Service-Learning Volunteerism Reboot: A Case Study of a Funded Community-Engaged Scholarship

Introduction

Service-Learning (SL) programs are an integral part of university/college engagement with communities. SL has been widely acknowledged as a pedagogy that benefits students, faculty, and community partners. Through SL, students can increase their understanding of the class’ learning objectives and related social issues in the communities, gain real-world work and networking experience, and develop work ethics and civic skills. Faculty can promote students’ active learning and provide opportunities to the students to be more involved in community issues. SL also allows community partners to gain additional help to achieve organizational goals and increase public awareness of key issues. (University of Minnesota, 2019)

Accreditation agencies, like the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International (www.aacsb.edu), are looking for measurements that support that students are engaging with and making an impact with those communities. Students are being taught using innovative teaching methods to ensure the understanding of academic learning objectives. SL courses provide the means of bringing innovation into the classroom, engaging students with communities, and making an impact in those communities.

The scope of SL is widely ranged from volunteerism to internship (See Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Range of Service-Learning

The definitions of SL in the literature are generally similar (Becket, Refaci, & Skutar, 2012): “Service-Learning (SL) is a specially designed learning experience in which students combine reflection with structured participation in community-based projects to achieve specific learning outcomes as part of an academic course and/or program requirement.” Historically, SL has been viewed as a theoretically based form of experiential learning that is focused on academic growth while promoting civic engagement. (Welch & Koth, 2013)

However, how universities adapt and apply the definition of SL are varied almost as much as the number of universities that offer those programs. (Furco, 1996) The University of Washington (2019), for instance, perceives SL as only academic degree program: “Service-learning refers to learning that actively involves students in a wide range of experiences, which often benefit others and the community, while also advancing the goals of a given curriculum.”

On the other side, Texas State University (2019) recognized any learning activity that includes faculty and students as SL: “Our MISSION is to enrich the collegiate learning experience by encouraging civic engagement, compelling student reflection, and fostering meaningful community relationships. We assist faculty and students find opportunities to serve that enhance academic understanding while also strengthening the San Marcos community and beyond.”

While the authors of this chapter studied how universities in the US define SL, they recognized a tendency that each university may have different standards on how they adapt SL activities that are funded by community partners. None of the universities’ SL definitions reviewed addresses whether SL activity should be unpaid or paid.

Based on the authors’ bricolage, the paid SL opportunities were under-emphasized or not even considered as SL by many universities. For some universities/colleges, the “service activity” to the community should be unpaid or voluntary, while for others, SL includes paid work. Unfortunately, despite the amount of literature in SL, it is challenging to find any literature that SL must be unpaid or paid. To examine and verify the potential gaps among the current perception of unpaid or paid SL activities, the authors conducted a national-wide survey.