This article presents a holistic approach to understanding the activities that constitute faculty engagement. After setting an historical context for the public service roles of faculty, the authors define specific activities involving service-learning, community-based research, and certain forms of professional service as the most relevant to…

While service-learning has distinguished itself in the literature as a problem-based experiential alternative to dominant classroom-based, subject-centered pedagogies, there is a strange absence of research based on program planning theory. This work introduces program planning theory to the field of service-learning and reports findings from a…

This instrumental case study documents a community-based participatory evaluation research (CBPER) project that involved a community partner, two graduate students, a faculty member, and an external funder. It highlights the fact that a participatory evaluation model is a viable way to conduct community-based research (CBR) when a community…

A significant number of community service-learning projects in higher education involve the teaching or tutoring of immigrants in English. As in related service-learning scholarship, these projects are commonly informed by perspectives on cultural difference, social justice, and power relations in U.S. society. Yet while faculty pair their…

Service-learning can be academically effective even when the distances between students and client organizations prevent face-to-face interchanges and site visits. Working with the State of Michigan and Michigan Townships Association, Michigan students from five universities learned about local government while helping Michigan townships develop…

Although a vibrant literature on the social justice advantages of writing service-learning programs has existed for many years, the focus has tended to be on specific projects and courses, often accompanied by an understandable suspicion that entrenched institutions like universities have interests inimical to radical social change. As a result,…

Research on Service-learning's (SL) impact on students' moral development has been "mixed." In this study, 46 students in SL and non-SL sections of comparable courses offered at a northeastern Catholic university completed the Defining Issues Test, the Moral Justification Scale, and the SL Outcome Scale at the beginning and end of a semester.…

This paper presents the results of interviews with staff from 64 community organizations regarding their experiences with service-learners. One of the themes that emerged from the interviews focused on concerns related to short-term service-learning commitments that last a semester or less. We explore the challenges presented to community groups…

Conversations continue as to whether and how community-based learning and research (CBLR) can be most effectively integrated into the mission and practice of institutions of higher education (IHEs). In 2005, eight District of Columbia- (DC-) area universities affiliated with the Community Research and Learning (CoRAL) Network engaged in a planning…

Approaching reflection from the perspective of a teachable skill set implies that research may inform how to help students reflect. Employing a framework of making connections often used in reading comprehension, this study aimed to characterize how making connections between the service-learning experience (SLE) and prior experiences in similar…

There is an emerging body of literature advocating a "critical" approach to community service learning with an explicit social justice aim. A social change orientation, working to redistribute power, and developing authentic relationships are most often cited in the literature as points of departure from traditional service-learning. This…

We analyze a multi-campus collaboration in a Food Stamp Enrollment Campaign to demonstrate that a well-managed public benefits campaign, associated with broader advocacy-based community partnerships, can result in positive outcomes for the community that include measurable benefits for clients, data needed to make policy and administrative…

The professional standards in the field of foreign language pedagogy focus on communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities. Using those 5 C's as a framework, the authors examine student success at satisfying those disciplinary standards through community service learning (CSL). Data is used to present a qualitative case…

This article presents the findings from a narrative inquiry exploring the perceived outcomes associated with a high school service-learning graduation requirement from a diverse group of college students. In particular, we were interested in participants' stories related to their experiences meeting the requirement, the meaning they made of the…

International service-learning (ISL) combines academic instruction and community-based service in an international context. Objectives of linking international travel, education, and community service include increasing participants' global awareness, building intercultural understanding, and enhancing civic mindedness and skills. Research on…