What is one value that grounds you in your civic engagement work? How are you walking the talk of that value in your assessment work? Or, how might you? And, what both helps and gets in the way of your doing that? These questions were posed to service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) faculty and staff gathered for an assessment institute…

This paper is part of a study on the long-term effects of participation in a comprehensive service-learning program on alumni knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for effective democratic citizenship. In this article, the larger research project is introduced and its central questions are put into historical context. I contend that…

Studied a project undertaken by 21 undergraduates enrolled in an American University Washington Semester Program seminar using the collaborative teaching/lawyering method of clinical legal education. Results show that this type of community service learning can be incorporated into undergraduate courses. (SLD)

John Dewey's writing is explicit concerning the moral responsibilities of education in democracy. These moral dimensions provide a framework for identifying characteristics of good undergraduate education consistent with recent reports and the pedagogy of service learning. Articulation of these characteristics supports the value of service…

Does service-learning contribute to the privatizing or downsizing of citizenship practices, a claim recently leveled by Crenson and Ginsberg (2002), or can service-learning be understood and practiced as a vital antidote to this troubling trend? The author revisits a theme often raised within the service-learning and civic education literature…

As interest in service-learning increases, there is a concomitant need for a theoretical base for it. Reviews aspects of John Dewey's educational and social philosophy relevant to the development service-learning theory, including learning from experience, reflective thinking, citizenship, community, and democracy. A series of key questions for…

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…

Describes a neighborhood-based democratic decision-making process in which college students conducted research to support a group of citizens as they attempted to make informed decisions about the future directions of their community. Discussion looks at how to create forums that allow for genuine democratic decision making and the roles of…