Praxeological Learning: Service-Learning in Teacher Education

With the most recent educational reform through the implementation of the Common Core Standards, Praxeological Learning: Service- Learning in Teacher Education can provide a fresh look at educational transformation through the lens of service-learning in teacher preparation. As Butin (2003) referenced over a decade ago, "service-learning rejects the banking model of education, where the transferences of information from knowledgeable teachers to passive students is conducted in 45-min increments. It subverts the notion of classroom as graveyard - rows and rows of silent bodies - for an active pedagogy committed to connecting theory and practice, schools and community, the cognitive and the ethical." 

The pedagogy of service-learning has significant implications for teacher education. Its transformative aspects have far reaching potential to address teacher candidate dispositions and provide deeper understanding of social justice. Knowledge of the pedagogy and how to implement it in candidates' future classrooms and in the community could modify education to a more powerful experience of democracy in action and enhance the civic mission of schools. The current and ongoing research found within this textbook is meant to continue supporting the notion of educational reform.

In this stimulating and provocative book Christian Winterbottom and Vickie Lake have drawn together a diverse range of respected authors, each of whom sets out the case for praxeological learning in teacher preparation. Their book provides readers with an in-depth and informed understanding of learning that relies on democratic and participatory practices with the intention of transforming learning contexts in classrooms and schools, familial spaces and community settings. It promotes a theoretically robust approach that leads to engaging forms of teaching for application in service-learning projects in teaching and in teacher education programs. To do this, the book is designed to provoke and promote critical engagement with the position of each of the authors within the text, supported by a set of Critical Learning Activities and follow up materials (with a developmental website). Individually each chapter provides an insight into reflective and dialogic practice, but collectively they stand as a model of critical thinking and professional praxis.  I believe this book will stimulate a deeper level of critical reflection on teacher development, which is informed, evidence based and contextually located, making sense of the real and diverse world of teacher practice. I believe anyone who reads this book will be inspired and motivated to challenge and extend their thinking and professional practice, adopting the critical stance which lies at the heart of quality services for children and families. As such this book should be required reading for students and practitioner teams aiming to develop a learning community to support the development of excellence in their professional practice.

Professor Chris Pascal, Director, Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC)

The growing interest in service learning activities demands greater attention from academia regarding theory building, research efforts, and practice concerns. This book provides a much-needed platform for advancing scholarship in this area while creating real-world recommendations in applied realms. 
 
Stephen M. Gavazzi, Ph.D., Dean and Director, The Ohio State University at Mansfield

This book is a welcome addition to the emerging canon of praxeologically inspired texts that seek to promote ethically inclusive participatory research as central feature of educational practice. This is an exciting and pioneering text that sets out a new, challenging and highly motivating offer to those engaging with in-service and pre-service educational training.  It offers a valuable reference guide both to key principles of reflective praxis, as well as examples across a broad range of educational practice.
 
Dr. Martin Needham, Manchester Metropolitan University