This paper describes an eight-year service-learning experiment that created four distinct spaces in which campus and community members meet, reflect, and act together. This work explores the tensions between traditional and critical service-learning, and points to the importance of building relationships with members of local communities and…

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a synchronistic set of events and relationships generated a new kind of experiential learning in communities across Mississippi. Educators based at the University of Mississippi, community-based educators, social justice advocates, and funders collaborated to provide the resources and opportunities for…

Program evaluation is recognized as an essential skill set for practitioners in service-related fields, such as education, nonprofit management, social work, and public health. Recently, the need for a public workforce trained in evaluation has increased and is driven primarily by our nation's emphasis on accountability during a time when…

Urban life comes with diverse social, environmental, health care, and education problems. However, for many of the people seeking better economic, social, and education opportunities, the big city still holds a special allure. Jazz singer Frank Sinatra sings in "New York, New York" that he wants to "wake up in a city that never…

This qualitative narrative study presents the Children's Defense Fund Freedom School as an exemplar of an educational program with a model of spiritual education, which supports the preparation of pre-service teachers by nurturing an ethos of service. The purpose of this study is to examine the potential for a summer experience of…

Describes school-based service learning at the middle school level and the rationale for implementing service-learning projects. Differentiates various types of projects, provides guidelines and ideas for implementing projects, and describes relevant organizations at the community, state, and national levels. (KB)

"Higher Education Exchange" publishes case studies, analyses, news, and ideas about efforts within higher education to develop more democratic societies. Contributors to this issue of the "Higher Education Exchange" examine whether institutions of higher learning are doing anything to increase the capacity of citizens to shape…

As the prevalence of service-learning within higher education institutions grows across the globe there is value to explore, discuss, and describe the similarities and differences between the various expressions that are emerging. Such comparative analysis can deepen understanding of service-learning pedagogy, improve practice, and create a…

For over 30 years, Foxfire has been developing an approach to learning that is learner-centered and community-focused. Foxfire's initial success resulted from a successful student-produced magazine in a rural Georgia high school. Attempts to duplicate this success often overlooked the key ingredients, student choice and academic integrity, that…

Using the concept of triangles as a schematic conceptualization of service learning is a useful pedagogical tool in helping faculty, students, and community members to see the linkages among the component concepts in service learning approaches. Service learning, which is the linking of academic instruction with community service as guided by…

This report illustrates how community service learning can be used as a vehicle for achieving the goals of education and youth development and, concurrently, how it is highly consistent with the goals of systemic educational reform, particularly in rural schools and communities. Part 1 covers the definition of service learning as a method of…

Community-based learning (CBL) is a structured approach to learning and teaching that connects meaningful community experience with intellectual development, personal growth, and active citizenship. Enthusiasm for CBL is emerging in Australia and elsewhere because it is seen as the following: strategy for whole-school reform, especially in…

This booklet, which is addressed to school administrators, examines the principles of service learning as a way of teaching rather than just another program and explains how administrators can customize service learning to the unique characteristics of their own schools and communities. The booklet begins by defining service learning as a delivery…

This document contains 13 papers on advances in service-learning research. The following papers are included: "Introduction" (Andrew Furco, Shelley H. Billig); "Community Service and Service-Learning in America: The State of the Art" (Ivor Pritchard); "Is Service-Learning Really Better Than Community Service? A Study of…

Service learning (SL) is a teaching method that integrates service to the community with classroom curriculum and provides a hands-on approach to mastering subject material while fostering civic responsibility. Through funds from the Corporation for National Service (CNS), nearly every state has resources and some level of SL programming. Although…