This is a practical guide to designing, teaching, and coordinating
service-learning courses, and for developing reciprocal community
partnerships and community-based research through a lens of equity that
addresses the endemic racial, social, economic, and environmental
disparities across society. The text provides a comprehensive framework
for developing both in-person and on-line service-learning, with a
chapter on virtual delivery of courses that integrates the principles
and practices described throughout the book. The authors uniquely
integrate the how-to of conducting service-learning with the theoretical
foundations to enact effective, equitable, and inclusive community
engagement.
Given this moment of enormous social inequality and divisiveness, the
authors offer a new definition and set of educational principles that
they characterize as Equity-Centered Community Engagement Excellence.
These principles serve to guide academic and community engagement that
is democratic, recognizes the voice and expertise of community partners,
addresses the power imbalances between communities and academic
institutions, and develops an educational experience that is potentially
transformative and promotes civic responsibility.
Informed by the literature of critical service-learning, critical race
theory, intercultural communication theory, and social-constructivism,
this book attempts to deconstruct the assumption of the preeminence of
academic knowledge to reconstruct a new operational paradigm of
equity-centeredness that validates community capacity to guide faculty
in their redesign of service-learning curriculum, activities,
collaborations, and scholarship. It is based on the principles of:
- Student Agency (demonstrated as enhanced skills, knowledge, and
motivation)
- Community Efficacy (recognition of community assets and
capacity-building)
- Scholarly Advocacy (leveraging evidence-based research-based for
equity-centered learning, serving, and social justice)
The authors offer examples of syllabi, lessons and assignments,
reflection questions, evaluation rubrics, as well as an array of
teaching tips that illustrate strategies for use in the classroom and in
the field.
The book is addressed to faculty embarking on service-learning and to
seasoned scholar practitioners looking for innovative ideas, as well as
to campus administrators who coordinate community outreach or college
student volunteer services, offering guidance on leveraging resources
and fiscal support from external stakeholders. It is also designed to
serve as a resource for professional development workshops and faculty
scholar learning communities.
It offers a rich compendium of ideas and examples from which faculty and
practitioners can select exercises and elements to incorporate or adapt
for their courses, whether designing short-term engagements or extended
service-learning programs.
