Community leadership development programs (CLDPs) purport to train and equip individuals for leadership role participation in 5,500 communities across the United States. These communities seem to see value in these programs, yet there is little accountability for what graduates are actually doing in the community after program completion. The…

Historically, girls' education has been problematic in Afghanistan, where girls' education was challenged or even banned by many groups of people and regimes. Recent years have seen significant improvement; starting with one million boys and no girls at school after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the Afghan education system grew ninefold and now…

The purpose of this research study was to explore the benefits and challenges of cross-racial mentoring experienced by both first-generation BIPOC student mentees attending predominantly white institutions, and their white mentors, who participated in a non-profit college success program. First-generation BIPOC college students experience greater…

The purpose of this study was to examine the levels of service learning dimensions and service learning partnerships. The study examined three partnerships currently maintained through the Office of Public Service at a four-year educational institution in the southeastern region of the United States. The partnerships were: AuburnServes, a…

Effective partnerships for education reform "require that schools view parents and communities not simply as customers or clients but as partners in the educational process" (Sanders, 2009, p. 1695). In 2012, seven Seattle area school districts and the Puget Sound Educational Service District (the PSESD) were awarded funding for the Road…

Broadly defined as the combination and/or integration of participation in a community service activity with formal learning and reflection (Clark, 1999; Reising, Allen, & Hall, 2006; Tucker, McCarthy, & Lenk, 1998; Yan & Rodgers, 2006), service-learning activities range from voluntary student organized initiatives to mandatory…

The School of Planning Policy and Development at the University of Southern California brought together representatives of neighborhood councils and city agencies of the city of Los Angeles together in an action research program. This action research program called the Collaborative Learning Project developed a collaboration process called the…

The purpose of this methodological study is to explore how well a process called "concept mapping" (Trochim, 1989) can articulate the theory which underlies a social program. Articulation of a program's theory is a key step in completing a sound theory based evaluation (Weiss, 1997a). In this study, concept mapping is used to…

This study investigates how the Pierre Verger Cultural Space (PVCS), an educational organization dedicated to teaching Afro-Brazilian culture in Bahia, uses music to construct a sense of Afro-Brazilian self. Located in a poverty-stricken neighborhood of Salvador, Bahia, the PVCS sees its mission as "rescuing" ("resgatar") an…

The purpose of this study was to understand the role of non-formal education and training in the organizational change process of Civil society organizations (CSOs) in post war Liberia. CSOs are the local foundation for democracy and development in Liberia, and serve a wide range of roles in local communities. For example, in post-war Liberia,…

This study explored the perceptions and perspectives of African American male students with regard to their experiences in a youth development initiative sponsored by a community-based organization. This examination aimed to ascertain the aspects of the program that, first, prompted the students to be a part of the initiative, but also those…

The purpose of this study was to describe a collaborative partnership model known as the Global Educational Ecosystem, which involves three K-12 schools in Northern California, community organizations (representing science, technology, health, and arts), and Xilinx, Inc. from the perspectives of the leaders of the involved partner organizations in…