In this introduction to this special theme-based issue of the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, the three co-editors discuss the purposes of this publication, describe its evolution, and briefly review some of the historical landmarks related to service-learning research. We then introduce the articles and the planned next steps, and conclude with a call for service-learning research efforts to broaden the knowledge and prac-tice bases and to further expand the boundaries of potential research related to this work.

Survey research over the past decade gives us ample evidence of the impact of service-learning on the personal and social development of college students; the evidence for its cognitive impact is less well developed. In order to improve the quality of academic service-learning, we need to move beyond sur-veys and identify the intellectual outcomes best facilitated through service-learning, create measures of those learning outcomes that can be imbedded into the instructional process, and conduct experimental studies of alternative pedagogical techniques to identify those which produce optimal learning and cog-nitive development.

Recent research is reviewed related to the roles of race and gender issues in community service learn-ing. Issues of student participation, student learning and peer interaction, community relationships and impact, and transfer to other venues in the educational institution are explored. A series of foci for fur-ther research related to race and gender issues in community service learning are suggested.

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The lack of research on the community dimensions of service-learning is a glaring omission in the liter-ature. Analysis of the causes of this gap indicate that community-focused research is possible and desir-able. This article presents a four dimensional model for doing research with community partners on the process and outcomes of community service-learning. The authors argue that the research should focus on the community-university partnership as the unit of analysis and that it should use a participatory action research approach.

The critical role of faculty with service-learning is well documented. Yet there is a paucity of research on this topic. This article recommends that increased and immediate attention and resources be focused on research related to: motivations and attractions of faculty to service-learning; supports needed by fac-ulty in service-learning; impacts or influences of service-learning on faculty; satisfactions reported by faculty; and the difficulties, obstacles, and challenges faced by faculty engaged in service-learning.

This essay highlights three areas of research that can deepen our understanding of the relationship between service-learning and citizenship in colleges and universities. First, we discuss the need to under-stand the relationship between different approaches to service-learning and different conceptions of “good” citizenship. Second, we discuss the need to connect research on service-learning to scholarly issues and frameworks from related academic disciplines. Finally, we discuss the need to examine the relationship between the civic mission of higher education institutions and the design, implementation, and impact of curriculum designed to further civic goals (including service-learning).

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The implementation and sustainability of service-learning depends in large part on our better under-standing of the institutional impacts of service-learning, and of the organizational changes that are often needed to make service a central element of academic work and study. Recent literature has outlined the features of an “engaged” institution, and identified organizational characteristics that seem to contribute to the success of service-learning. Future research must tell us more about the comparative forms these characteristics may take in different institutions, explore the possibility of stages of implementa-tion, and clarify our language regarding service as scholarship. Research on institutional change processes, strategies and policies is especially urgent.

Insofar as the question of how service-learning can enhance subject matter learning is important, researchers cannot avoid paying special attention to the norms of the disciplinary (and interdisciplinary) communities where service-learning is practiced. Unfortunately, what we know at this point about its dis-cipline- specific efficacy is very limited. Several recent developments are promising, but the magnitude of the task awaiting us can hardly be overestimated. For in every instance we must understand what natu-ralizing service-learning into a discipline’s discourse community would actually entail. Such an under-standing would, perforce, have to deal with a wide range of topics — from a discipline’s historical tra-ditions and self-understanding, its key concerns, and basic assumptions to its embodiment in depart-ments, curricula, and professional programming. Only with the active cooperation of national and regional disciplinary/interdisciplinary associations can this agenda begin to be successfully addressed.

Research is most beneficial when the design of research is guided by a theory and when the information that is gained through data collection is relevant to supporting, developing, refining, and revising a the-ory. The practice of service-learning will be improved when we understand the conditions that increase the likelihood of service-learning classes reaching intended educational outcomes. This article provides recommendations for generating meaningful information about service-learning that include evaluating hypotheses derived from theory, using multiple-item measures of theoretical constructs, using designs that allow causal inferences to be made, and making appropriate theoretical and practical generaliza-tions from research.

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There is an age-old debate in research: Do we use the approaches of the physical sciences to study the social sciences? This question applies to research in service-learning. In the 21st century, the traditions of positivistic, scientific research are being challenged by other paradigms, such as qualitative/ inter-pretive and critical science. This article presents the strengths of these “other” paradigms, and demon-strates how principles of these approaches model and mirror good service-learning.

Service-learning as a pedagogy offers multiple perspectives from which assessment can be conducted, and provides a rich opportunity for comprehensive and value-added assessment. Development of a comprehen-sive research agenda to build knowledge about service-learning assessment and refine concepts of best prac-tices for assessment will provide the evidence needed to further develop and implement programs and ped-agogies that fulfill the missions and expectations of service-learning.

Service-learning can be viewed as a form of pedagogy designed to enhance learning and promote civic responsibility as well as one of a set of strategies to link the capacity of a college or university to the needs of society. A commitment to service-learning can become the avenue for a larger transformation-al change agenda by providing a focus and a reason to consider significant changes in campus priori-ties, faculty roles and rewards, resource utilization and university-community relationships. The case is made for the role of the scholar/practitioner president and the importance of a legitimate scholarly base to effect institutional change, and a set of questions are identified the answers for which would strength-en a president’s and an institution’s capacity to advance the service-learning agenda

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The design of service-learning research is examined using a fourfold scheme developed by the psychol-ogist- philosopher Ken Wilber. By interfacing Wilber’s two dichotomies — the interior vs. the exterior and the individual vs. the group — researchers have access to a comprehensive (“integral”) framework for conceptualizing the full range of service-learning outcomes that might be investigated. Wilber’s frame-work can also be useful in studies that seek to identify effective strategies for increasing faculty involve-ment in service-learning.

This article examines the interplay between service-learning policy and service-learning research, and the impact both have had on service-learning practice. First, it looks at the traditional role that research tends to play in the policy-making process — a responsive, informing role, providing the necessary infor-mation for policy makers to construct more effective programs. The article then looks at an alternative approach to understanding policy that sees research as playing a role in constituting the field, giving meaning and establishing fundamental goals and objectives for a specific area of endeavor. This role is especially relevant in fields such as service-learning, where the fundamental concepts and definitions are actively contested in the political arena. A case is made for service-learning practitioners and researchers to make useable knowledge available to help clarify contested concepts and shape the con-struction of service-learning policy so that it is consistent with the best practices in the field.

Action research is an approach to knowledge generation that can strengthen communities and institutions and that is ideally suited to the advancement of academically-based service-learning. We briefly set out the history and goals of this approach to service-learning, define some current challenges, provide examples from three action research projects that respond to those challenges, and identify a sample of questions for research about this method of service-learning.

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In this practitioner’s perspective on service-learning research the author calls for a more empirically-based approach to practice and a more practical approach to research. A more empirically-based approach to practice can enable practitioners to strengthen their programs and influence the direction of research. A practice-oriented approach to research can enable researchers to identify and document service-learning’s outcomes as well as methods for achieving those outcomes, which will strengthen practitioners’ capacity to develop and implement exemplary programs and courses. Recommendations are made to bring practition-ers and researchers together to strengthen future directions for service-learning research.

Although research on service-learning is somewhat more advanced than studies of experiential learning more broadly defined, both lines of inquiry are in a fairly rudimentary state. The two fields share a num-ber of important questions: how the field-based experience shapes and is shaped by classroom-based learning; what pedagogical strategies best foster learning; how the two forms of experience build skills and help students think about careers; and how service and non-service experiences contribute to per-sonal development and the capacity for civic engagement. Researchers in service-learning and experi-ential education should collaborate more extensively to make greater progress toward answering these shared questions.

This paper explores the rationale for the establishment of a national center for research on service-learn-ing. The paper outlines a number of the current issues and challenges in conducting research on service-learning and describes how the establishment of the national center can raise the standards and visibil-ity of service-learning research. The paper offers several suggestions about how the national center might be funded, structured, and administered.