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This qualitative study is based on in-depth interviews with 40 representatives from 12 community-based organizations (CBOs) working with the Steans Center for Community-based Service-Learning at DePaul University in Chicago. These CBOs see themselves as partners with the University in educating college students about the realities of racial and socioeconomic disparities in the United States through direct interactions with CBO programs and clients. Findings include: motivations for these CBOs to partner with DePaul tend to differ from the motivations to continue the partnership; the benefits to working with service-learners outweigh the challenges; and CBO's perceptions of DePaul University have been posi-tively influenced by their relationships with the Steans Center.
The authors provide historical context related to the changing nature of scholarship and how it is reward-ed, paying particular attention to the concept of service. Data collected from education faculty employed at Mississippi public universities is then used to identify how perceptions of service as a supported form of scholarship correlate to institutional policies (most notably tenure and promotion policies). Conclusions are consistent with other studies that find the service role to be neither highly valued nor well defined. However, it appears that institutional initiatives aimed at broadening the notion of service and strengthening rewards for it are reflected in faculty perceptions on individual campuses. It is not clear, however, that faculty behaviors actually conform to those perceptions. Some of the qualitative data suggest that other social, cultural, political, and contextual realities within an institution and/or disci-pline have an equal or greater role in the formation of these perceptions. These considerations about ser-vice are considered in the context of recent exhortations for faculty to incorporate activities immediate-ly useful for communities into their work.
This study examines characteristics of human sciences/Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) faculty who do and do not incorporate service-learning in their teaching, examines their perceptions about service-learning as an effective teaching strategy, and identifies the factors that motivate and deter use of ser-vice- learning. Survey results from 368 human sciences/FCS faculty members in institutions of higher education across the United States perceive service-learning to be an effective tool for learning and teaching within the human sciences.
The effects of service-learning on the academic attainment of rehabilitation services students were exam-ined using a quasi-experimental design. One hundred and thirty senior rehabilitation services students enrolled in the medical aspects of disabilities course, 65 with service-learning and 65 with classroom-only instruction. The same instructor taught both sets of students. Student academic achievement was measured over the semester using three multiple-choice examinations and three case studies. The case studies were scored by a teaching assistant blind to the students' learning option. Group comparisons controlled for early semester scores. Students involved with service-learning achieved significantly higher scores on the case studies and comparable scores on the multiple choice tests. Service-learning appeared to enhance academic learning more so than classroom-only instruction.
This article analyzes the challenges encountered in a first-year service-learning course in which students had high expectations for community involvement and a commitment to social responsibility, yet signifi-cant difficulty connecting their service orientation to the intellectual inquiry expected of them at the col-lege level. This conflict between "making a difference" and undertaking complementary academic work was evident in students'reflections, and in our own. As a result of this case study and secondary research, it appears that introductory service-learning courses may need to be reconceptualized for the increasing numbers of students who come to college with prior service experiences and strong orientations toward social action.
Dewey's Dream: Universities and Democracies in an Age of Education Reform:
Civic Society, Public Schools, and Democratic Citizenship
Lee Benson, Ira Harkavy, and John Puckett
Philadelphia: Temple University Pres, 2007
Last Updated October 19, 2007
