Service learning can bridge the gap between traditional and transformational learning, as students are able to relate the course terminology directly to field experience. This project was set up to determine if volunteering for a semester at Hospice had any effect on emotional intelligence and positivity. A paired samples t-test compared differences in pre- and post-test scores on the Positivity Scale (PS) and the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT). The PS revealed a significant difference in pre- and post-test surveys: t (5)=-2.4, p =.03.
This study centers BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) students’ experiences in service-learning courses at a predominantly White college. Researchers conducted eight semi-structured interviews using qualitative case study methods and analyzed the data through a critical conscious-ness framework. Data illuminated tensions in predominantly White spaces, perils and promises of preparation, and relationality with community partners demonstrating how Whiteness is often center-ed unintentionally. Based on the data collected, the authors suggest recommendations for implement-ing pedagogy that addresses the lived experiences of BIPOC students in service-learning courses.
This article reflects on recent changes that have and will continue to affect the Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education.
This article presents the case of an undergraduate social entrepreneurship class where students run social enterprises on campus for four weeks. After completing sales, students donate their profits to local nonprofit organizations. The case illustrates how university classes may equip students to address societal problems through entrepreneurial activity.
This collaborative autoethnographic research study examines the motivations, experiences, and professional outcomes of seven community engagement practitioner-scholars who served in a high-level elected position in a community engagement research association and its affiliated graduate student network. The findings highlight the role of professional associations and graduate student networks in facilitating professional development for next generation community engagement practitioner-scholars, such as supporting them in creating connections, expanding networks, developing professional identities, and cultivating cultural capital.
Traditionally, evaluation of global service-learning (SL) programs has been highly focused on student outcomes, rather than community impact. Less documentation exists regarding the impact of SL on the partnerships between the community and higher education. The purposes of this case study are to present the concept of Fair Trade Learning (FTL) as it relates to global SL and demonstrate how the FTL Rubric can be used to evaluate a new global partnership.
This paper explores the potential for postsecondary community-based educational experiences to impart the skills employers most desire from new college graduates. We gathered one U.S. university’s community-engaged learning (CEL) stakeholders to collect detailed descriptions of the behaviors students practice during CEL. Students, faculty, and community partner participants had at least one semester of service-learning or nonprofit internship experience coordinated by the university’s Center for Community Work and Learning. Qualitative responses generated from 46 participants were coded and then compared to the top skills business executives and hiring managers reported in 2018 as priorities for new college graduates. Data analysis yielded clearer understanding of the intersection between career readiness and CEL, as well as a potential tool to aid students in better articulating the skills they gain from CEL to future employers.
The Hungry Heartland project integrates service learning, media literacy, and multidisciplinary collaboration. It engages students from three disciplines to produce multimedia communication and raise public awareness about the lack of healthy food access in Kansas. Interviews and surveys were used to gather student feedback. Overall, students found the project a challenging learning experience, gained a sense of social responsibility, but remained conflicted about multidisciplinary collaboration. Lessons were drawn to inform future iterations of the project.
Critical service learning is an approach that works toward social transformation and egalitarian partnerships. However, the ways in which space facilitates or undermines this approach has been largely unexplored. Drawing on a case study from an urban education course, we argue that a critical geography framework can develop students’ understandings of structural inequalities and nurture egalitarian relationships between partners.
The qualitative analysis of the experiences of a small study of 23 service learners indicated that individuals negotiate social distance as they: (1) ascribe agency in action and affect to themselves and others; (2) consider whether they belong on-site and connect with others; and, (3) grapple with the structural inequalities that shape social life. In discussing the multiple dimensions of social distance, this analysis ends with questions that critical service learning practices and pedagogies can address.
This paper explores how alumni of a multi-term public service program understand the connection between the program and their career development. While career and professional development is not an explicit goal of the program, our semi-inductive qualitative analysis suggests that alumni see the program as connecting or having the potential to connect to career reflection, boosting their resume, and guiding them down a path toward a public service career or, less frequently, specific jobs.
Examining the production of the “New Orleans Black Worker Organizing History” digital humanities timeline, this case study links critical service-learning with feminist pedagogy to offer collaborative strategies that better leverage resources to bridge campus and community. Understanding that many service-learning projects are one-semester undertakings, this case study addresses the inevitability of transient partnerships between students and community members, while pushing back on the notion of “authentic relationships” in service-learning.
This article reflects on the SARS 2 COVID-19 Pandemic and its effects on service learning and community engagement.
Navigating academic publishing challenges community-engaged scholars and practitioners, many of whom have mastered disciplinary writing but are unsure of how to write about community engagement experiences. The Unfurling Tool helps authors co-envision products with community partners, identify scholarly products for both academic and public audiences, and consider how to disseminate multiple products from a single community-engaged project. By unfurling a project, authors may communicate the rich complexity of their community engagement experiences to multiple audiences.
This theoretical paper anchors Service-Learning (S-L) in three broad sociological theories. From there, discussions on the actual implementation of S-L based on these theories are explained to build an integrated S-L sociological framework. Four S-L modalities of community engagement, namely: transactional, transitional, transformational, and transcendental with their corresponding respective levels of community participation, namely: consultative tokenism, placation, partnerships, and citizen control are identified. The application of such a coherent framework is discussed in the context of community impact and S-L practices nowadays.
Service learning is a high impact practice that helps students develop professional competencies such as teamwork, communication, critical thinking, and problem solving. This study investigated community partners’ perceptions of students’ professional competencies and their impact. Findings indicate that professional competencies had a significant impact on partner perceptions of project quality and value, while the overall predictability of the model to examine partners’ perceived likelihood to work on future projects with students was low.
The University of South Florida, a public research university, and the University Area Community Development Corporation Inc., a nonprofit organization, collaboratively developed a community-based global learning experience for undergraduate students. We present the results of a study exploring the impact of the experience on students who participated across two semesters. Results suggest that student learning was enhanced across all intended student learning outcomes, though some outcomes were developed more than others.
Over the course of the past three decades, service learning has become a major component in higher education. Heretofore, however, there has been no published research that focuses on the community partner or that assesses the role of the community partner within the community-service-learning (CSL) model. This paper fills that gap by focusing on the community partner relationship as delineated by Mitchell (2008), the community partner’s position in CSL, and the authentic relationships between the community partner, class, and instructor. Specifically, we address the following question: How do community partners articulate their voices within the CSL framework? This paper argues that community partners may articulate their own voices and concerns through the use of autoethnography, as well as through involvement in all stages of the CSL process, including course-planning and subsequent collaborative scholarship.
Literature in service-learning offers examples of professional, social, and civic value to students, faculty, and community. The literature has not fully examined the impact of student participation on their levels of civic involvement among graduates several years removed from the coursework. This study is a case analysis of seven years of graduates with public relations course experience to examine graduates’ perceptions of the value of service-learning projects, and how this translates to community engagement.
In order to build connections with the community, our teacher education program undertook a participatory process for developing a comprehensive service-learning initiative. This case study examines the impact of the service-learning initiative on building social capital for the community and preservice teachers. The results show that using participatory processes that seek to provide reciprocal benefits for the university and community can build bridging social capital.
