Research studies reflect mixed results on whether or not service-learning increases student learning outcomes. The current study seeks to reconcile these findings by extending a meta-analysis conducted by Novak, Markey, and Allen (2007) in which these authors examined service-learning and student learning outcomes. In the current study, 11…

This project used oral history contributed by community story-tellers as source material for choreographic work performed in the community. The oral histories focused on four major areas: arrival (migration), social life, spirituality, and segregation/civil rights. Public performances took place at the university, local schools, and the community…

Based on quantitative survey data and qualitative data from journal entries by students in a seminar focused on community-based research, undergraduate student perceptions of community partners are explored in the context of debates about the politics of knowledge. Student perceptions that frame community partners as the recipients of academic…

Reciprocity is a foundational concept in service-learning and community engagement, yet it is frequently referred to in the literature without precise conceptualization or critical examination, in effect suggesting a shared understanding of the concept among practitioners and scholars. However, understandings and applications of the term vary…

This paper explores four potent tensions between service-learning students and their community agency hosts. These tensions result from naturally opposing perspectives and are reflected in the service-learning literature focused on criticism and complaint. Given the centrality of the alliance between service-learners and their community host…

This paper illustrates an approach for using university-wide service-learning student outcomes to assess student work for the purpose of improving service-learning student and faculty learning and course design. The author and a colleague used this approach to study the author's service-learning course. The results of this study generated an…

Through an analysis of a practice-oriented course on youth worker professional development consisting of 10 community youth workers and 11 traditional college students, this paper suggests the need to construct the classroom as a "borderland." Course structure, class composition, pedagogical strategies, and deliberate learning objectives disrupted…

This article explores the mutually enriching bodies of scholarship in service-learning and Critical Emotion Studies with a focus on empathy and compassion, which, perhaps more than any other emotions, hold a prominent place in service-learning literature. We offer an overview of nascent research on empathy and compassion in Critical Emotion…

Community service learning and community-based research necessitate the development of strong community-university partnerships. In this paper, students, faculty, and a community partner critically reflect upon the process of establishing a long-term community-university partnership through the integration of a community service learning component…

This article presents the results of a narrative case study exploring the influences of social identity on the outcomes associated with a short-term immersion program focused on HIV/AIDS. Presented in the form of contextual, individual, and shared narratives, results suggest that participants crossed developmental, interpersonal, and cultural…

As New Orleans began to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, Tulane University also began its recovery process. A new initiative in the recovery was the establishment of a public service graduation requirement for undergraduate students. Attitudes toward the requirement were assessed for 290 first-year and 257 advanced students in fall 2006. The…

This article reviews the unique opportunities and challenges related to establishing and maintaining a long-term community-university development partnership in a historic African American community. It highlights the significant benefits and costs generated by an interdisciplinary community development assistance project undertaken by a community…

This study considered the impact of the SERVE Program upon participating college students' belief in the American Dream. The SERVE Program is a community service learning program sponsored by the philosophy and theology departments at Ignatius University. Using a mixed methods approach, the authors found that participating students demonstrated…

Previous research has established numerous outcomes associated with taking service-learning coursework during college. However, most studies have examined the impact of three- or four-credit courses involving engagement of several hours per week, and other research has suggested that the gains associated with service-learning are directly related…

This study examined the civic outcomes of the Sustained Dialogue model. Qualitative interviews investigated the perceived impacts of dialogue experience on post-graduate civic life, generating an inventory of 29 dialogue civic outcomes across five domains: 1) cognitions, 2) behaviors, 3) attitudes 4) skills, and 5) hopes and plans for the future.…