As service-learning is adopted by growing numbers of higher education institutions, there is increasing interest in understanding the factors necessary to sustain service-learning for the long-term. Institutions that were early adopters of service-learning may offer important insights into what factors influence long-term sustainability. With this…

Responds to the argument that service-learning must be supported by a theory of knowledge--antifoundational pragmatism--holding that this characterization of the pragmatist model retains the dualism seen as a fault of traditional epistemology. Suggests a remedy, and then extends the original argument by setting more restrictive limits on the range…

Service-learning is used least often in the fields at the core of the liberal arts and sciences, in part because of the perceived incompatibility between the purposes of a liberal education and the dynamics of service-learning. When we understand better the purposes and values of liberal learning, we will find service-learning a useful pedagogy…

Argues that higher education's traditional "closed" communities contrast sharply with democratic progressive ones that are more inclusive, empowering, and diverse. Drawing on feminism and postmodernism, demonstrates why service-learning is well suited to connect relational, experiential, and constructive epistemologies with democratic progressive…

Discusses rejuvenation of the campus community service movement and its potential to explore the meaning of citizenship in a democracy. Argues that civic education should be an integral part of a liberal education and that community service can help prepare students for citizenship. A Rutgers University (New Jersey) program illustrates how service…

Service-learning has drawn largely on a few major theorists for theoretical support. Additional theoretical perspectives drawn from cognitive psychology and social theory can also contribute, including constructs of concept formation, selective perception, categorization, critical reflection, and mediated learning. Each of these helps to explain…

Until recently the service-learning movement has had an ideological bias, prioritizing moral/civic questions related to the service experience. Now it needs to invest more intellectual energy in specifically academic concerns. Only by paying attention to the needs of individual disciplines and allying itself with other academic interest groups…

A study examined how five colleges and universities with stated commitments to public service incorporate volunteerism and service-learning into organizational structures. Results suggest that institutions that make centralized decisions and share governance are more apt to institutionalize service-learning than are more loosely coupled systems.…