The purpose of this series of books is to advance the knowledge in the service-learning research field. More importantly, this research is to be used to transform the field. This transformation will come from realizing both the history of service-learning and trying to imagine what the future may look like. The chapters in this book all demonstrate just how far service-learning research has come. Researchers, practitioners, and students alike have benefited from its dissemination and use the research to improve practice. The research does not simply inform educators how to create a better pedagogy. Rather, it informs a service-learning practice that can transform both individuals and institutions.
The authors examine samples of experimental learning programs in higher education to better understand the influential drivers of service-learning pedagogy, as well as potential barriers that hinder service-learning adoption in higher education settings. Service-learning is a structured learning experience that links academic course work and community service, stressing reciprocal learning and reflective practices to address community identified needs, while engaging and developing students citizenship skills and critical thinking for social change. This book discusses how service-learning projects impact students, faculty, higher education institutions, and service-learning clients through domestic and international experiences. The research methods demonstrated throughout this text include: survey research, mixed-methods research, literature reviews, quasi-experiments, and case studies. Chapters within this book evaluate the impact of service-learning projects through learning competency outcome measures or reflection analyses. We believe the empirical data and knowledge provided through this book will advance service-learning research and support the adoption/integration of service-learning opportunities in higher education settings. Moreover, we hope that future research will expand upon lessons provided in this book, to continue to build the service-learning knowledge base for faculty, students and institutions. Part I of this book provides a brief literature review of overcoming service-learning barriers in higher education, including discussion of online service-learning challenges and strategies. To offer an interdependent analysis of the service-learning approach, Parts II, III, and IV include case studies grouped by what may be considered the three primary stakeholder groups: Faculty, Students and Institutions. Part II: Faulty will provide detailed analyses of faculty, both tenure-track and off-tenure track, encountered issues and considerations regarding the integration of service-learning projects with the course curriculum. Part III: Students will discuss learning, reflections, and personal development outcomes of students who participate in service-learning opportunities. Part IV: Institutions will examine the partnerships between the higher education program and stakeholder communities, both in the domestic and international context. Chapter authors include professors from public, private, domestic and international universities with experience in student learning and experimental learning. These professors represent disciplines in public health, communication science and disorders, psychology, community engagement, and education and have incorporated service learning in their teaching and instruction. It is with sincerity that we express our appreciation to these professionals for their passion and commitment to advance our knowledge base of service-learning pedagogy and research in higher education.
Throughout the 90s and early 2000s, service-learning research was intensely focused on the student outcomes. That body of research has effectively brought service-learning from the fringes into the mainstream of institutionalized pedagogies. In the past decade service-learning research has experienced an infusion of exploration in three distinct ways: first, large-scale quantitative methodologies; second, a proliferation of research that has explored how different sub-groups of students experience the pedagogy differently, thusly resulting in variation among outcomes; and third, a focus on the experiences and outcomes associated for communities and community partners engaged in service-learning. In an effort to support these movements, this volume of the Advances in Service-Learning Research series, Service-Learning to Advance Access & Success: Bridging Institutional and Community Capacity, focuses on how service-learning can advance access and success. Not simply access and success of students, but the ways that service-learning can advance access and success for all through bridging institutional and community capacity building. The chapters in this volume serve as a testament to the ways in which service-learning research continue to be advanced by thoughtful scholar-practitioners. The 12 chapters included in this volume are organized into three sections. The first section focuses on how institutional and community partnerships can be leveraged to build community capacity. The second section focuses on how institutions might build their own capacity to effect change for the good of society. The third and final section focuses on six studies exploring the relationship service-learning pedagogy has with access and success for students. Of the six studies, three are situated within the context of teacher-preparation programs.
Transforming Teacher Education through Service-Learning provides a fresh look at educational reform through the lens of teacher preparation. It poses the question “Why service-learning now?” as it discusses the meaningful ways service-learning pedagogy can transform the approaches used to prepare teachers to educate tomorrow’s children. The pedagogy of service-learning has significant implications for teacher education. Its transformative aspects have far reaching potential to address teacher candidate dispositions and provide deeper understanding of diversity. Knowledge of the pedagogy and how to implement it in candidates’ future classrooms could alter education to a more powerful experience of democracy in action and enhance the civic mission of schools. The current and ongoing research found within this volume is meant to continue support of the notion of educational reform. Because the vision we hold becomes the reality we experience, it is imperative to consider the question—Why service-learning now?—as we adjust teacher preparation programs to promote engaging opportunities for today’s youth.
The purpose of this set is to improve service learning research and practice through strengthening its theoretical base. Contributing authors include both well-known and emerging service learning and community engagement scholars, as well as scholars from other fields. The authors bring theoretical perspectives from a wide variety of disciplines to bear as they critically review past research, describe assessment methods and instruments, develop future research agendas, and consider implications of theory-based research for enhanced practice. This set constitutes a rich resource that suggests new approaches to conceptualizing, understanding, implementing, assessing, and studying service learning. Each chapter offers recommendations for future research.Research on Service Learning: Conceptual Frameworks and Assessment will be of interest to both new and veteran service learning instructors seeking to enhance their practice by integrating what has been learned in terms of teaching, assessment, and research. Staff and faculty who are responsible for promoting and supporting service learning at higher education institutions, evaluating community service programs, and working with faculty to develop research on service learning, will also find this volume helpful. For scholars and graduate students reviewing and conducting research related to service learning, this book is a comprehensive resource, and a knowledge base about the processes and outcomes of innovative pedagogies, such as service learning, that will enable them to locate their own work in an expanding and deepening arena of inquiry.Both volumes open with chapters focused on defining the criteria for quality research. Volume 2A, then begins with research related to students, comprising chapters that focus on cognitive processes, academic learning, civic learning, personal development, and intercultural competence. The concluding faculty section presents chapters on faculty development, faculty motivation, and faculty learning. Volume 2B addresses community development, and the role of nonprofit organizations in service learning. It then focusses on institutions, examining the institutionalization of service learning, engaged departments, and institutional leadership. The final section on partnerships in service learning includes chapters on conceptualizing and measuring the quality of partnerships, inter-organizational partnerships, and student partnerships.Both volumes are also available separately.
Service-learning is a powerful method of teaching and learning that has been used effectively for more than two decades. This volume contributes further to the Advances in Service-Learning Research series that focuses upon service-learning in teacher education. Research and theory indicate that knowledge of service-learning pedagogy and how to implement it in teacher candidates’ future classrooms can enhance field experiences of teacher education and the civic mission of schools. However, research also reminds us that that the practice of service-learning is nuanced and complex. No two service-learning experiences are alike, yet universal characteristics across service-learning experiences define its essence and distinction. It is through research that digs deep into these nuanced issues that we can learn more about the different characteristics of the experience that define service-learning and guide implementation. The preface provides an interview with Andy Furco, an early advocate of service-learning and noted leader who has fostered service- learning in K-12 and higher education throughout the United States and across the globe. Andy Furco’s commentary offers an historical overview of the field as well as how the field can advance, providing insights for those new to the field as well as those who have engaged in service-learning. The preface and thirteen chapters together provide empirical and conceptual support for including service-learning. Concurrently, this scholarship provides guidance for implementing service-learning in teacher preparation and in K-12 education. Interrelated themes include self efficacy, connections with communities, diversity, and program development in teacher education.
International service learning (ISL) programs are growing more popular with students looking to advance their skills and knowledge to become global citizens. While the benefits of these programs among students are well documented, little is known about the implications they have on host communities themselves. This volume explores the impact of ISL programs on members of host communities (e.g. host families and local partner NGOs) who are increasingly influenced by the presence of international students in their lives. Drawing upon post-colonial, feminist and other critical and decolonizing theories, it examines the complicated power relations between North American ISL students and host communities in East and West Africa, the Caribbean and Central America. It stresses the importance of developing trusting relations between ISL students, faculty and individuals in the host communities to create mutually engaging learning experiences.
For scholars seeking to undertake consequential research in service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) at a time when there is widening interest in and increasing acceptance of research in this field as a primary area of scholarship, this book provides accounts by preeminent scholars about the trajectories of their research, their methodologies, lessons learned along the way, as well as their views about the future direction of the field.The contributors to this volume represent a range of disciplines and fields including education, history, organizational leadership, political science, philanthropic studies, psychology, and public health, as well as both qualitative and quantitative traditions, and offer models of scholarly learning that contribute to a knowledge base that can guide practice and further the broader public purposes of the academy.They articulate how they view their research on SLCE as having broader purposes that matter to them personally as well as professionally and illustrate how the “why” and “to what end” of their research can evolve as a program of research develops and matures across time. They identify key choices they made in terms of inquiry and methodology, describe both successes and challenges in establishing and navigating a SLCE research agenda across their careers, and share lessons learned from their research journey to advance the field both domestically and abroad. Emerging from these narratives is a theme of practical wisdom that arises through the learning of researchers, students and communities as they engage with complex social contexts.
Eisner's seminal work on mind, education, and research explores the ways in which the methods, content, and assumptions in the arts, humanities, and social sciences can help us better understand our schools and classrooms. The Enlightened Eye expands how we think about inquiry in education and broadens our views about what it means to "know" with the goal of positively influencing the educational experience of those who live and work in our schools. The text includes examples depicting this type of research and how it can be used to evaluate teaching, learning, and the school environment.
