Ties that Bind

The Impact of Service Learning

When Tamera Moore joined TU’s Department of Elementary Education as an assistant professor in 2022, she returned to her early-career roots as a teacher. “I kept hearing about the teacher education program at Towson,” recalls Moore. “When so many people speak highly about a program, it says something about the quality of the education.”

When Moore received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, her dissertation focused on service-learning experiences of African American female educators in urban schools. “I’ve done a lot of service work in my life, and one of the things I keep noting is how impactful service learning is for communities and the people in them,” explains Moore. “Baltimore City public schools rely on TU student teachers who complete internships, run reading programs and lead after-school programs. But the impact on these student teachers is not always measured.”

“ Teachers, at their very core, just want to teach and nurture their students. ”

Building Social and Emotional Ties within a Community

Through her work at TU, Moore is studying the impact of service-learning on preservice teachers. One of the biggest benefits she has documented: When these students enter the communities in which they will teach, they have experience with social structures and know people in the communities. “They have developed empathy and can more easily build social and emotional ties with students,” says Moore. “This is so important as we want student teachers to connect and to understand where their students are coming from.”

Beyond the classroom, Moore takes her role seriously to help students navigate one of the biggest decisions in their lives: the decision to teach. “An  instructor has a responsibility to help guide students on their educational journey and give them skills to be successful job seekers,” notes Moore.

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