| The extant body of research reveals that at-risk students have difficulty connecting to school and classroom curricula. These students often develop negative attitudes toward school that prevent them from fully benefiting from the curricula. Negative school experiences set the stage for at-risk students eventually dropping out of school. This trajectory particularly applies to at-risk Latino students who are exposed to home factors outside of school that lead to disengaged classroom behavior and poor social skills. School-wide discipline systems are punitive and do not provide positive behavior supports. Service learning, by comparison, is an instructional approach that provides positive behavior supports that teach students to collaborate and to work on being interdependent with their peers. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine teachers' experiences of service learning and to explore their views on the effect of service learning on the development of social skills among at-risk Latino elementary school students. Freire's theoretical framework of critical consciousness, life-course theory, and Waller's sociology of schooling helped to frame this study. Data from 6 teacher interviews, observations, and field notes were analyzed via axial and open coding, which revealed that service learning benefits at-risk students socially and academically. The results also revealed that teachers often lack the training and administrative support to implement effective service learning projects. These findings led to the recommendations for stronger service learning implementation. The results of this research contribute to social change by addressing the specific social needs of at-risk students, which will benefit educators in their application of learning strategies to better engage students. |
