Transcript Service-Learning Foundations and Practices Jen Gilbride-Brown, Ph.D The Ohio State University Annie Mae Young, Quilts of Gee’s Bend, ca.

Service-Learning
Foundations and
Practices
Jen Gilbride-Brown, Ph.D
The Ohio State University
Annie Mae Young, Quilts of Gee’s Bend, ca. 1975
Setting the Context
Service-learning in the larger, civic
engagement context
 So what is “it” anyway
 Partnership at the foundation

Civic Engagement has grown as part
of a larger story about higher
education’s response to calls for
relevance and questions about
civic purposes.
Four milestones in last 30 years
~ Hollander, E & Meeropol, J. (2006)
• Mid to late 1980’s: “Era of Student Volunteerism”
• Early 1990’s: “Rise of Service-Learning
• Late 1990’s: “Birth of ‘the Engaged Campus’”
• 2000’s: “Rapid Expansion of the Idea of ‘Engaged Campus'
1988: 225 Compact
Members & 3 State
1992: 52% Compact
Offices
campuses offer credit
for service related to
course
1997: 80%
Compact
campuses offering
service-learning
2006: 91%
2002: 28 State Compact
Compact Offices campuses
offering servicelearning
2008: 34
State
Compact
Offices
Are we there yet?
Not quite!
• Exclusive focus exists on “schooling and
the classroom” to engage young people in
democracy and public life.
• Conflates two distinct things: “education”
and “schooling”
Education cannot be limited to the activity
of “schooling.”
An Ecology of Education
Ecology
• Ongoing & continual
relationship
• Interdependence
• Interconnection
An Ecology of Education
Power in an ecological perspective on education:
From scarcity to abundance
A Learning Web
?
Who else educates?
?
?
?
?
A Learning Web
?
?
What if
your educational institution
is NOT at the center?
?
?
Subject
or issue
?
?
?
?
Your Learning Web
Where is your course
or project?
?
?
?
?
Subject
or issue
?
?
?
?
Let’s play with the “learning web”
How to connect education with
civic life
What is service-learning?
Service-learning is a form of experiential education
characterized by all of the following:
 student participation in an organized service
activity
 participation in service activities connected to
specific learning outcomes
 participation in service activities that meet
identified community needs
 structured time for student reflection and
connection of the service experience to learning
(Abes, Jackson & Jones, 2002)
Where is service-learning?
Beneficiary
Recipient
Provider
Focus
Service
Learning
Service-Learning
Community Service
Volunteerism
Field Education
Internship
Furco, A. 1996. Service-Learning: A balanced approach to experimental
education. In B. Taylor, (Ed.) Expanding Boundaries: Service and
Learning. Corporation for National and Community Service.
Key Themes in Service-Learning
Collaboration with the community (reciprocity)
Importance of reflection
Active learning (meaningful work)
Development of a sense of caring
Promotion of a sense of civic responsibility
Ameliorate societal problems
(O’Grady, 2000)
Strengths of Service-Learning




Models good practice with emphasis on
collaboration, reciprocity, commitment
Promotes reflective thinking
Increases self-knowledge, cognitive
complexity, knowledge of diverse others and
communities
Deepens commitments to the “common
good” which seek a more just, equitable
world
An “Asset” approach, is critical to
community partnerships.
Our language informs what
we know and believe to be
possible- our orientation to
the world and to the work.
Good Neighborhood / Bad Neighborhood
Good Neighborhood:
What do you see?
Bad Neighborhood:
What do you see?
Good Neighborhood/
Bad Neighborhood
Good Neighborhood:
What do you see?
Bad Neighborhood:
What do you see?
Not the WHOLE story!
A FOCUS on the ASSETS of the partners in
service-learning works AGAINST the
power of misinformation and negative
stereotypes that undermine
relationships.
Reciprocity as
the goal
“…what affects me affects the wider
community, and what affects the
wider community affects me.
The consequences are
indistinguishable.”
~J. Saltmarsh (1998)
Challenge of reciprocity
“…Those who do community service at
colleges and universities, on the other
hand, are generally young people who
have more advantages than those they
are serving.”
~ Nieto, 2000
Begins and ends with the
community…
“Ruth Ann”