| This qualitative study addressed the formation of student identity (servant and civic) as well as how students formed community through experiencing difference in a service-learning classroom. An interpretive qualitative study of five high school students was conducted in a service-learning program at Willow Falls High School, a public high school in Ohio. Interviews, journals, observations, student photographs, and contextual artifacts were collected and analyzed with a critically oriented, interpretivist researcher lens.;The findings included: 1) Participants' experiences in a service-learning program contributed to shifts in how they viewed themselves and their classmates as well as their relationship as servants to those they served. 2) Aiming for "buy-in," teachers challenged participants through program specific-aims to think about their position and context and were encouraged to push out of their comfort zones in order to do so. 3) Participants were purposefully challenged to accept exposure to difference in a variety of capacities and internalized these challenges. 4) Participants found a variety of outlets for community-making in their service-learning experiences; in group/out group distinctions, class sections, site experiences, and bonding activities. 5) Citizenship and democracy were linked with service work in an uneven fashion, with some participants making direct connections while others made partial or nascent links. 6) Personal growth and community change for participants were incomplete. Teachers and students recognized that there were barriers to fully achieving program goals.;The findings of the study offer implications for future research in service-learning as well as for teachers, administrators, and, stakeholders interested in implementing service-learning programs in their schools. Through service-learning and experiences with difference, students formed servant and civic identities and wrestled with community formation and democratic thinking. |
