Imploring the next generation of scholars

The purpose of higher education in the U.S. is rooted in developing an educated citizenry to strengthen democracy. However, this appreciation of higher education as a public good is eroding. The shift in society’s perception of higher education as a private good has led to a decrease in funding for higher education and an increase in student debt. Consequently, this has narrowed access to higher education and heightened students’ and parents’ expectations about the college experience and outcomes. If such trends continue, the public purposes of higher education will be lost. The civic purposes of higher education must be renewed to build a stronger democracy. Fortunately, there are scholars, practitioners, community colleagues, administrators, and students who are committed to addressing public problems through knowledge generation and practical application. They are publicly engaged scholars

Weaving Theoretical Frameworks and Methods Together to Advance Research on Student Civic Outcomes

Set in the broader context of a renewed call for higher education institutions to develop students’ civic capacities, the edited volume Research on Student Civic Outcomes in Service Learning: Conceptual Frameworks and Methods focuses on the impact of service-learning courses on student civic outcomes. Calls to cultivate student civic outcomes in higher education can be found in many places. The editors cite several of these in the introductory chapter, including national organizations (e.g., The Democracy Commitment, Community-Campus Partnerships for Health, Campus Compact), networks (e.g., Talloires Network, Europe Engage), academic institutions (e.g., Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis), and foundations (e.g., Carnegie Foundation, Kettering Foundation) working to support civic renewal in higher education. The editors point in particular to A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy’s Future (National Task Force, 2012) to articulate the “consistent call for a renewed commitment of colleges and universities to create campus cultures that support and challenge student understanding of and commitment to civic participation” (p. 3). Service-learning has emerged as a leading pedagogy for cultivating student civic outcomes. This book focuses on research related to the potential for curricular service-learning to generate student civic outcomes and does so by reviewing previous studies, theoretical frameworks, and a variety of methods of inquiry

Responses to the Call for a National Strategic Plan

The Service-Learning and Community Engagement Future Directions Project (SLCE-FDP) was launched in 2015. Since then approximately 40 individuals from a wide range of perspectives have come together as contributors of thought pieces that issue bold calls to guide the future of SLCE. In an essay accompanying the ten thought pieces in Fall 2015, Howard and Stanlick (2015) called for the “development and implementation of a U.S. national SLCE strategic plan” (p. 128). Their essay provides one answer to the question of how all of the ideas about the future of SLCE being assembled by the SLCE-FDP – and also being articulated in other publications over the last few years – can become more than individual thoughts, questions, and actions. In this essay we review the highlights of the call for a national plan and then share some of the responses to it as a basis for ongoing engagement with the proposal

Enhancing Civic Engagement Through Leadership Education

Many civic engagement courses within higher education require students to work with community members to make progress on complex problems, which in itself can comprise leadership practice. Yet, there is little evidence that leadership development is strategically incorporated into such civic engagement courses in general. The authors taught eight leadership sessions over two semesters in the Principled Problem Solving Scholars program at Guilford College. The study discussed in this article examined the perceived impact of a leadership curriculum on the personal leadership practices and the civic engagement of 14 undergraduate students. The authors present their findings in the context of three themes, highlighting (1) the shift in the students’ philosophies of leadership from leader-centric to collective perspectives, (2) the value of civic leadership and democratic engagement praxis, and (3) salient leadership lessons. The authors also discuss implications of their study findings as well directions for future research, calling for greater integration of the fields of civic engagement and leadership studies and more research around the curricular integration of leadership education and civic education

“I Am Strong. Mentally Strong!”: Psychosocial Strengths of International Graduate Students of Color.

Positioned at a unique intersection of managing academic pressures and embodying racial and ethnic minority identity status, international graduate students of color (IGSCs) are frequent targets of multiple stressors. Unfortunately, extant counseling literature offers counselors little information on the psychosocial strengths IGSCs employ (e.g., strong familial bond, friendships) to cope with such stressors. To address this gap, interviews with eight IGSC participants were conducted and analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis and the lens of the intersectionality framework. Five psychosocial strengths were identified—familial support, social connections, academic aspirations and persistence, personal growth and resourcefulness, and resistance and critical consciousness. Recommendations for employing an asset-based approach in counseling and counselor education are offered

“Because Here, White is Right”: Mental Health Experiences of International Graduate Students of Color from a Critical Race Perspective.

To examine the mental health experiences of international graduate students of Color (IGSC) as they navigate through a multitude of systemic barriers, the researchers interviewed eight IGSC in the U.S. Adopting a critical race perspective, the researchers sought to address a persistent gap in the counseling literature, and explore how systemic influences of racism, xenophobia, and discriminatory policies impacted the mental health of IGSC. Three distinct themes emerged from phenomenological analysis of the participants’ interviews in the current study: cross-cultural challenges, surviving racism and anti-immigrant sentiment, and mental health and wellness. Implications for how professional counselors can support IGSC as they navigate through multiple challenges are emphasized

Case-in-Point Pedagogy: Building Capacity for Experiential Learning and Democracy

Experiential learning in and out of the classroom provides students with opportunities to learn from reflecting critically on concrete experiences. This article introduces Case-in-Point (CIP), an experiential teaching and learning strategy that uses critical reflection-in-action within the context of the classroom environment to modify behaviors in real-time. We broaden the use of CIP beyond its original realm of application, teaching leadership, to instruction in a range of disciplines, and we explore its use to build capacity for experiential learning and democracy

The Future of Service-Learning and Community Engagement: Asset-Based Approaches and Student Learning in First-Year Courses

In the 20 years since Zlotkowski (1995) called for curricular integration of service-learning (SL) across the academy, we have seen increasing adoption of and support for the pedagogy in students’ first-year experience. Gardner (2002) suggests that SL in the first year is particularly important because it can lead to increased self-esteem and self-confidence. Ferguson (2015) argues that it can be used then to awaken curiosity and help students connect to each other, the campus, and the community. And the field is accumulating evidence of the positive impact of SL in the first year on retention (e.g., Garoutte & McCarthy-Gilmore, 2014). Thus, it is becoming well established that SL plays an important role in the first year. As we see it, what we must attend carefully to in the coming years is how SL is framed and implemented in that crucial formative space. Our experience suggests that, given the particular challenges of first-year courses, it is all too easy to default to an approach that unintentionally sets students on a problematic path in their interactions with communities. Specifically, we call for attention to asset-based approaches that, from the beginning, help undergraduates see themselves and others on an equal footing and learn to look for, appreciate, and build on their own and others’ strengths

Winding Pathways to Engagement: Creating a Front Door

Service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) practitioner-scholars—meaning all who do the work of SLCE with a commitment to integrating practice and study—find avenues to this work in a variety of ways. Many of the thought leaders in this movement started as traditional scholars in their disciplines and, only in their later careers, focused on creating and enhancing SLCE on their own campuses and across the academy. Others first learned about SLCE as an epistemological framework and a pedagogy in graduate programs such as Curriculum and Instruction or Higher Education Leadership. Others came across it during their academic careers somewhat randomly in conversations with colleagues, at conferences, or in the literature. And still others began their journey to SLCE by working in the public sector (as did co-author Mary Tolar) with community organizations, as community organizers, or as social justice advocates. Members of a younger generation of practitioner-scholars have now experienced SLCE in undergraduate or graduate education and seek ways to integrate it into their academic or professional lives from the very beginning

Problematizing the Relationship Between Cultural, Social, and Political Capital and Graduate Student Participation in a Community Engagement Professional Association

The Graduate Student Network (GradSN) brings together emerging scholars who have an interest in research on service-learning and community engagement (SLCE). In this reflective essay, we problematize the relationship between social, cultural, and economic capital and graduate student participation in the GradSN, specifically the GradSN chair role. To begin, we share the origins, process, and initial findings of a collaborative autoethnographic study that involved a group of seven past, present, and incoming chairs. Participation in this study led us to question what barriers exist for graduate student participation in the GradSN, resulting in this reflective essay. Second, we share the critically reflexive practice the three of us engaged in to interrogate our identities in relation to our chair role. Finally, we discuss the concept of full participation as a way to disrupt current structures in the GradSN, concluding with ideas for future inquiry and action