Intercultural Inquiry and the Transformation of Service

ommunity outreach brings idealism and social consciousness into the academy. It brings a human face and complex lives into the discussion of issues and ideas. But it can also plunge teachers and students into contradictory and sometimes profoundly conflicted social and literate practices. Guerrilla service (as Joe Mertz calls those short forays into soup kitchens, nursing homes, and Lisa's neighborhood) reinforces the distance between the giver and receiver, especially if the contact is superficial and the junket uncomplicated by preparation or reflection. Many current approaches to service-learning avoid this dilemma by embedding personal and social consciousness in academic work-in professional performance for a nonprofit client and/or broad critical analysis (Adler-Kassner, Crooks, and Watters; Waterman). But a fundamental conflict remains, I believe, unresolved, when students (fired up with confidence in social change) confront the suddenly