Service-Learning Essentials: Questions, Answers, and Lessons Learned by
Service-Learning Essentials is the resource you need to help you develop high-quality service-learning experiences for college students. Written by one of the field's leading experts and sponsored by Campus Compact, the book is the definitive work on this high-impact educational practice. Service-learning has been identified by the Association of American Colleges and Universities as having been widely tested and shown to be beneficial to college students from a wide variety of backgrounds. Organized in an accessible question-and-answer format, the book responds clearly and completely to the most common questions and concerns about service-learning. Each chapter addresses issues related to individual practice as well as to the collective work of starting and developing a service-learning center or program, with examples drawn from a variety of disciplines, situations, and institutional types. The questions range from basic to advanced and the answers cover both the fundamentals and complexities of service-learning. Topics include: Determining what service-learning opportunities institutions should offer How to engage students in critical reflection in academic courses and in cocurricular experiences Best practices for developing and sustaining mutually beneficial campus-community partnerships Integrating service-learning into the curriculum in all disciplines and at all levels, as well as various areas of student life outside the classroom Assessing service-learning programs and outcomes The dilemmas of service-learning in the context of power and privilege The future of service-learning in online and rapidly globalizing environments Service-learning has virtually limitless potential to enable colleges and universities to meet their goals for student learning while making unique contributions to addressing unmet local, national, and global needs. However, in order to realize these benefits, service-learning must be thoughtfully designed and carefully implemented. This easy-to-use volume contains everything faculty, leaders, and staff members need to know about service-learning to enhance communities, improve higher education institutions, and educate the next generation of citizens, scholars, and leaders.
Service-Learning in Literacy Education by
This edited collection will stand as the first volume that specifically describes service-learning programs and courses designed as part of teacher education programs in the fields of literacy education, secondary English education, elementary language arts education, and related fields. The contributing authors describe the programs they have developed at their universities and/or in their local communities, providing information about the rationale for their initiative, the design of the course, the outcomes of the experience, and other matters that will help literacy educators develop similar courses and experiences of their own. Additionally, this edited collection will fill a great gap in the field's knowledge of alternative forms of teacher education. It will provide descriptions of service-learning initiatives that have been field-tested with demonstrable results. Thus far the field has produced widely scattered articles in journals covering a variety of disciplines, but no definitive collection of papers in which service-learning designed to promote literacy instruction is housed in a single volume edited for cross-referencing and thematic categorization. The two editors have developed courses and received grants to support service-learning initiatives at their universities and believe that others might develop similar programs if they had better understandings of their value and design. Their intention with this volume is to promote service-learning more broadly among literacy educators.
Engaged Scholarship: The Politics of Engagement and Disengagement. by
This volume brings together diverse theoretical reflections and practices of community engaged scholarship in order to stimulate critical discussion, deepen theory, and invite critical practice. It is an international trend that higher education institutions and agencies are encouraging and promoting community engagement. At the same time, there is recognition of a lack of consistent definitions and understandings of what it is they are promoting. As a counterweight to the dominance of pragmatic and technical discussions in the literature on engaged scholarship, the chapters in this book shift the discourse to ask foundational questions that emphasize the political nature of engagement. Recognizing that acts of engagement are never neutral, the authors in this book explore how engaged scholarship requires decision-making that is inherently grounded in values, beliefs, and interpretations of what is and what ought to be. Alongside complex global and local social movements rising to address issues, for example climate change or the global financial collapse and the uneven consequences of these globalized problems, we see corresponding concerns expressed about the limited participation by excluded, silenced, and invisibilized people throughout the world. How can engaged scholarship be mobilized and who will it serve within such contexts? With contributions covering such diverse topics as a non-binary approach to engagement; citizenship of knowledge; university contexts and corporatization; stranger pedagogies and anti-foundational approaches to service learning; contemporary revolutionary movements in the Arab world; and transforming higher education through Africanist onto-epistemologies, this volume is poised to open the door to a deeper understanding of engaged scholarship.
Service-Learning and Educating in Challenging Contexts by
Service-Learning and Educating in Challenging Contexts explores the potential of service-learning identified as a way to integrate community service with academic study to enrich the on-going professional development of educators, especially in schools that are located in challenging contexts. This collection offers a further refinement of what typically comes under the remit of service-learning, switching the focus from the learning experience of the learner, to the educator and the deep and enriching professional learning opportunities that service-learning can offer. This approach to service-learning promotes collaborative practices amongst professional and in-service educators, and encourages an integration of theory and practice. The international contributors use their own experiences as well as current research to provide a thorough exploration of service-learning from national and international perspectives.
The Community Engagement Professional in Higher Education by
This book, offered by "practitioner-scholars," is an exploration and identification of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that are central to supporting effective community engagement practices between higher education and communities. The discussion and review of these core competencies are framed within a broader context of the changing landscape of institutional community engagement and the emergence of the Community Engagement Professional as a facilitator of engaged teaching, research, and institutional partnerships distinct from other academic professionals. This research, conducted as part of Campus Compact's Project on the Community Engagement Professional, seeks to identify the shared knowledge and practices of Community Engagement Professionals by looking to empirical practice literature. Chapters include an exploration of competencies applicable to those in Community Engagement Professional roles generally, and also to those specializing in specific areas such as faculty development, partnership facilitation, and other areas of responsibility. The authors trace the evolution of engagement administration over time and the role of those facilitating community-campus engagement toward a "Second Generation" professional who is at once a "tempered radical, transformational leader, and social entrepreneur." Central to the work is a presentation of the core competency findings, along with suggestions for continued exploration. Dostilio and her colleagues argue that Community Engagement Professionals should claim a professional identity grounded in a set of core competencies, values, and knowledge, and through association with a community of scholar practitioners similarly dedicated. Additional work to understand and empower Community Engagement Professionals in their role as distinct from other higher education professional types will enable both broader impact for institutions and communities now with a view to prepare those coming to the role for a dynamic and demanding environment without distinct boundaries.
Service-Learning in Undergraduate Geosciences by
The term oeservice-learning generally refers to projects planned as components of academic coursework in which students use knowledge and skills taught in the course to address real needs in their communities. This kind of learning experience, which allows students to focus on critical, reflective thinking and civic responsibility, has become an increasingly popular component of undergraduate science education. In April 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine planned a workshop to explore the current and potential role of service-learning in undergraduate geosciences education. Participants explored how service learning is being used in geoscience education, its potential benefits, and the strength of the evidence base regarding the nature and benefits of these experiences. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.
Reflecting on Service-Learning in Higher Education by
Reflecting on Service-Learning in Higher Education: Contemporary Issues and Perspectives examines forms of pedagogy such as service-learning, experiential learning, and problem-based learning in order to determine how students make connections between and among abstract academic concepts and real-life issues. This edited collection is divided into three sections--"Reflecting on Community Partnerships," "Reflecting on Classroom Practice," and "Reflecting on Diversity"--so as to represent interdisciplinary subjects, diverse student populations, and differing instructional perspectives about service-learning in higher education. Contributors provide service-learning programs and plans that can be replicated or adapted at other institutions of higher education. This book is recommended for scholars and practitioners of education.
Service-Learning and Writing by
Service-learning and Writing: Paving the Way for Literacy(ies) through Community Engagement discusses service-learning as a teaching and learning method and its integration with writing. The various authors, from different disciplines and institutions, present service-learning as a means of having students practice writing in real world settings, and they show how relationship-building and partnerships between higher education and diverse communities produce benefits for all involved—the students, faculty, administrators, and the communities themselves. This volume demonstrates how writing instruction and/or writing practice can complement community engagement and outreach at local, national, and international contexts. Through different cross-cultural contexts and academic disciplines, the various authors explore reflection, assessment, internalization, diversity, and multiple literacies and their importance when integrating service-learning in higher education and community literacy. Through case studies, theory, and practice, the authors, both in and outside the United States, prove that service-learning can be implemented across institutions, academic disciplines and courses, countries, and cultures. Higher-education faculty and administration, college students, non-profit organizations, program directors, and community literacy instructors will be able to see how service-learning provides opportunities for partnerships, quality education, and community engagement. Service-learning is a venue that allows students and community members to practice and improve their literacy skills while meeting some of their communities' needs.
Understanding Service-Learning and Community Engagement by
A volume in Advances in Service-Learning Research Series Editor IARSLCE There is an increasing proliferation of service-learning courses in colleges and universities in the U.S. and internationally, and research in the field has seen significant growth in diverse geographic areas in the past decade. Membership organizations now exist to convene scholars and practitioners across the globe. Chapters in this volume are based on presentations given at the 2010 annual conference of the International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement held in Indianapolis, IN. The conference theme "International Perspectives: Crossing Boundaries through Research" was chosen to highlight ways in which research crosses all kinds of boundaries: disciplinary boundaries, cultural boundaries, and national boundaries. Although service-learning is valued as an active learning strategy across the globe, little is known about the ways that service-learning is similar or different in varied contexts. Understanding service-learning and community engagement from cross-cultural and crossdisciplinary perspectives will improve both research and practice. Together, these chapters represent the diversity, complexity, and creativity evident by scholars and practitioners in this field of study.
International Service Learning by
International Service Learning (ISL) borrows from the domains of service learning, study abroad, and international education to create a new pedagogy that adds new and unique value from this combination. It is a high-impact pedagogy with the potential to improve students' academic attainment, contribute to their personal growth, and develop global civic outcomes. The international service experience provides opportunities for additional learning goals, activities, and relationships that are not available in a domestic service learning course or in a traditional study abroad course. The service experience develops reflection while shedding light on and providing an added dimension to the curricular component of the study abroad course. The international education component further broadens students' perspectives by providing opportunities to compare and contrast North American and international perspectives on course content. This book focuses on conducting research on ISL, which includes developing and evaluating hypotheses about ISL outcomes and measuring its impact on students, faculty, and communities. The book argues that rigorous research is essential to improving the quality of ISL's implementation and delivery, and providing the evidence that will lead to wider support and adoption by the academy, funders, and partners. It is intended for both practitioners and scholars, providing guidance and commentary on good practice. The volume provides a pioneering analysis of and understanding of why and under what conditions ISL is an effective pedagogy. Individual chapters discuss conceptual frameworks, research design issues, and measurement strategies related to student learning outcomes; the importance of ISL course and program design; the need for faculty development activities to familiarize faculty with the component pedagogical strategies; the need for resources and collaboration across campus units to develop institutional capacity for ISL; and the role that community constituencies should assume as co-creators of the curriculum, co-educators in the delivery of the curriculum, and co-investigators in the evaluation of and study of ISL. The contributors demonstrate sensitivity to ethical implications of ISL, to issues of power and privilege, to the integrity of partnerships, to reflection, reciprocity, and community benefits
Experiencing Service-Learning by
A unique resource for students and professors alike, this book reveals the important practical, educational, and emotional benefits provided by college programs that allow students to help others through service work in inner-city classrooms, clinics, and other challenging environments. Filled with vivid first-person reflections by students, Experiencing Service-Learning emphasizes learning by doing, getting into the field, sharing what one sees with colleagues, and interpreting what one learns. As the authors make clear, service-learning is not a spectator sport. It takes students "away from the routines and comfort zones of lecture, test, term paper, exam" and puts them into the world. Service-learning requires them to engage actively with cultures that may be unfamiliar to them and to be introspective about their successes and their mistakes. At the same time, it demands of their instructors "something other than Power-Point slides or an eloquently delivered lecture," as no teacher can predict in advance the questions their students' experiences will raise. In service-learning, students and teacher must act together as a team of motivators, problem solvers, and change agents. While most of its personal vignettes come from service-learners who have worked as mentors in elementary schools, the book also includes a chapter in which coauthor Michele Gourley describes at length her experiences at a faith-based health clinic in Honduras. In offering such stories--along with a succinct introduction to basic concepts, an assessment of how service-learners can effect transformational change, and project examples--this text will not only prepare students for the adventures of service-learning but also aid professors and administrators tasked with developing service-learning courses and programs. Robert F. Kronick is a professor of educational psychology and counseling at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and the author of Full Service Community Schools. Robert B. Cunningham is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. His books include Agendas and Decisions: How State Government Executives and Middle Managers Make and Administer Policy, coauthored with Dorothy F. Olshfski. Michele Gourley is a physician and public health professional with a background in rural community health and state health policy.
Service Learning Through Community Engagement by
While campus engagement with the local community is generally viewed in a positive light, in reality these collaborations are more complex. Presenting a variety of contemporary models and frameworks for community engagement, this book is distinguished by its unique emphasis on campus-community partnerships from the perspective of the community. Bolstered by concrete data, the text addresses the impact of a variety of service-learning arrangements on local communities and focuses on the experiences, both positive and negative, of the community organization. Integrating theoretical, historical, ethical, and practical frameworks, the book examines in depth such emerging models as global service-learning, social entrepreneurship, and experiential philanthropy. Vivid case examples drawing from real-life programs that have been implemented in the United States and abroad bring these models to life. While the book emphasizes the perspectives of the communities served, it also encompasses the experiences of nonprofit organizations, students, and faculty. Students, faculty, and administrators who are engaged in campus-community partnerships--particularly in disciplines that are grounded in community-based learning, such as social work, human services, sociology, and public service studies--will find this book to be an important resource. KEY FEATURES: Examines campus-community partnerships from the perspective of the community servedPresents lively and engaging case studies of domestic and global scenariosIncludes the perspectives of nonprofit organizations, students, community members, and facultyIncludes extensive resources for more in-depth study
Leadership Development Through Service-Learning by
Explore service learning scholarship, and important elements of program design that achieves both leadership learning and community impact. This volume provides an overview of the most up-to-date thinking on leadership development through service-learning, including: the leadership competencies linked to service-learning experiences, the processes of ethical engagement in community partnerships, approaches for fostering more critical student reflection, and applied examples, including an in-depth case study of a leadership course series, a wealth of service programs led by students, a mentoring model linking college student service with youth leadership development, and a youth leadership program with a national scope. The Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Student Leadership explores leadership concepts and pedagogical topics of interest to high school and college leadership educators. Issues are grounded in scholarship and feature practical applications and best practices in youth and adult leadership education.
Change the World with Service Learning by
Kathy Pennington loves science, baseball and her parents. But when her mother dies, it leaves a huge hole in her world. At her mother's funeral she meets a great-uncle she never knew she had. Kunat is huge, mysterious and a stranger to everything American. Shamelessly snooping, Kathy overhears her father and Kunat discussing her, as if she were someone important, and in great danger.She does not understand, until someone tries to kill her, Kunat kidnaps her, and she is stolen away to meet her grandmother for the first time. When she does, she learns a secret that literally changes her world. A science-fiction novel about family secrets and worlds filled with deadly wonders.
Democratic Dilemmas of Teaching Service-Learning by
A college student wants to lead a campaign to ban a young adult novel from his child's elementary school as his service-learning project in a children's literature course. Believing the book is offensive to religious sensibilities, he sees his campaign as a service to children and the community. Viewing such a ban as limiting freedom of speech and access to information, the student's professor questions whether leading a ban qualifies as a service project. If the goal of service is to promote more vital democratic communities, what should the student do? What should the professor do? How do they untangle competing democratic values? How do they make a decision about action? This book addresses the teaching dilemmas, such as the above, that instructors and students encounter in service-learning courses. Recognizing that teaching, in general, and service-learning, in particular, are inherently political, this book faces up to the resulting predicaments that inevitably arise in the classroom. By framing them as a vital and productive part of the process of teaching and learning for political engagement, this book offers the reader new ways to think about and address seemingly intractable ideological issues. Faculty encounter many challenges when teaching service learning courses. These may arise from students' resistance to the idea of serving; their lack of responsibility, wasting clients' and community agencies' time and money; the misalignment of community partner expectations with academic goals; or faculty uncertainty about when to guide students' experiences and when direct intervention is necessary. In over twenty chapters of case studies, faculty scholars from disciplines as varied as computer science, engineering, English, history, and sociology take readers on their and their students' intellectual journeys, sharing their messy, unpredictable and often inspiring accounts of democratic tensions and trials inherent in teaching service-learning. Using real incidents - and describing the resources and classroom activities they employ - they explore the democratic intersections of various political beliefs along with race/ethnicity, class, gender, ability, sexual orientation, and other lived differences and likenesses that students and faculty experience in their service-learning classroom and extended community. They share their struggles of how to communicate and interact across the divide of viewpoints and experiences within an egalitarian and inclusive environment all the while managing interpersonal tensions and conflicts among diverse people in complex, value-laden situations. The experienced contributors to this book offer pedagogical strategies for constructing service-learning courses, and non-prescriptive approaches to dilemmas for which there can be no definitive solutions.
Problematizing Service-Learning by
Interest in and research on civic engagement and service-learning have increased exponentially. In this rapid growth, efforts have been made to institutionalize pedagogies of engagement across both K-12 and higher education. As a result, increased positive attention has been complemented equally by well-founded critiques complicating experiential approaches' claims and questioning if institutional, financial, and philosophical commitment is warranted. A key complaint from these critical voices is the tightly woven, protective insular core in the field of service-learning. This claim is not unfounded, nor necessarily bad. Initial efforts to legitimize service-learning and other forms of community-based education required group cohesion. The concern, however, is that the initial group cohesion has led to groupthink wherein group members have avoided critical analysis and evaluation. This book aims to prevent groupthink within the field of service-learning by allowing for the examination of effective alternatives by new voices who can serve as "critical evaluators" from within the field itself. Myriad perspectives are offered, including empirical, theoretical, practical, and community perspectives. Authors challenge preconceived notions of service-learning, who is benefited by this pedagogy, outcomes of participation and implementation, and most importantly the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological lenses through which service-learning is even considered. The book allows servicelearning's major criticisms to be examined, challenges to be voiced, and research agendas to be laid. This book parallels service-learning's presence and popularity across various disciplines/fields. Chapters are written from broad perspectives and are aimed to inform service-learning researchers and educators, community organizations, and policy makers who consider service-learning as a means to address civic responsibility. Authors expose theoretical and philosophical concerns circulating in the field, and often still occupying spaces on the fringe of discourse, action, and research. The book raises fundamental questions for undergraduate and graduate courses with social justice themes by considering the implications that pedagogies of engagement have on learners and communities.
Research for What? Making Engaged Scholarship Matter. by 
Quick Hits for Service-Learning: Successful Strategies by Award-winning Teachers. by
Service-learning, the integration of classroom instruction with community service projects, is rapidly gaining momentum as a successful teaching and learning strategy that benefits both students and their communities. Quick Hits for Service-Learning presents more than 80 examples of innovative curricula, developed by educators in a wide range of disciplines, designed to combine community service with instruction and reflection. Seven chapters offer tips for classroom activities that focus on the education of children and youth; civic awareness, engagement, and activism; language, literature, and communication; global studies and local outreach to exceptional populations; the study of history, the social sciences, and the arts; business, industry, and the health sciences; and the teaching of research and other "tools of the trade." Brimming with ideas that busy faculty members can easily adapt to their own classrooms, this book is a valuable reference for faculty new to the field or seasoned practitioners looking for fresh ideas.
The Unheard Voices: Community Organizations and Service Learning by
Service learning has become an institutionalized practice in higher education: students are sent out to disadvantaged communities to paint, tutor, feed & help organize. However, what are the benefits for the communities involved? This volume explores the social impact of service learning.
Learning Through Serving: A Student Guidebook for Service-learning Across the Disciplines by
Intended for college-level students who are engaged in service-learning. This book aims to enable the reader to derive the benefit from the experience - in terms of providing service to the community partner, developing his/her skills and knowledge, connecting back what she or he learns to course objectives and the framework of their discipline.