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Women’s Emancipation and Development Agency (WOMEDA) Executive Director Juma Massisi (seated, center) facilitates conversation among women and Amizade students in Kayanga, Tanzania, as part of research that supported a successful United States Agency for International Development grant award for WOMEDA.

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DukeEngage students Jeline Rabideau and Jenny Denton worked with middle school girls, such as ​Katie, in Western North Carolina to enhance literacy skills through digital storytelling projects focused on their families.

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DukeEngage independent project student Alex Saffrit collaborated with a community member, Moses, in Nkokonjeru, Uganda, on a solar cooker project.

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Ernesto Alaniz, community maintenance leader, Villanova civil engineering student Allie Braun, and Water for Waslala program manager Iain Hunt cooperate to inspect a new water tank near Santa Maria Kubali, Nicaragua.

Community-Driven Development

Significant research and practice insights have been central to the development of best practices in community-driven development. We list these pieces immediately below and offer article abstracts farther down the page. Every effort is made to list the abstracts in the same order as the pieces are listed above (generally by most recent publication). The list developed here is listed chronologically in reverse-order, to show the conceptual development and research foundation in this growing field. We kindly request that any individuals interested in adding to this wiki do so by following the guidelines we have established.

Peer Reviewed Articles: 

Books:

 Chapters: 

 Dissertations, Theses, and Other Works: 

Websites: 

Popular Magazines and Trade Publications:

Videos and Documentaries

Article Abstracts: 

Sullivan, N. (2017). International clinical volunteering in Tanzania: A postcolonial analysis of a Global Health business. Global Public Health. 1-15.

This article traces how scarcities characteristic of health systems in low-income countries (LICs), and increasing popular interest in Global Health, have inadvertently contributed to the popularisation of a specific Global Health business: international clinical volunteering through private volunteer placement organisations (VPOs). VPOs market neglected health facilities as sites where foreigners can ‘make a difference’, regardless of their skill set. Drawing on online investigation and ethnographic research in Tanzania over four field seasons from 2011 to 2015, including qualitative interviews with 41 foreign volunteers and 90 Tanzanian health workers, this article offers a postcolonial analysis of VPO marketing and volunteer action in health facilities of LICs. Two prevalent postcolonial racialised tropes inform both VPO marketing and foreign volunteers’ discourses and practices in Tanzania. The first trope discounts Tanzanian expertise in order to envision volunteers in expert roles despite lacking training, expertise, or contextual knowledge. The second trope envisions Tanzanian patients as so impoverished that insufficiently trained volunteer help is ‘better than nothing at all’. These two postcolonial racialised tropes inform the conceptual work undertaken by VPO marketing schemes and foreign volunteers in order to remake Tanzanian health professionals and patients into appropriate and justifiable sites for foreign volunteer intervention.

Cone, D., & Harris, S. (2016). Scholarship Redefined. [Review of the book Publicly Engaged Scholars: Next Generation Engagement and the Future of Higher Education by Margaret Post, Elaine Ward, Nicholas Longo, & John Saltmarsh]. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 23(1), 117-122.

A review on “Publicly Engaged Scholars: Next-Generation Engagement and the Future of Higher Education” by Margaret Post, Elaine Ward, Nicholas Longo, and John Saltmarsh. The book focuses on renewing higher education’s commitment to addressing community concerns and argues for the expansion of what counts as “scholarship” (to acknowledge the important contributions community partners can and do make in knowledge production).

Cook, A. L., Hayden, L. A., Bryan, J., & Belford, P. (2016). Implementation of a School-Family-Community Partnership Model to Promote Latina Youth Development: Reflections on the Process and Lessons Learned. The International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement, 4(1).

School counselors frequently partner with families and community organizations to promote youth development and achievement. However, challenges to implementing school-family-community partnerships often preclude developing and sustaining such relationships. In this article, the authors document the implementation of a school-family-community partnership model, which was applied across two years of collaborative counseling programming for two groups of Latina youth. Semi-structured interviews with participants, parents, and educators were conducted and analyzed using qualitative content analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of the partnership and program implementation. The authors describe the outcomes of the partnership work and counseling programming as revealed by the findings, and offer reflections and lessons learned regarding the process, including implications for school counselors.

Jones, D., McAllister, L., & Lyle, D. (2016). Community-Based Service-Learning: A Rural Australian Perspective on Student and Academic Outcomes of Participation. The International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement, 4(1).

This article reports on a community-based service-learning program that aligned occupational therapy and speech pathology student learning with service provision in order to address the unmet developmental needs of children residing in rural New South Wales, Australia. The article describes academy outcomes for participating allied health students and academics. A pragmatic qualitative research study was undertaken and data collected through focus groups with students and individual interviews with academics. Data were analyzed using a constant comparative analysis method. Broad codes were developed and then collapsed into two themes: catalysts for program participation and civic impacts of participation. Based on the study findings, the authors argue for the need to ensure the development of community-literate health students, academics, and practicing professionals if colleges and universities are to create a rural-ready and responsive health workforce. This community-literate approach must inform how Australian higher education institutions engage with rural communities in community-based service-learning innovation.

Stanton, T. K. (2016). [Review of the book New Directions and Strategies for Community Engaged Scholarship: International Perspectives by Marianne A. Larsen]. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 22(2), 48-54.

A review on Marianne Larsen’s book “New Directions and Strategies for Community Engaged Scholarship: International Perspectives”.  The book is focused on voices and perspectives of ISL partners and community hosts in the global South and brings up issues of paternalism and colonization that may be present in partnerships. The book also talks about legitimizing the voices of the global South.

Hicks, T. L., & Radtke, R. I. (2015). Reshaping the boundaries of community engagement in design education: Global and local explorations. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 19(2), 157-174.

Community-driven design is a current movement in the forefront of many designers’ practices and on university campuses in design programs. The authors examine work from their respective public state universities’ design programs as examples of best practices. In these case studies, the authors share experiences using community-based design processes, local or global, with their design students. Goals of these two case studies include understanding the varying context and the cultural implications provided by diverse academic and geographic landscapes. In one case, students traveled thousands of miles to experience a different culture; in the other, students traveled across the tracks and down the street for cultural diversity. The comparison of the two suggests that although the site conditions were divergent, the boundary-spanning methodologies provided similar outcomes among students, faculty, and community partners.

Morton, K., & Bergbauer, S. (2015). A Case for Community: Starting with Relationships and Prioritizing Community as Method in Service Learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 22(1), 18-31.  

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 nurturing shared community as a way for service-learning to begin realizing its civic engagement and social justice objectives. It addresses issues of power and meaning making. It presents a theory of community that suggests the connections between civic engagement and social justice with the practices of hospitality, compassion, listening, and reflection across social and cultural boundaries.

Pisco, K. (2015). Deepening Service Abroad: A Call for Reciprocal Partnerships and Ongoing Support. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 22(1), 93-96.

This response essay touches on how GSL programs need to focus on reciprocal partnerships that actively include the community and need to include post-trip reflections (and action).

Reynolds, N. (2014). What counts as outcomes? Community perspectives of an engineering partnership. Michigan Journal or Community Service Learning, 20(1), 79-90.

This study explored the perspectives of community organization representatives and community residents about a partnership between a College of Engineering and a rural municipality in Nicaragua. The intended community outcomes described by university participants during interviews corresponded with tangible project outcomes, such as access to clean drinking water and electricity as well as improved access to healthcare services. However, the community participants also described the following community outcomes: confianza, sense of pride, and consciencia. Comments about using the community as a laboratory illuminate how categorizing outcomes as positive or negative represents an oversimplification and draw attention to the importance of community participation in various ways including data analysis. Findings are analyzed using Fraser’s framework for social justice and provide a model for enacting global service-learning partnerships with the potential to advance social justice.

Handler, R. (2013). Disciplinary adaptation and undergraduate desire: Anthropology and global development studies in the undergraduate curriculum. Cultural Anthropology, 28(2), 181-203. 

Most disciplinary scholars, anthropologists have been reluctant to reorganize their undergraduate programs to speak directly to student concerns. Yet, students are oriented, both intellectually and proto-professionally, to issues like global development, about which anthropologists have much to teach. This article examines student assumptions about development and about the interdisciplinary knowledge they think they need to understand it. I outline a critical pedagogy to respond to student ideas about development. I then sketch the cultural assumptions and bureaucratic structures that work to marginalize interdisciplinary programs. I conclude by suggesting ways anthropologists could adapt their undergraduate programs to “colonize” new curricular territories frequently defined in interdisciplinary terms. [interdisciplinarity, development, globalization, liberal arts curriculum]

Hartman, E., Morris-Paris, C., & Blache-Cohen, B. (2013). Tourism and transparency: Navigating ethical risks in voluntourism with Fair Trade Learning. Africa Insight (42)2.

The international volunteer and academic service-learning market is expanding rapidly, despite critics’ assertions regarding the dangers of development amateurism. We provide a framing of growth and concerns in the sector, along with an explanation of emerging best practices. We elucidate through four cases – two that illuminate extremes in partnership potential and two African cases that illustrate the challenges involved in implementing an ideal partnership type termed Fair Trade Learning (FTL). We conclude with a call for increased transparency in the international volunteer sector. We offer this article as an initial consideration of a current change process.

Steimel, S. J. (2013). Community partners’ assessment of service learning in an interpersonal and small group communication course. Communication Teacher, 1-15.

This assessment explored community partners’ perceptions of service learning in a required communication course. Semi-structured interviews revealed that community partners believed that students were providing needed and valuable service, students were learning about the community, and students were learning through their application of course skills in an applied context. However, community partners also felt that students were unaware of or did not care what they should be learning, that faculty contact was rare or nonexistent, and that community feedback opportunities were rare and undervalued by faculty. Results suggest specific improvements necessary in service learning assignment design.

Bates, D., Burman, E., Ejike-King, L., Rufyiri, C. (2012). Healthy transitions: A community-based participatory approach with Burundians with refugee status. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 16(3), 153-173.

Healthy Transitions is a program of the University of Tennessee’s Ready for the World initiative, a broad plan to transform campus culture and prepare students for the 21st century. Healthy Transitions partners the university with a local community of Burundian refugees. The university joined several community organizations interested in the refugees’ integration, and in examining the Burundians’ experiences and perceptions during and post migration. Focus group data identified key areas of concern for the Burundians. Community-based participatory research provided relevant data and an infrastructure, including a nonprofit established by the Burundians, that enable the Burundian community to co-direct ongoing research and programming.

Nelson, E. D. & Klak, T. (2012). Equity in international experiential learning: assessing benefits to students and host communities. PRISM: A Journal of Regional Engagement, 1(2), 106-129.

This research uses participant observation and other qualitative methods to evaluate whether faculty-led short-term study abroad programs can successfully carry out responsible ‘fair trade’, and thereby substantially benefit not only students but also the host communities. The research draws insights by comparing two experiential learning courses taught in South Africa and Dominica. Results suggest that students benefit in various transformative ways in both courses, by applying sustainability and development studies concepts to real-life service and hands-on learning in cross-cultural situations. The Dominica course yields more host community benefits, however, because of the instructors’ long-term commitments to reciprocal partnerships and equitable engagement. The paper concludes with recommendations for enhancing the impacts of short-term study abroad on students and, especially, on their host communities.

Bortolin, K. (2011). Serving Ourselves: How the discourse on community engagement privileges the university over the community. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 18(1), 49-58.

Using methods of discourse analysis, I analyzed examples of the word “community” from 25 of the most recent articles in the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. This analysis uncovered a variety of ways in which the university appears to be privileged over the community in the discourse of higher education community-based engagement. This paper discusses four themes emerging from the analysis that represent this privileging: community as a means by which the university enhances its academic work; community as a recipient of influence by the university; community as a place which the university makes better; and community as a factor in the financial interest of the university. By identifying these subtle yet troubling themes, I aim to inspire more community-focused research as well as to encourage scholars to reflect critically on how their discourses shape an evolving understanding of community engaged practice.

Lough, B. J., McBride, A. M., Sherraden, M. S., & O’Hara, K. (2011). Capacity building contributions of short-term international volunteers, Journal of Community Practice, 19(2), 120-137.

Previous research suggests that international volunteer service may have both positive and negative effects on host organizations. Applying a capacity-building perspective, this study uses semi-structured interviews to ask staff in hosting organizations to identify the main outcomes of short-term volunteer service. These views were compared with perspectives of staff from matched organizations that do not host international volunteers. Findings suggest that international volunteers may increase organizational capacity by supplying extra hands, providing technical and professional skills, contributing tangible resources, and enhancing intercultural understanding. Volunteers may also challenge organizations as they absorb staff time and resources. Staff members from both types of organizations identify individual and institutional variables that may affect the quality of these outcomes, including volunteers’ language capacity and the intensity of the service placement.

Blouin, D. D., & Perry, E. M. (2009). Whom does service learning really serve? Community-based organizations’ perspectives on service learning. Teaching Sociology, 37, 120-135.

One of the major selling points of service-learning courses is their potential to mutually benefit communities, universities, and students. Although a great deal of research reports numerous pedagogical and personal benefits for students—from improved grades and increased civic engagement to increased understanding and appreciation of diversity—there is relatively little research on the impact of service learning on the community. To understand when and how service-learning courses benefit the community, we conducted in-depth interviews with representatives of local community-based organizations that have worked with service learners. We report on the primary benefits and costs associated with service-learning courses. We identify three types of obstacles to successful service-learning courses: issues related to student conduct, poor fit between course and organizational objectives, and lack of communication between instructors and organizations. We develop practical guidelines for addressing these obstacles and for ensuring that service learning fulfills teaching and learning goals and provides valuable service to community-based organizations.

d’Arlach, L., Sanchez, B., & Feuer, R. (Fall 2009). Voices from the community: A case for reciprocity in service-learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, pp. 5-16.

Few studies have directly examined how recipients of service view the service. This qualitative study presents the results of interviews and observations of nine community members who participated in a service-learning language exchange program, Intercambio, in which Spanish-speaking Latino immigrants were paired with English-speaking university students to teach each other their native language and culture. The development and study of Intercambio was formed by Freire’s theory of critical consciousness and results supported his assumptions. Findings include: community members changing views of university students (i.e., from admiring them to seeing them as imperfect equals), as well as changing views of social issues (i.e., from impossible to solvable). Results favor a service-learning class format where community recipients can have expert roles (i.e., teach Spanish, too, rather than only being tutored), knowledge is assumed to be co-created and multi-directional, and ample time is devoted to dialogue about current social issues.

Worrall, L. (2007). Asking the community: A case study of community partner perspectives. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 14(1), 5-17.

This qualitative study is based on in-depth interviews with 40 representatives from 12 community-based organizations (CBOs) working with the Steans Center for Community-based Service-Learning at DePaul University in Chicago. These CBOs see themselves as partners with the University in educating college students about the realities of racial and socioeconomic disparities in the United States through direct interactions with CBO programs and clients. Findings include: motivations for these CBOs to partner with DePaul tend to differ from the motivations to continue the partnership; the benefits to working with service-learners outweigh the challenges; and CBO’s perceptions of DePaul University have been positively influenced by their relationships with the Steans Center.

Huerta, A. I., & Morris, P. V. (2006). Serving international communities: Service- learning and teamwork in Ecuador. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Conference for the Association for International Agriculture and Extension Education: International teamwork in agricultural and extension education, 22, 261-271.

This paper will discuss a study that describes the complex process involved towards the incorporation of an international service-learning program being developed at a university in one Midwestern state. The participants in this study were part of an exploratory team comprised of students, faculty, and staff members of a local NGO (non-governmental organization). The exploratory team was charged with visiting several rural communities in Ecuador to identify a site for the future service-learning project. Members of the exploratory team met with key stakeholders in each community to do a preliminary needs assessment and assess the feasibility of integrating a service-learning project to address identified community needs. Findings from this study show that comments of the students toward their experience were positive, and reflected their belief in the value of that experience; students felt they received more than theyhad given, both personally and professionally; students were able to make a connection with areal world community; and faculty members indicated active participation of decision-maker sfrom in the community and a challenging learning environment are the two key factors necessary for implementation of an international service-learning project.

Sandy, M., & Holland, B.A. (2006). Different worlds and common ground: Community partner perspectives on campus-community partnerships. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 13(1), 30-43.

This qualitative study includes focus group research involving 99 experienced community partners across eight California communities using community-based research techniques to capture community voices about their service-learning partnerships with different colleges and universities. Partners commented on their perspectives regarding motivations, benefits to the academic institution and to their own organization, impacts on student learning, and areas for improving partnerships. The analysis affirms the characteristics of effective partnerships of multiple well-established models of effective partnerships developed by higher education, but reveal that community partners have a specific sense of prioritization among partnership factors. In addition, partners revealed a surprising depth of understanding and commitment to student learning, the “common ground” of the service-learning experience. Community partners also voiced challenges and recommendations for their higher education partners to transform service-learning partnership relationships to bridge their “different worlds,” and enhance learning, reciprocity, and sustainability.

Jorge, E. (2004). Outcomes for community partners in an unmediated service-learning program. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 10(1), 28-38.

Pitzer College’s Spanish service-learning program is unmediated by local social service organizations. It directly places students with immigrant Mexican families living in nearby Ontario, California. Based on the concept that language is a social practice and culture should be the core of language teaching, it has developed long-term, mutually beneficial relationships among college and community partners. A space has been created to support dialogues across race, class, and privilege boundaries. This article focuses on the program’s impact on community participants, whose homes are becoming neighborhood hubs of an informal informational resource network. Perhaps the weak ties between two seemingly incompatible social networks account for the ease with which this process was established. A program originally centered on pedagogy is slowly effecting small-scale social change and community development.

Simonelli, J., Earle, D., & Story, E. (2004). Acompanar obediciendo: Learning to help in collaboration with Zapatista communities. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 10(3), 43-56.

Joint service-learning programs of Wake Forest University and the University of Texas-El Paso are working to develop an anthropologically-informed service model for/with the authors’ Universities, our students, and our community colleagues. Building on extensive ethnographic fieldwork and experience leading experiential programs, the model results from consultation and communication with the communities we ‘serve.’ This paper provides a case study of the authors’ experience in Chiapas, Mexico, where collaboration with community partners is producing a refined theory and practice of service. It begins with the community’s own definition of assistance and service, and continues through a commitment to acompañar (accompany) the group before, during, and after the service experience, producing a program and relationship based on symmetry and sustainability.

Kiely, R. & Nielsen, D. (2003). International service-learning: The importance of partnerships. Community College Journal, 39-41.

Argues that combining service learning with study abroad is a powerful pedagogical innovation for increasing adult students’ intercultural competence, language skills, and experiential understanding of complex global problems related to their academic program of study. Discusses development and maintenance of such educational partnerships at Tompkins-Cortland Community College, New York.

Marullo, S., Cooke, D., Willis, J., Rollins, A., Burke, J., Bonilla, P., & Waldref, V. (2003). Community-based research assessments: Some principles and practices. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 9(3), 57-68.

This article examines the benefits and challenges of undertaking assessments in community-based research (CBR). Such assessments are compared and contrasted to more traditional research processes. Further,the challenges of integrating CBR assessments into an ongoing social change initiative are analyzed. To aid in undertaking CBR assessments, five principles to guide CBR assessments are articulated: 1) community driven; 2) collaborative; 3) systematic and rigorous, yet flexible and context-specific; 4) guided by grounded theory; and 5) multidimensional. This analysis develops a three-dimensional conceptual framework for assessments,based on the level of activity to be examined,the change goals being examined, and the process or effects outcomes. Finally, a decision-tree is offered with guiding questions to help practitioners consider the range of assessments they may wish to undertake. The framework and decision-tree developed here provides a common language for facilitating knowledge sharing across boundaries.

Strand, K., Marullo, S., Cutforth, N., Stoecker, R., & Donohue, P. (2003). Principles of best practice for community-based research. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 9(3), 5-15.

Community-based research (CBR) offers higher education a distinctive form of engaged scholarship and a transformative approach to teaching and learning. In this article,we propose a CBR model that is genuinely collaborative and driven by community rather than campus interests; that democratizes the creation and dissemination of knowledge; and that seeks to achieve positive social change. We demonstrate how this model translates into principles that underlie the practice of CBR in four critical areas: campus-community partnerships, research design and process,teaching and learning,and the institutionalization of centers to support CBR.

Weinberg, A. S. (2003). Negotiating community-based research: A case study of the “Life’s Work” project. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 9(3), 26-35.

The case of Colgate University is used to argue that community-based research can be a vibrant and effective form of service-learning, especially in rural communities. However, community-based research is difficult to execute well. There is little flexibility and high consequences for failed projects. As such, community-based research requires negotiation at multiple levels and developing a set of principles to guide decision-making and project development.

Willis, J., Peresie, J., Waldref, V., & Stockmann, D. (2003). The undergraduate perspective on community-based research. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 9(3), 36-43.

This article, written by four undergraduates with extensive experience in community-based research (CBR), summarizes each author’s project and offers their views on  conditions necessary for CBR success and benefits of CBR for students.

Ansari, W., Phillips, C. J., & Zwi, A. B. (2002). Narrowing the gap between academic professional wisdom and community lay knowledge: Perceptions from partnerships, Public Health, 116, 151-159.

Community involvement in health through community partnerships (CPs) has been widely advocated. Putting CPs into practice is complex and represents a challenge for all the stakeholders involved in the change process. Employing data from five CPs aiming to bring together communities, academics and health service providers in South Africa, this paper aims to examine and compare the views of the health care professionals with those of the community members with respect to each other’s skills and abilities. Five domains of expertise in partnership working are examined: educational competencies; partnership fostering skills; community involvement expertise; change agents proficiencies; and strategic and management capacities. The findings suggest that the community recognizes the expertise and abilities brought by the professional staff to the CPs. Community members have a positive view of the capabilities of the professionals, in particular their abilities as resource persons in the areas of budget management, policy formulation and the introduction and management of change. The professionals, on the other hand, are cautious regarding the level of skill and capability in communities. The limited appreciation of community skills by the professionals covered all the five domains of expertise examined. The findings suggest that if joint working is to survive, the professionals will need to increase their valuation of the indigenous proficiencies inherent in their community partners. We conclude that programme models need to consciously incorporate in their design and implementation, capacity building, skills transfer and empowerment strategies.

Edwards, B., Mooney, L., & Heald, C. (2001). Who is being served? The impact of student volunteering on local community organizations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 30, pp. 444- 461.

Chapin, J. (1998). Is Service Learning a Good Idea? Data from the National Longitudinal Study of 1998. The Social Studies, 89(5), 205-211.

Presents data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS: 88) to demonstrate the widespread participation of high school seniors in voluntary community service. Suggests that teachers should build on this interest in community service, and offers hints to help make community and service learning more effective learning experiences.

Delve, C., Mintz, S., & Stewart, G. (1990). Promoting Values Development Through Community Service: A Design. In C. Delve, S. Mintz, & G. Stewart (Eds.), Community Service as Values Education. New Directions for Student Services. 50, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

A theoretical framework, from which service-learning interventions can develop, enhances students’ educational experiences, fosters values development, and encourages responsible citizenship. This chapter presents a developmental model for the delivery of community-service interventions and concrete examples of students involved in service learning.

Sigmon, R. (1979). Service-learning: Three  principles. Synergist (National Center for  Service-Learning), ACTION, 8(1), 9-11.

Service learning focuses on both those being served and those serving. Sigmon’s three principles of service learning are the following: those being served control the services provided; those being served become better able to serve and be served by their own actions; those who serve also are learners and have significant control over what is expected to be learned.

Book Summaries:

Clayton, P. H., Hatcher, J. A., & Bringle, R. G. (Eds.). (2013). Research on service learning: Conceptual frameworks and assessment (Vols. 2A & 2B), IUPUI Series on Service Learning Research. Sterling, VA: Stylus.

The purpose of this work is to improve service learning research and practice through strengthening its theoretical base. Contributing authors include both well-known and emerging service learning and community engagement scholars, as well as scholars from other fields. The authors bring theoretical perspectives from a wide variety of disciplines to bear as they critically review past research, describe assessment methods and instruments, develop future research agendas, and consider implications of theory-based research for enhanced practice.

This volume, 2A, opens with chapters focused on defining the criteria for quality research.

It then moves on to research related to students, comprising chapters that focus on cognitive processes, academic learning, civic learning, personal development, and intercultural competence. The concluding faculty section presents chapters on faculty development, faculty motivation, and faculty learning.

Constituting a rich resource that suggests new approaches to conceptualizing, understanding, implementing, assessing, and studying service learning. Each chapter offers recommendations for future research. Research on Service Learning: Conceptual Frameworks and Assessment will be of interest to both new and veteran service learning instructors seeking to enhance their practice by integrating what has been learned in terms of teaching, assessment, and research. Staff and faculty who are responsible for promoting and supporting service learning at higher education institutions, evaluating community service programs, and working with faculty to develop research on service learning, will also find this volume helpful. For scholars and graduate students reviewing and conducting research related to service learning, this book is a comprehensive resource, and a knowledge base about the processes and outcomes of innovative pedagogies, such as service learning, that will enable them to locate their own work in an expanding and deepening arena of inquiry.

Volume 2Balso opens with chapters focused on defining the criteria for quality research. It looks at community development, and the role of nonprofit organizations in service learning. It then focusses on institutions, examining the institutionalization of service learning, engaged departments, and institutional leadership. The final section on partnerships in service learning includes chapters on conceptualizing and measuring the quality of partnerships, inter-organizational partnerships, and student partnerships.

Stoecker, R., Tryon, E.A., & Hilgendorf, A. (2009). The unheard voices: Community organizations and service learning. Philadelphia: Temple UP.

Service learning has become an institutionalized practice in higher education. Students are sent out to disadvantaged communities to paint, tutor, feed, and help organize communities. But while the students gain from their experiences, the contributors to The Unheard Voices ask, “Does the community?”

This volume explores the impact of service learning on a community, and considers the unequal relationship between the community and the academy. Using eye-opening interviews with community-organization staff members, The Unheard Voices challenges assumptions about the effectiveness of service learning. Chapters offer strong critiques of service learning practices from the lack of adequate training and supervision, to problems of communication and issues of diversity. The book’s conclusion offers ways to improve service learning so that future endeavors can be better at meeting the needs of the communities and the students who work in them.

Jacoby, B., & Associates. (2003). Building partnerships for service-learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

It is clear that service-learning has the potential to yield tremendous benefits to students, communities, and institutions of higher education. Increased student learning has been well documented. As communities gain new energy to meet their needs and greater capacity to capitalize on their assets, service-learning enables higher education to fulfill its civic responsibility. When service-learning lives up to its potential to lead colleges and universities to transform themselves into fully engaged citizens of their communities and the world, its ability to bring about positive social change is limitless.

To be successful, service-learning must be grounded in a wide range of solid, reciprocal, democratic partnerships. Building Partnerships for Service-Learning assembles leading voices in the field to bring their expertise to bear on this crucial topic. Faculty, administrators, student leaders, and community and corporate leaders will find this volume filled with vital information, exemplary models, and practical tools needed to make service-learning succeed.

Comprehensive in scope, Building Partnerships for Service-Learning includes:

  • Fundamentals and frameworks for developing sustainable partnerships
  • Assessment as a partnership-building process
  • The complex dynamics of collaboration between academic affairs and student affairs
  • Partnering with students to enhance service-learning
  • How to create campuswide infrastructure for service-learning
  • Profiles and case studies of outstanding partnerships with neighborhoods, community agencies, and K-12 schools
  • Partnerships for collaborative action research
  • Exploring the challenges and benefits of corporate and international partnerships
  • The dynamic relationship of service-learning and the civic renewal of higher education

Building Partnerships for Service-Learning is the essential guide to taking service-learning and partnerships to the next level.

Strand, K., Marullo, S., Cutforth, N., Stoecker, R., & Donohue, P. (2003). Community-based research in higher education: Principles and practices. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Community-Based Research and Higher Education is the long-awaited guide to how to incorporate a powerful and promising new form of scholarship into academic settings. The book presents a model of community-based research (CBR) that engages community members with students and faculty in the course of their academic work. Unlike traditional academic research, CBR is collaborative and change-oriented and finds its research questions in the needs of communities. This dynamic research model combines classroom learning with social action in ways that can ultimately empower community groups to address their own agendas and shape their own futures. At the same time it emphasizes the development of knowledge and skills that truly prepare students for active civic engagement.

Kretzmann, J. P., & McKnight, J. (1993). Building communities from the inside out: A path toward finding and mobilizing a community’s assets. Evanston, IL: Asset-Based Community Development Institute, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University.

This guide summarizes lessons learned by studying successful community-building initiatives in hundreds of neighborhoods across the U.S. It outlines what local communities can do to start their own journies down the path of asset-based development.

Korten, D. (1990). Getting to the 21st century: Voluntary action and the global agenda. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press.

A critique of current development policies and ideologies that provides alternative approaches for building a sustainable and just society for the new millennium.


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