Service Learning in Overseas and Navajo Reservation Communities: Student Teachers' Powerful Experiences Build Community Connection, Broaden Worldview, and Inform Classroom Practice

The Cultural Immersion Projects at Indiana University offer teacher education majors the opportunity to be placed in culturally-diverse settings, where full-time student teaching, required community participation, ongoing reflection, and academic reporting combine to provide experiences that go well beyond the common foci of conventional student teaching assignments. The purpose of this article is to report the outcomes of service learning projects completed by student teachers in overseas communities and on the Navajo Indian Reservation, as reported by the student teachers themselves. Their service learning projects take them outside the walls of their classrooms and school buildings, and into the daily activities and special events of the people in their placement sites, where powerful experiences shape them in often profound ways. (Contains 2 tables.)