Teaching Critical Reflection

The concepts and methods of anthropology provide an ideal framework for community service learning. Consider the central elements of an anthropological approach: 1) emphasizing community engagement through participant-observation; 2) understanding social justice issues through an analysis of class structures; 3) promoting social change by understanding power distribution; and 4) using critical reflection to stimulate researchers to consider their own cultural background, and at the same time raise consciousness about how social organizations can advantage certain groups while disadvantaging others. So why is anthropology so marginal to the field of community service learning? How can practicing anthropologists make the concepts and tools of our discipline more widely available? This special issue, in which we tell how we do what we do, is an important step in disseminating anthropology as a core element of service-learning. In this article I report on the development of pedagogical tools to promote critical reflection among health professional students in a community service learning (CSL) program. I used narrative storytelling to provide students with triggers to critically reflect on the practice of medicine as community service to the urban poor, and on their own cultural biases in working with these marginalized populations.