Welcome to the Volume

Welcome to the fifth volume of the International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IJRSLCE), the annual, online, peer-reviewed publication of the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE), the premier network for scholars studying teaching, learning, and researching in community engagement and civic and public life. The purpose of IJRSLCE is to make available to educational practitioners, researchers, and policymakers current, high-quality research and theory on service-learning and campus-community engagement

The Role of the School Counselor in Service-Learning

In recent years, the perception of the role of school counselors has undergone a significant change. Within this framework, it is particularly relevant to know the role of the school counselor in service-learning. This is the objective of the case study that is being carried out at a secondary school in Madrid that is considered a reference point in the use of this methodology. Results of the study show the pedagogical leadership of these professionals, who can act as promoters, coordinators, consultants, developers, and ambassadors of S-L in their schools

Hearts on Our Sleeves: Emotions Experienced by Service-Learning Faculty

Compared to more traditional pedagogical approaches, service-learning has been shown to offer unique experiences for students and faculty. With the growth of service-learning within higher education, it has become increasingly important to understand service-learning faculty, namely faculty emotions, which can impact students in many ways. Utilizing ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and focus groups, the study discussed in this article assessed the emotions of 17 service-learning faculty with varying levels of experience over the course of one semester. Results revealed that service-learning faculty experience a number of emotional highs and lows related to class logistics, community partners, and student engagement. Additionally, more experienced service-learning faculty handled their emotions differently than newer faculty. The authors also highlight implications and opportunities for service-learning faculty and administrators, based on the study results

The Effects of Participation in Alternative Break: An Alumni Sample Study

Alternative break experiences occur when college or university students choose freely to eschew typical break activities in order to engage in service with a group of peers under the guidance of peer-leaders in a community removed from their own.  While researchers have identified some immediate benefits of participation in alternative break experience, less is known about their long-term impacts.  This article examines the results of a study in which 147 college graduates were asked to reflect on their alternative break experiences.  Respondents reported that these experiences had long-term (i.e., post-graduate) effects such as fostering lasting relationships and changing life perspectives

Out of the Armchair: About Community Impact

Those of us who consider ourselves practitioner-scholars in our field are mostly preoccupied with facilitating learning and inquiry through community-engaged practice. It is hardly surprising then that our work to develop and steward collaborations with communities and organizations leads us to view outcomes through a lens that asks foremost and at times exclusively whether we have advanced knowledge and capacities among our students, our faculty and staff colleagues. We may also ask whether community-engaged practices have enhanced the programs our institutions treasure. Like me, I’m sure many of us frequently remind community partners, often to explain or excuse this inward focus, that we who do this work on college campuses are typically marginal and under resourced in our contexts. And that faculty colleagues who undertake that work are often unrewarded or at least under-valued for these particular efforts. Because that’s all true, and speaks to our preoccupation with these results, in part, as a matter of addressing our institutional contexts

Service and Service-Learning in International Baccalaureate High Schools: An International Comparison of Outcomes and Moderators

The International Baccalaureate (IB) Organization asks high school students in its Diploma Programme to engage in service as a way to become more civic-minded, develop leadership and other skills, and develop an ethic of service. The study discussed is this article investigated the ways in which IB students in Canada, the United States, and Central and South America provided service, and the self-perceived outcomes of their participation. The study also examined the extent to which program design characteristics influenced perceived outcomes, demonstrating the strong effect sizes associated with students’ reports of meaningfulness, links to curriculum, student voice, and frequency and depth of reflection. The study was limited by student self-reporting but was suggestive of hypotheses that can be investigated further

The Institutionalization of Service-Learning at Spanish Universities

Service-learning is conceived of as an active pedagogical approach that integrates community services into learning processes. Although this practice has a long history in the Americas, it is still emerging in some European countries. Since the Bologna Process, Spanish universities have faced challenges associated with introducing learner-centered pedagogies and fostering students’ social responsibility.  However, service-learning fuses these two lines of intervention.This article aims to provide data about the degree to which service-learning has been established and institutionalized at Spanish universities. To obtain these data, an electronic questionnaire based on a self-assessment rubric for the institutionalization of service-learning in higher education was sent to selected informants at Spanish universities. The results showed that most Spanish universities are at a very early stage in the institutionalization of service-learning; in fact, only a few appear to have mechanisms in place to achieve such institutionalization. The authors reflect on the need to support this emerging pedagogical practice to improve the quality of education and community engagement in the context of Spanish higher education.

How to Interconnect Universities with Nonprofit Organizations for Service-Learning: A German Approach

The article aims to foster faculty staff’s understanding of Civil Society and Nonprofit Organizations (NPO) as potential Service-Learning partners for universities. Sociological and economic descriptions of Civil Society and NPO characteristics in Germany are followed by proposals how faculty at German universities conceivably approaches civil society organizations. The results herein are comparable and applicable to the NPO sector in other countries with developed civil societies. The presented approaching strategies serve as inspirations for faculty staff and show the existing intertwining between universities and civil society. The article contributes to enable universities to realize the potentials of service-learning collaboration with nonprofit organizations

From Community Engagement to Community Emergence: The Holistic Program Design Approach

University-community engagement has the potential to positively transform higher education, but community-engaged institutions must overcome challenges related to defining, planning, and assessing engagement activities. The 2015 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification application process and the results of the 2015 Campus Compact member survey revealed that there is room for improvement in engagement efforts within public and private institutions alike. The authors propose the holistic program design approach to curricular-based engagement as a new framework for building individual and institutional capacity. Utilizing interactional field theory, the framework shows how university-community engagement can promote the emergence or formation of community between a university and local participants. Curricular-based engagement experiences serve as venues for interaction in which students, faculty, and local residents communicate and work to address common, place-based needs. The authors provide operational definitions of university-community engagement and curricular-based engagement, describe a theoretical and philosophical rationale for engagement, and present a conceptual model of student and community development outcomes. They also highlight potential assessment metrics, address five recommendations of the Carnegie Foundation, and suggest directions for future research and development

Book Review: Where’s the Wisdom in Service-Learning?

Reviewed in this article: Where’s the Wisdom in Service-Learning? Edited by Robert Shumer. Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, NC. April 1, 2017. ISBN: 978-1681238647. 204 pages