Sociology Commons^™

Justice-Learning: Service-Learning As Justice-Oriented Education, Dan W. Butin

Special Topics, General

"Justice-learning" lies at the intersection of service-learning and social justice education. Specifically, I argue for a distinctive form of community-based learning ("antifoundational service-learning") that fosters a justice-oriented framework ("anti-anti-social justice") that makes possible the questioning and disruption of unexamined and all too often oppressive binaries of how we view the struggle toward equity in education. The linkage of service-learning and social justice education in this manner offers a "weak overcoming" that strengthens experiential learning toward justice while avoiding the dilution and radicalization faced by both movements. I, thus, trace the linkages between service-learning and social justice education; explicate the potential …

We Know It's Service, But What Are They Learning? Preservice Teachers' Understandings Of Diversity, Courtney A. Bell, Brian R. Horn, Kevin C. Roxas

Diversity

A great deal of research on multiculturalism looks at different approaches to multicultural education and visions of multicultural teaching and learning. Though some research theorizes about how preservice teachers might learn about race or gender, there is very little work that helps teacher educators understand what learning about diversity more broadly, might look like. This study uses the conceptual framework developed by Paine to raise questions about and illuminate differences in the learning outcomes of preservice teachers who participated in two similar yet notably different service-learning experiences. Through examinations of writing tasks we find that teacher learning did indeed depend …

An American Mosaic: Service Learning Stories, Carol Lester, Gail Robinson

Higher Education

The goals of Community Colleges Broadening Horizons through Service Learning, supported by the Learn and Serve America program of the Corporation for National and Community Service and administered by the American Association of Community Colleges, are to build on established foundations to integrate service learning into the institutional climate of community colleges and to increase the number, quality, and sustainability of service learning programs in colleges nationwide.

Service learning combines community service with classroom instruction, focusing on critical, reflective thinking as well as personal and civic responsibility. Service learning programs involve students in activities that address local needs while developing …

Teen Toolkit: Prepare Today - Lead Tomorrow, Camp Fire Usa

Service Learning, General

Prepare Today—Lead Tomorrow is a teen service-learning experience developed through a grant from Learn and Serve America by Camp Fire USA staff from councils across the country. The goals of this initiative are to:
-Engage teens in intensive community preparedness service-learning experiences.
-Create opportunities for youth to provide leadership roles in community preparedness efforts.
-Improve the level of preparedness in families, schools, and communities.

Service Learning In Medical Education: Project Description And Evaluation, Nicole J. Borges, Paul J. Hartung

Service Learning, General

Although medical education has long recognized the importance of community service, most medical schools have not formally nor fully incorporated service learning into their curricula. To address this problem, we describe the initial design, development, implementation, and evaluation of a service-learning project within a first-year medical school course. Medical students (eight women, eight men) screened clients of a community agency for high blood pressure and educated them about the effects of hypertension on health. Results of the project indicated significant increases in students' attitudes, knowledge, and skills related to community health, resources, and service. Infusing medical education with service-learning activities …

Service-Learning: Motivations For K-12 Teachers, Marjori Maddox Krebs

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

The purpose of this dissertation is to describe the essence of the service-learning experience for K-12 teachers in central and northwest Ohio, specifically exploring teacher motivations for initiating service-learning in the classroom. Service-learning is defined as an educational methodology that incorporates student preparation, service to the community, and reflection, with links to the academic curriculum (Billig, 2002).

Guidance And Learn And Serve Program Partnerships: A View Towards Integration For Classroom Delivery, Bob Bhaerman, Harry Drier

School K-12

The purpose of this monograph is to stimulate a dialogue between counselors, their guidance programs, and classroom teachers about how they might work together to design or continue to and implement community service-learning efforts. We first will raise a series of questions on service-learning and then tum to exploring how and where guidance programs fit into service learning outcomes and activities. As you review the questions on service learning, think of the ways in which you, in your role as counselor and guidance program manager, might become a more meaningful partner with classroom teachers. This monograph helps us to see …

Gun Related Youth Violence: Fear Of Victimization Versus The Influence Of Significant Others, Ryan E. Spohn, Samantha Lane

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Differential association/social learning theories have received considerable empirical support as an explanation of participation in delinquent acts, including violent delinquency (Heimer 1997). More recently, and primarily as a result of highly publicized school shootings in suburban high schools, fear of crime and victimization have received attention as motivators of gun-carrying and gun violence. These phenomena are generally not examined in unison, however, leaving open the question of their relative role as a cause of gun carrying and violence amongst youth. The current research project addresses this question. A major strength of the current research is the adoption of multiple measures …

Developmental Outcomes Of Service Learning Pedagogics, Josh P. Armstrong

Higher Education

This study explored the psychosocial development outcomes of service learning from three distinct models: ongoing continuous service throughout a semester in co-curricular service learning; one time, intensive week-long spring break service learning trips; and ongoing service through a semester of academically-based service learning. A control group of students who had no involvement in service learning was used for comparative purposes. The Student Developmental Task and Lifestyle Assessment (SDTLA; Winston, Miller, & Cooper, 1999b) was administered to college students involved in each of the three types of service learning and the control group. This instrument was administered as a pre-test at …

Baby Boomers’ Attitudes Towards Product Placements, Nichole M. Schmoll, John Hafer, Michael L. Hilt, Hugh J. Reilly

Communication Faculty Publications

Including branded products within mass media programming is becoming common. Previous research has focused almost entirely on college-age students' attitudes about placements in movies and television. This research focuses on Baby Boomers and is the first to include questions about multiple media in forming attitudes towards product placements. Six hypotheses were tested. Attitude toward product placement is related to media consumption. Males appear more positive than females. Interactions effects of media consumption x gender and media consumption x age appear insignificant. Analytical results, graphs, tables and managerial implications and representative comments from respondents are presented.

Latino Political Participation In Nebraska: The Challenge Of Enhancing Voter Mobilization And Representation - Ollas Report No. 3, Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado

Latino/Latin American Studies Reports

This OLLAS policy brief seeks to enhance basic information regarding the role Latinos will play in shaping the future of politics in Nebraska in the short and medium term. Because issues such as immigration policy, fair housing, labor practices, and public education have risen to the top of the political agenda nationally and statewide, and because these issues most directly impact the lives of Nebraska’s growing Latino constituencies legitimately, we must consider to what extent Latino stakeholders can shape the debate and articulate acceptable policy responses to these matters.

How effectively these issues are dealt with will have major implications …

The Effect Of Local Life Circumstances On Female Probationers' Offending, Marie L. Griffin, Gaylene Armstrong

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This article examines the influence of change in local life circumstances on the short-term criminal behavior of female drug-abusing probationers. Using a binomial hierarchical generalized linear model, we examine the probability that certain “discrete life events” act to modify or change criminal behavior in the short term. The findings indicate that participants' involvement in conventional activities results in the decreased likelihood of engaging in nondrug crimes but an increased likelihood of drug dealing. Faced with this contradiction, we suggest that the dynamics of offending are altered by the nature of the criminal activity itself and the way in which gender …

Virginia Learn And Serve Evaluation: Evaluation Report, Rmc Research Corporation

Project Summaries

Virginia Learn and Serve, funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service, is intended to support efforts to involve young people in meaningful service to their communities, while simultaneously building their academic and civic skills. In 2003-2004, the Virginia Department of Education provided subgrants to 12 K-12 school-based service-learning programs. Priority was given to those programs that implemented high quality service-learning projects that support high academic standards, specifically Virginia's Standards of Learning.

Assessing The Relative Effects Of State Direct File Waiver Laws On Violent Juvenile Crime: Deterrence Or Irrelevance, Benjamin Steiner, Emily M. Wright

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Juvenile waiver, or transfer, laws allow certain young offenders to be removed from juvenile court jurisdiction and prosecuted in criminal court, where the range of sanctions is presumably greater. In the past several decades, many states have modified their existing transfer statutes in order to streamline the waiver process and make it easier to prosecute juveniles in criminal court. In doing so, states have excluded certain offenses from juvenile court jurisdiction or added concurrent jurisdiction provisions to their existing waiver statutes. Concurrent jurisdiction, or direct file, statutes afford prosecutors the unreviewable discretion to charge certain juveniles in either juvenile or …

The Limits Of Service-Learning In Higher Education, Dan W. Butin

Higher Education

The service-learning movement has become a major presence within higher education. More than 950 colleges and universities are Campus Compact members, committed to the civic purposes of higher education. Tens of thousands of faculty engage millions of college students in some form of service-learning practice each and every year. Major federal and private funding sustains and expands an increasingly diverse K -16 service-learning movement.

Developing Indicators And Measures Of Civic Outcomes For Elementary School Students, Bernadette Chi, Joann Jastrzab, Alan Melchior

Civic Engagement

Over the past decade, public attention on the importance of the civic development and education of youth has grown. To address these concerns, the East Bay Conservation Corps (EBCC) Charter School opened in 1996 with the explicit mission to prepare and engage students grades K through 12 as caring citizens who are capable and motivated to fully participate in our democracy. While content standards and assessments readily exist to articulate the academic and artistic development of students, youth civic development, especially at the elementary level, has been under-conceptualized. What is needed is a more robust, comprehensive developmental framework for citizenship …

Early Parenting And Children's Relational And Physical Aggression In The Preschool And Home Contexts, Juan F. Casas, Stephanie M. Weigel, Nikki R. Crick, Jamie M. Ostrov, Kathleen E. Woods, Elizabeth A. Jansen Yeh, Catherine A. Huddleston-Casas

Psychology Faculty Publications

This study investigated early parent- child relationships and how children's use of relational and physical aggression varies with aspects of those relationships during the preschool years. Specifically, parenting styles, parents' use of psychological control, and parents' report of their children's reunion behaviors were assessed. Analyses revealed significant associations between children's use of both relational and physical aggression and parents' reports of their own and their partner's parenting style, psychological control behaviors, and indicators of the attachment relationship. The results highlight the importance of investigating both mothers' and fathers' parenting and the sex of the child in studies of potential links …

So Close And So Small: Six Promising Approaches To Civic Education, Equity, And Social Justice, Debbie Abilock

Civic Engagement

Perhaps you feel, as I did when I worked in a school, that while teachers develop service projects with the best intentions, they make no effort to build on what is known about effective service learning, nor do they align their work with other service in the school. As a result, my school was full of feel-good, superficial activities and little curricular coherence.

Recent Efforts To Make Nebraska Juries More Representative Of Their Communities, Carly Duvall, Elizabeth Neeley

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

According to the Minority and Justice Task Force Report (2003), “the majority of Nebraskans believe that it is important that juries reflect the racial and ethnic makeup of the community.”

Improving The Amber Alert System: Psychology Research & Policy Recommendation, Monica K. Miller, Samantha S. Clinkinbeard

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

When lawmakers implemented the AMBER Alert System, they initi­ated a system designed to save the lives of missing children. However, the system might not be working as well as possible. If psychological research on related areas (e.g., memory and witness identification) extends to AMBER Alerts, it is likely that the system can be improved.

Section II of this article begins with a description and history of the AMBER Alert System, followed by a brief discussion of the effectiveness of the system. Section III continues with a review of numerous psycho­ logical studies that have important implications when applied to the …

Learning Sustainable Design Through Service, Karim Al-Khafaji, Margaret Catherine Morse

Higher Education

Environmental sustainability and sustainable development principles arc vital topics that engineering education has largely failed to address. Service-learning, which integrates social service into an academic setting, is an emerging tool that can be leveraged to teach sustainable design to future engineers. We present a model of using service-learning to teach sustainable design based on the experiences of the Stanford chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World. The model involves the identification of projects and partner organizations, a student led, project-based design course, and internships coordinated with partner organizations. The model has been very successful, although limitations and challenges exist. These …

Public Scholarship: Making Sense Of An Emerging Synthesis, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

This concluding chapter, written by a national leader in higher education, reflects on public scholarship from a perspective beyond Penn State and argues that public scholarship promises to strengthen “that special form of public decision making that we call democracy.”

Review Of Fathers Under Fire: The Revolution In Child Support Enforcement, By Irwin Garfinkel, Sara S. Mclanahan, Daniel R. Meyer, And Judith A. Seltzer, Ryan E. Spohn

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The title of this book adequately reflects its timely focus on nonresidential fathers facing increased child support enforcement, examining how child support contributions (or failure to meet child support obligations) affect the lives of children as well as the fathers themselves. As the authors suggest, nonresident fathers have generally been treated as financial resources, with little attention paid to their rights as parents or their needs as providers for their children. A particular focus of this collection of studies is the role of indigent nonresident fathers and their role as parents and providers. Consequently, the scope of study adopted by …

Youth Helping America - Educating For Active Citizenship: Service-Learning, School-Based Service And Youth Civic Engagement, Kimberly Spring, Nathan Dietz, Robert Grimm Jr.

Civic Engagement

This brief is the second in the Youth Helping America Series, a series of reports based on data from the Youth Volunteering and Civic Engagement Survey, a national survey of 3,178 American youth between the ages of 12 and 18 that was conducted by the Corporation for National and Community Service in 2005 in collaboration with the U.S. Census Bureau and the nonprofit coalition Independent Sector.

The survey collected information on teen volunteering habits, experiences with school-based service-learning, and other forms of civic engagement. While the first brief in the Youth Helping America Series focused on youth volunteering and social …

Code Enforcement Manual: Omaha Neighborhood Scan, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Publications

No abstract provided.

Community Partners As Educational Collaborators, California State University

Partnerships/Community

In February 2004, Barbara Holland presented a workshop for CSU service-learning practitioners and community partners titled, "Understanding and Strengthening the Role of Community in Service-Learning Partnerships." Holland designed the workshop to be easily replicated and modified by others. Elements from Holland's workshop are included here for reference, and a modified version of her PowerPoint presentation can be found in Appendix A. Inspired and challenged by her ideas and suggestions, campus directors went on to produce their own unique workshops. Our goal with this publication is to keep the momentum going by providing examples and materials from several of these workshops …

Alternative Education Programs: Program And Student Characteristics, Regina M. Foley, Lang-Sze Pang

Special Topics, General

Alternative education programs are often viewed as individualized opportunities designed to meet the educational needs for youth identified as at-risk for school failure. Increasingly, these programs have been identified as programs for disruptive youth who have been referred from traditional schools. The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of the administrative structures and physical facilities of alternative education programs and to describe the student population and educational services being offered to youth attending such programs. The findings suggest programs appear to be largely site-based programs, often operating in physical facilities with limited access to academic suppm1s. The …

Corporation For National And Community Service: Strategic Plan 2006-2010, Corporation For National And Community Service

Service Learning, General

Through the programs of the Corporation for National and Community Service (the Corporation), Americans are investing their time, energy, and talent to improve the lives of others and strengthen their communities. In the process, they are building a more engaged society and becoming leaders in civic life.

Guide To Social Change Led By And With Young People, Adam Fletcher, Joseph Varvus

Guides

THE FREECHILD PROJECT HAS BEEN DOING THIS FOR A WHILE. In the five years since we began, The Freechild Project has identified three powerful trends in social change led by and with young people:

1. Social change led by young people is not all about young people. Instead, children and youth are working for their communities, their families, their cities, and their world. Action that is focused on youth issues often addresses young people as a whole, not isolating other youth because of race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.

2. More action has led to more sophistication, creating more sustainable …

Higher Education: Civic Mission & Civic Effects, Carnegie Foundation

Higher Education

A Report by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement)