Justice-Learning: Service-Learning as Justice-Oriented Education

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 of antifoundational service-learning as a form of anti-antisocial justice; and draw out the potential and implication of this linkage for both service-learning and social justice education

Saving the University on His Own Time: Stanley Fish, Service-Learning, and Knowledge Legitimation in the Academy

Review Essay of Stanley\u27s Fish\u27s book Save the World on Your Own Time,NewYork, NY: Oxford University Press, 200

The Limits of Service-Learning in Higher Education

This article takes a critical look at the attempted institutionalization of service-learning in higher education. It asks whether service-learning can become deeply embedded within the academy; and if so, what exactly is becoming embedded. Specifically, this article suggests that there are substantial pedagogical, political, and institutional limits to service-learning across the academy. These limits, moreover, are shown to be inherent to the service-learning movement as contemporarily theorized and enacted. The article concludes by reframing some of the grounding assumptions of service-learning to position it as a disciplinary field more suited for becoming genuinely embedded within higher education

Rethinking the “Apprenticeship of Liberty”: The Case for Academic Programs in Community Engagement in Higher Education

This article articulates a model for the “engaged campus” through academic programs focused on community engagement, broadly construed. Such academic programs—usually coalesced in certificate programs, minors, and majors—provide a complementary vision for the deep institutionalization of civic and community engagement in the academy that can revitalize an “apprenticeship of liberty” for students, faculty, and academic staff

The Limits of Service-Learning in 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

“Can I Major in Service-Learning?” An Empirical Analysis of Certificates, Minors, and Majors

This article examines the rise of programs in higher education that award certificates, minors, and/or majors in service-learning. Using Vaughn and Seifer (2008) as a foundation, this study documented and analyzed a total of 31 academic programs that had service-learning at its academic core. Findings from this study suggest that there is indeed a coherent (though far from stable) “field” of service-learning. Moreover, the findings suggest that the strength and structure of a program is strongly dependent on its status; that is, there is a deep dividing line between certificate programs and minors and majors. This has implications for how service-learning scholars and practitioners talk about and thus organize themselves, their field, and their body of core knowledge. The article concludes by highlighting key programmatic and curricular features, examining the status of service-learning as a distinct discipline and drawing forth implications for institutions considering developing service-learning certificates, minors, and majors

Me and the Devil Was Walkin\u27 Side-by-Side: Demythologizing (and Reviewing) the Cambridge Handbook of Service Learning and Community Engagement

Review essay of The Cambridge Handbook of Service Learning and Community Engagement, Corey W. Dolgon, Tania D. Mitchell, & Timothy K. Eatman (Eds.)Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017

Democracy Dies in Dualisms. A Response to “Dewey and Democracy”

This essay reviews Atkinson’s article “Countering the Neos: Dewey and a Democratic Ethos in Teacher Education” and argues that while Dewey and the social foundations classroom may indeed be important for teacher preparation, it is not in the way Atkinson suggests. Namely, I argue that Atkinson’s essay has three distinct (yet interrelated) issues: his problematic oversimplifications, what I term as “Dewey doesn’t do dualisms”; his misreading of Dewey, where I point out that “Dewey doesn’t do debate”; and his unexamined positionality, where I make clear that “Dewey doesn’t do Descartes.” I conclude this essay with a different perspective of a way forward with Dewey: that Dewey’s antifoundationalism serves as a powerful model for teaching and learning that can indeed help us confront the issues of neoliberalism and neoconservatism that Atkinson rightly worries about

Pushing Back the Rhetoric: A Review of What Community Engagement Can Do

A review essay exploring university-school-community partnerships as described in the works: Pushing Back the Gates: Neighborhood Perspectives on University-Driven Revitalization in West Philadelphia by Harley F. Etienne Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2012. College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be by Andrew Delbanco Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012