Stuck in Cement: Breaking from Conventional Mindsets in Student-Led Service Learning Partnerships

This article illustrates our understanding, as a student team, of the challenges that conventional approaches can have when structuring joint student-community partnerships. Through the use of the metaphor “stuck in cement”, we wish to draw a distinction between viewing service learning through a results-focused lens with a sense of a clearly defined path rather than construction of partnerships. This paper will explore two main questions: Are we, as students who conduct service learning projects, stuck in a single-frame mindset? If so, how do we break free? These questions are explored through the combination of lived experience and post-field reflection. We have developed our thoughts within the context of previous work regarding approaches to international service learning projects, the challenges that are often faced, and the mindsets of those involved. This reflection, presented primarily from the perspective of student participants, is offered as an example of how our group challenged the notions of success and externally designed and implemented systems, with the hope that the example may inform future efforts of this type.