A Qualitative Study on Critical Service-Learning Pedagogy in Public Health Capstone Course

Abstract

AbstractAs the United States is reckoning with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its historical legacy of racism, oppression, and violence against marginalized communities. The University of Washington’s School of Public Health is prompted to hold conversations about the role structural racism has on the health outcomes of marginalized communities as the schools play a central role in training public health practitioners in the workforce. Two weeks after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, King Country Public Health declared racism a public health crisis. Racism impacts the health of millions of people, affecting their mental and physical health, and preventing people from living long and healthy lives. The need for an equity-centered practitioner is important in the field of public health. Schools of Public Health across the nation have been lacking equity training in their programs; updating equity, and anti-racist training into the curriculum promotes an environment that deters discrimination and ties the public health workforce to equitable practices. This project evaluates the SPH capstone course, the purpose is to understand the influence of the new competency and critical-service learning approach on student learning. The unit of analysis is the reflection assignments from the 2020 and 2021 SPH 491/492 and 496 cohorts. This secondary data set was analyzed using the exploratory methodology to explore connections between students' participation in service-learning and their understandings and commitments to social justice. Four themes emerged from the reflection assignments: Intersectionality and positionality, exposure, the cultural wealth of communities, and understanding of core competency. Despite the hardship of the ongoing racial tension and COVID-19, the University of Washington School of Public Health should further explore the benefits of critical service-learning in producing equitable public health practitioners.