Sociology Commons^™

Brief 20: Graduate Education And Civic Engagement, Kerryann O’Meara

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

Across the country, new attention is being paid to graduate education and civic engagement (Applegate, 2002; Bloomfield, 2006). For decades college campuses have worked diligently to connect undergraduate academic study with public service in order to enhance learning and meet community needs, a connection often referred to as service-learning or civic engagement. Given that over 1,000 institutions have joined Campus Compact, a national organization of college presidents and institutions committed to this work (www.campuscompact.org), the widespread success of the service-learning movement is undeniable. As a further testament, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching now has a classification focused …

Linking Community Service, Learning, And Enviromental Analytical Chemistry, Joesph A. Gardella Jr., Tammy M. Milillo, Gaurav Sinha, Gunwah Oh, David C. Manns, Eleanor Coffey

Higher Education

In 1994, during a tour of the then-new natural sciences building- a $43 million teaching and research complex fully equipped with the latest in technology and instrumentation for chemistry and geology courses-a member of the Buffalo Public Schools Board of Education asked, "How can the community [that paid for it] have access to this teaching and research equipment?" That question triggered the effort reported here - a program to better link teaching and research to community service.

Improving The Human Condition: Leadership For Justice-Oriented Service-Learning, Marilynne Boyle-Baise, Betty Bridgewaters, Leslie Brinson, Nancy Hiestand, Beverly Johnson, Pat Wilson

Diversity

The Banneker History Project (BHP) reconstructed the history of the Benjamin Banneker School, which operated as a segregated school for African Americans from 1915 to 1951. It was a project in social justice education with community service as its base. Here, the authors provide an insider perspective of group dynamics among core leaders for the BHP. Building relationships, working for social justice, and confronting racism are key themes for the group. Leaders recall moments of discomfort, particularly related to issues of race and racism, and describe ways they worked through them. Based on their wisdom of practice, authors offer suggestions …

Community Service Learning: Tenth Anniversary Edition, California State University

Higher Education

Beginning in the 1990s, the CSU started to recognize the power of service learning as a vehicle that would meet the state's changing educational needs while also imparting vital civic skills and knowledge. In the past decade, service learning has become a widely accepted and effective way of enhancing the in-class academic experiences of students with the real-world, out-of-class benefits of serving the community.

2007 Service Statistics: Highlights And Trends Of Campus Compact’S Annual Membership Survey, Campus Compact

Higher Education

Campus Compact’s latest annual member survey reveals strong campus commitment to service and civic engagement. Nearly one-third of students on member campuses participated in campus-organized service and service-learning projects during the 2006–2007 academic year, contributing $7 billion in services to their communities. At an average of 5 hours per week, students are increasingly committed to community work.

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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.”

Service With Friends: The Influence Of Peer Interactions And Emotions In Community Service Experiences, Jennifer Jill Kidd

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

Community service has increasingly become part of students' educational experience. It is seen both as a stand alone requirement and as a core component integrated into course objectives. Much has been learned about the effects of community service on students, but there remain unanswered questions. This study compares four structures of mandatory community service differing in the amount of peer and faculty interaction. It also examines the influence of students' emotional reactions to community service experiences. The participants for the study are college freshmen enrolled in a required environmental course. Hierarchical regressions are utilized to explore the influences of community …

The Professional Ethics Of Professors, Deborah L. Rhode

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Ua23 Volunteerism Comes Alive, Paul N. Markham, Aurelia Spaulding, Cheryl Kirby-Stokes

ALIVE Center Publications

No abstract provided.

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 …

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 …

The Benefits Of Service Learning In A Down-Turned Economy, Theodore Peters, Mary Ann Mchugh, Patricia Sendall

Management Faculty Publications

With businesses struggling for resources during economic downturns, traditional business student internships were becoming more difficult to develop. One business school extended its experiential learning opportunities with specific management projects in community small business, healthcare, education, and non-profit organizations. The on-campus service learning center provided project development, logistical support, and assessment for forty-five business students to participate in 38 on-site, Human Resource Management projects. Means and standard deviations for self-report, end-of-semester surveys were determined for six Likert-scale items that measured the students? satisfaction with the project experience, and percentages were calculated of students who indicated specific personal and intellectual benefits …

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)

2006 Service Statistics: Highlights And Trends Of Campus Compact’S Annual Membership Survey, Campus Compact

Higher Education

Campus Compact’s 2006 member survey once again reveals a strong commitment to service and civic engagement among college and university presidents, faculty, students, and service staff. Results confirm a long-term trend toward increasing support for higher education’s role in educating citizens and building strong communities.