In this article we discuss the lived, embodied experience of home-making in relation to identity and belonging through the example of a service-learning project conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic in a higher education setting in London, UK. We also explore the notion of belonging-not-belonging as a cultural, material and embodied construct,…

The Chicago Center for Urban Life and Culture is a non-profit organization that has been developing place-based education models since it was established in 1970. Situated in an urban environment, the Chicago Center operates at the intersection of higher education and place-based education with a pedagogical approach that centers and elevates…

This essay describes a service-learning course designed with heart-centered pedagogy. Authors examine the relationship between individual and society in service learning and discuss the rationale and processes involved in curricular design to suggest an alternative approach to community engagement. Understanding service learning as going beyond…

Over the course of the past three decades, service learning has become a major component in higher education. Heretofore, however, there has been limited 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…

This article examines the intersection of critical pedagogy, service-learning, and interactive performance epistemology to describe the impact performance events and processes have on student learning. Specifically, this research extends Jill Dolan's concept of utopian performance and illustrates the potential of performance not only to generate a…

In this article we consider the material dimensions of schooling as constitutive of the possibilities inherent in "fixing" education. We begin by mapping out the problem of "fixing education," pointing to the necrophilic tendencies of contemporary education--a desire to kill what otherwise might be life-giving. In this sense,…

Analyzing the development of the "New Orleans Black Worker Organizing History" digital humanities timeline, 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. Embracing the ephemerality…

Critical service-learning (CSL) enhances community-engaged service-learning and civic identity development, but are CSL principles congruent with assessments guided by the Civic-Minded Graduate Rubric 2.0? Using a CSL lens, I critique the rubric, noting areas of progress and recommendations to enhance its treatment of identity, power, and…

Service learning and short-term missions represent one of the many habits disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The disruption imposed a break from routine that may also offer opportunities to push back on habits that hinder the flourishing of our students and our host communities. This article critically analyzes the practice of these trips to…

The author begins this essay by reflecting on an article penned twenty years earlier, "Does Service-Learning Have a Future?" (Zlotkowski, 1995) that called educators to attend seriously to the academic aspects of service-learning (SL), to situate the pedagogy strongly within the academy as a means of legitimizing and expanding the work.…

In this dialogue with Monica Ridgeway and Randy Yerrick's "Whose banner are we waving?: Exploring STEM partnerships for marginalized urban youth," I engage the critical race theory (CRT) tenet of interest convergence. I first expand Derrick Bell's (1980) initial statement of interest convergence with subsequent scholarly work in this…

This article examines pre-service teachers' responses to their experiences with community engagement as a service learning project as part of an introductory Education course at a large, midwestern urban university in the United States. It is typical for students in pre-service Education courses to participate in service learning in schools or…

This article argues for the need for a social justice approach to technical communication research and pedagogy. Given previous calls by scholars in technical and professional communication (TPC) for an attention to diversity, inclusion, and equality, the author examines the place and purpose of social justice in TPC and provides useful approaches…

Drawing from their experiences teaching two different activism-focused writing courses, the authors consider the benefits, pitfalls, and potential dangers of activist writing pedagogy. Scott provides a retrospective on a rhetoric and writing course focused on the employment of digital rhetoric, while Katherine reflects on an activist-rhetoric…

Dan Butin exmines and questions whether the goal, or dream, of service-learning has been actualized in practice. He raises the possibility that what educators dream of-a critical service-learning able to ameliorate persistent real-world inequities-may be a case of their dreaming being fulfilled, rather than their dreams. More specifically, he…