Cultivating Democratic Sensibility by Working with For-Profit Organizations

Drawing on the work of experiential learning experts such as John Dewey to show that one of the foundational objectives of service-learning is to encourage civic engagement, this article argues that students who undertake work in a business environment can develop a strong sense of their roles as citizens. It offers a case study of a workplace communication course to argue that experiential learning in for-profit companies has the potential to allow students to both participate in and critique corporate cultures, learning to act ethically, responsibly and democratically as agents of change.