Adult learners represent a significant, and growing, portion of enrollment at higher education institutions. Despite their growing enrollment, adult learners are not retained at nearly the rate of their "traditional" peers, leaving colleges and universities with the need to identify programs and services that specifically address the…

This chapter describes a multidisciplinary faculty self-study about reciprocity in service-learning. The study began with each coauthor participating in a Decoding interview. We describe how Decoding combined with collaborative self-study had a positive impact on our teaching practice.

Community service-learning (CSL) programs are proliferating in Canadian higher education. University programs promote students' experiential learning in community as part of a course; students most often engage in unpaid work in not-for-profit organizations and reflect on that experience in relation to their classroom learning. However, programs…

In this article, we detail our findings from a case study of three instructors as they newly implemented service-learning pedagogies into their first year writing classes. Drawing on the instructors' perspectives as part of a larger programmatic assessment, we demonstrate that a service-learning curriculum can broadly foster learning outcomes for…

This paper explores how community service-learning (CSL) participants negotiate competing institutional logics in Canadian higher education. Drawing theoretically from new institutionalism and work on institutional logics, we consider how CSL has developed in Canadian universities and how participants discuss CSL in relation to other dominant…

Higher education institutions are seeking greater community engagement through academic, social and civic activity. In response, researcher attention has turned to impacts on students' education, and benefits to both university and community partners. This phenomenographic study examines how a diverse group of teachers, researchers and…

This study explores the narratives of eight students who served as journal reviewers on a non-course-related service activity. The aim of this study was to develop an understanding of their experiences. The review board was multi-disciplinary in composition; the majority of its student and faculty members were from communities historically…

Ethical competencies are included in all competency-based education models and are considered essential for the professional preparation of students, especially in terms of their professional conduct and workplace preparedness. As such, the Tuning Academy, along with incorporating ethical competencies in its group of generic competencies, also…

Research shows that not only does higher education not see the public; when the public, in turn, looks at higher education, it sees mostly malaise, inefficiencies, expense, and unfulfilled promises. Yet, the contributors to this issue of the "Higher Education Exchange" tell of bright spots in higher education where experiments in working…

This research explored issues surrounding service-learning directors (SLDs) within higher education institutions, including who they are, how they became SLDs, and what they experience in the role. Qualitative data were drawn from in-depth interviews of 11 SLDs, as well as review of their vitaes. A qualitative inductive analysis was conducted in…

Student development has connections to important academic purposes in higher education (King, Baxter Magolda, Barber, Kendall Brown & Lindsay, 2009). In particular, a growing body of work on self-authorship, a social-constructive theory of development, has demonstrated relevance to the purposes of higher education (Baxter Magolda, 2001; King…

In a September 2013 interview, Thomas Ehrlich and Ernestine Fu--whose passion for public service is manifested in differing ways and from two dramatically different generational standpoints--discussed insights from their co-authored book, "Civic Work, Civic Lessons: Two Generations Reflect on Public Service (2013)." Septuagenarian Tom…

Young would-be artists flock to art schools to learn from masters and immerse themselves in a study of the aesthetic histories, techniques, and theories that will inform their practices. However, the emergence of community-partnered project-based (CP) studio courses at many independent art colleges signals a fundamental shift in art and design…

Using longitudinal data collected as part of the 2004/09 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, this study employed structural equation modeling to examine how multiple dimensions of college students' service participation shape life goals oriented toward meaning, purpose, and citizenship and subsequent service engagement. The…

This article identifies the importance of educating social work students and enlisting social work faculty to embrace the university-community engagement arena as a critical subfield of community practice. Through the lens of social work knowledge, values, and skills, the authors present three case studies of social workers who are working in the…