in which the Beagle Bay Immersion Program facilitates attitudes of inclusivity by exposing students to diverse populations. Christian Service-Learning can serve as a means through which students can circumvent barriers that preclude exposure to diversity. The Beagle Bay Immersion Program seeks to build relationships through service, which benefit both the College and Beagle Bay Communities, providing students opportunities for personal, spiritual, and academic growth while fostering a culture of inclusion.

Teachers are increasingly required to include students with disabilities in mainstream classroom settings. In order to effectively prepare pre-service teachers to address the needs of all students in the classroom, including students with disabilities, teacher-training programs must utilise effective pedagogy. Service-learning has been shown to be an effective pedagogy to employ to address the knowledge/learning needs of pre-service teachers. This chapter will build upon the use of service-learning to increase knowledge and will discuss the importance and practice of also developing positive attitudes towards students with disabilities. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (Azjen, 2002) is utilised as a basis for developing the service-learning program, and exemplifies three main elements as being necessary to bring about behavioural change: behavioural beliefs, normative beliefs and control beliefs. The pre-service teachers described in this chapter are completing a special education specialisation at a tertiary institution, and are required to complete a service-learning unit as a component of the specialisation. Reflection, an important requirement for service-learning programs, allows the researcher to determine if the goals of the program have been met, and how these outcomes relate to the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the potential they may have to bring about behavioural change for the pre-service teachers. Six main themes were identified in the pre-service teacher reflections. These themes were further divided into two main categories: affective (empathy, personal growth, confidence); and cognitive (knowledge, skill development, enhanced professional practice). Links between the pre-service teacher reflections and the Theory of Planned Behaviour suggest that the service-learning experience is beneficial for developing pre-service teachers who are more inclined to address the needs of students with disabilities.

This case study aims to examine the discourses of Early Children Education (ECE) curriculum and preservice teachers’ teaching practicum in Hong Kong to explore issues of developing preservice teachers as leaders for their future career. Adopting the qualitative case study methodology, semistructured interviews and documentation were mainly used for data collection to address the following research questions: (a) To what extent are preservice teachers in ECE in Hong Kong aware of the needs of leadership development for their future career? (b) To what extent are the preservice teachers in ECE in Hong Kong able to be developed as leaders in the process of teacher education? (c) What are factors influencing the leadership development of preservice teachers in preschools in Hong Kong? Documents such as program handbooks, field experience handbooks, and student participants’ teaching portfolios were collected for analysis. Both teacher educators and preservice teachers were invited for individual interviews to reflect on their experiences of supervising or participating in teaching practicum. The findings revealed that both teacher educators and preservice teachers were aware of the importance of developing preservice teachers as leaders. The teaching practicum provided various opportunities for preservice teachers to develop leadership skills. However, personality and learning experiences provided in the curriculum will also impact on leadership development. This study also informs policymakers, curriculum developers, and teacher educators about possible curriculum changes and potentials of developing preservice teachers as leaders for their future career.

The paper makes an endeavour to explore the efficacy of service learning (SL) pedagogy in inculcating the value of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) with a focus on management education in India.

The research methodology comprises a systematic survey of select relevant literature on SL and applying a novel approach to bring out certain key traits of SL initiatives. The paper also tries to decipher how the identified key traits could be regarded as contributing to the ethos of DEI among the learners. Based on insights from the systematic literature review and identified research gaps, an in-depth study of three SL initiatives in India, have been undertaken to demonstrate how implementation of the SL pedagogy in management education creates an impact on the attributes of DEI and inculcates an inclusive mindset.

Although the design, process and learning outcomes of SL pedagogy varies depending on the context, there is commonality in the core attributes that emerges from the literature review which has a potential impact on inculcation of the values of inclusion and appreciation of diversity. The select case studies successfully expand on the list of these identified relevant attributes. The findings have also been corroborated by participants' reflection.

The paper is, however, limited in its scope of assessing the impact in creating an inclusive mindset. To gauge whether such impact is pervasive and persists in the long run, one needs to examine if these values are carried forward by the participants in their professional and daily life. It would, therefore, be more meaningful to carry out a primary survey of the participants, who took part in such SL initiatives, to understand whether the values have really been assimilated in the real life. This is outside the scope of this paper but does open the scope for further research.

The paper would be highly relevant for the accreditation agencies who are increasingly prescribing the role that business schools can and should play towards inculcating the ethos of diversity and inclusion among future business leaders and managers. For the administrators of business schools and other higher education institutions who may be considering how to incorporate the ethos of diversity and inclusion in the curriculum and pedagogy, the paper will provide some direction through the SL route. The detailed exposition of the three SL initiatives will enlighten the administrators or the faculty responsible for designing and delivering any SL programme in other business schools or higher educational institutions as to how to go about developing and delivering such an initiative. To the extent such SL initiatives succeed in leaving a lasting impact on the participants regarding ethos of inclusion and diversity, the business implications in the long run could be immense.

The purpose of the paper by itself establishes its social relevance. The very fact that the paper is focused on SL initiatives that involve social problem-solving approaches through hands-on working on social projects and working with communities the social implications are rather obvious.

Given the paucity of information and analysis on potential fit of SL for fostering DEI especially in developing countries, the present paper contributes to the existing body of literature and aptly fills the void. It builds a theoretical construct relating SL with the traits of DEI and then bridges theory and practice by demonstrating the efficacy of three SL programmes in Indian context to internalise the elements of DEI.

One defining characteristic of service-learning as a pedagogical tool is its focus on reflection. Within service-learning programmes, students engage collaboratively with one another and community members, and are encouraged to reflect on the various aspects of their experience. The author argues that reflection is crucial for its contribution to service-learning, as a teaching methodology, and to service-learning’s cognitive, affective and social impact. Part of service-learning’s impact is its contribution to the development of inclusive attitudes and predispositions towards inclusiveness among school students and tertiary students, particularly pre-service teachers. The chapter recognises inclusivity as an element of quality teaching that helps students make connections with contexts outside the classroom, engage with different perspectives and ways of knowing and to accommodate all their peers and all those being offered service. The chapter recommends a particular approach to the expansion of thinking and practice that inclusivity requires, one based on the methodology of the Philosophy in Schools movement, which has its genesis in the work of John Dewey. That approach uses the mechanism of the Community of Inquiry to structure reflective activities in a way that facilitates the development of students’ critical and creative thinking and their capacity for substantive dialogue. Within the Community of Inquiry students are encouraged to engage with differing and perhaps novel perspectives as they respond to real-life service-learning experiences. Well-facilitated reflection gives students the opportunity to develop skills and dispositions conducive to deep understanding of concepts and issues that arise in discussion. It also helps to raise awareness of preconceptions and attitudes that can undermine inclusiveness in education. The chapter draws the conclusion that rigorous reflection serves as a stimulus to act to implement inclusive practices within service-learning projects on the basis of well-justified reasoning.

Many opportunities for a service-learning experience are available to education pre-service teachers at the University of Notre Dame Australia, and the Whale of a Tale Reader Mentor Program is one of these. The Whale of a Tale developed as a service-learning experience as a result of a partnership between the University of Notre Dame Australia School of Education (UNDA) and the Western Australian Department for Child Protection and Family Support (DCPFS). The programme aimed to address some of the needs of children in out-of-home care (referred to as ‘children in care’) who have experienced trauma. This chapter initially describes how the Whale of a Tale Reader Mentor Program came into being. This description is followed by the rationale for basing the structure of the reading programme on a service-learning pedagogy. The results of a subsequent research study that evaluated the reading programme are then presented. Finally, the chapter discusses the concept of inclusion and how the Whale of a Tale Reader Mentor Program has facilitated a designated outreach approach to children on the margins. In particular, the programme focused on how these children could engage with reading stories that would hopefully inspire a lifelong love of reading and learning.

This chapter considers assistive technology (AT) for learners from an economic perspective. Drawing on human rights and human capability approaches, we suggest that individual practitioners can identify the likely cost implications of provision and nonprovision to support their recommendations and assist funders and policymakers to make fiscally sound decisions. We present a range of approaches to evaluating and documenting the costs and outcomes of AT for learning and education. Policy and resourcing contexts are discussed, as is the role for the practitioner in systemic advocacy for early investment in AT to support individual and societal outcomes.