Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning
Fall 1996, pp. 103-112
Community Service Learning as Democratic Education
in South Africa and the United States
Meta Mendel-Reyes and Jeremy Weinstein
Swarthmore College
This paper describes the development of the first community service learning program for democratic
education in South Africa. The Democracy Education Project, which is based on Swarthmore College's
innovative Democracy Project, was designed and implemented by a Swarthmore College student working with a high school in a Black community near CapeTown. This case study demonstrates that the successful transposition of a model of community service learning from one country to another requires recognizing the complex relationships among history and culture, and theories and practices of democratic education. It is also crucial to involve the new community as an equal partner at every step of the
process. Together, the Democracy and the Democracy Education Projects suggest the potential of community service learning for strengthening citizenship, and for bridging the gaps between races, in the
United States as well as in South Africa.
In 1994, South Africa embarked on its inspiring
transition from apartheid to democracy. The new
Government of National Unity led by Nelson
Mandela has recognized the urgency of educating
the citizenry in new forms of democracy, and of
rechanneling the strategies of protest that helped to
bring about democratic change into participation in
fledgling political institutions. Schools can play a
major role in educating young people about
democracy, and in providing opportunities for them
to practice new democratic skills through activities
such as community service learning.
The first service-learning program for democratic education in South Africa was designed and
implemented by Jeremy Weinstein, a Swarthmore
student working with a high school in a Black community near Cape Town. The program is based on
the innovative Democracy Project directed by Dr.
Meta Mendel-Reyes, in the Department of Political
Science at Swarthmore College. The challenge of
adapting a model of service-learning that originated in the United States to the South African context
raises a practical as well as an ethical question:
Can, and should, a model of service-learning as
democratic education for an "established" democracy be transposed to an "emerging" democracy?
The universal popularity of the term, "democracy," masks important debates about its meaning.
Although the root definition of the word is simply
stated as "the rule of the people," the interpretation
of this phrase varies from the direct participation of
citizens in political decision-making that characterized ancient Athens to the election of representa
tives that occurs in modern democracies. Defining
democracy becomes even more problematic when
theory is compared to practice; for instance, Athens
denied citizenship to many, including women and
slaves, who would be considered citizens today.
Ironically, many of those eligible to participate in
the chief democratic ritual of contemporary
democracy, elections, decline to do so; in the
United States, voting turnout averages less than
50%, even during the most significant recent
Presidential elections. The fact that turnout has
been much greater in South Africa, a so-called
"emerging" democracy, than in one of its "established" predecessors, is further evidence of the
complexity of the concept,"democracy."'
For the purposes of this essay, democracy is
assumed to rest on a universal principle, the equal
right of all human beings to rule themselves, with
the understanding that democratic practice occurs
in the context of particular political institutions and
cultures. It follows that a model of democratic
education ought to reflect the unique characteristics of the democracy for which citizens are to be
educated. The transposition of a model of community service learning for democracy from one country to another requires more than simply taking differences in political history and culture into consideration. It is also essential to develop and
implement the new program with the full participation of the students, teachers, and leaders of potential host organizations. Above all, the exchange
should be understood as reciprocal, in that both
countries have much to teach and to learn from
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