While there is a rich array of community-based learning activities and approaches across the Portland State University campus, the authors assert that integrating a critical service learning (CSL), rather than traditional service learning (TSL), model in the first-year curriculum benefits both students and community partners. They advocate for…

Scholars have suggested that civic engagement in the United States is declining and some have argued that institutions of higher education are responsible for the fostering of civic engagement through efforts such as service learning. These opportunities may be created either through a top-down approach with student assignment to specific groups…

In this article we explore the dynamic between the pedagogical and the urban, attending to 'agentive urban learning'. By this we mean processes by which young people build agency in the urban context, in using the resources of the city to develop their own agency, and of developing agency to act within the city. By agency, we refer to the capacity…