"Towards Just Relationships": From Service to Community Engaged Learning in Social Justice Pedagogy- Lecture and Lunch with Tania Mitchell

Author, educator and student development specialist, Tania Mitchell will join our community in a discussion around community engagement. In the wake of 30 years of national attention to “service” and “service-learning” in higher education, Tania Mitchell will share research on the impacts of such experiences on students and alumni, along with the challenges faculty and community partners face in traditional service learning models, with an eye toward courses and curricular models rooted in principles of social justice and social transformation. Following the framework of a critical service learning pedagogy, Dr. Mitchell will explore the barriers and opportunities to developing authentic relationships, redistributing power, and bringing attention to social change in our work as educators.

Following the lecture we will provide lunch and a time for small group discussion.

Tania Michell's Bio:

Dr. Mitchell is an assistant professor of Higher Education in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. Her teaching interests include social justice theory, civic discourse, public service, leadership, college student development, action research methods, and the pedagogy, philosophy and practice of service-learning in higher education. Much of her research focuses on service-learning as a critical pedagogy to explore civic identity, social justice, student learning and development, race and racism, and community practice.