The purpose of this series of books is to advance the knowledge in the service-learning research field. More importantly, this research is to be used to transform the field. This transformation will come from realizing both the history of service-learning and trying to imagine what the future may look like. The chapters in this book all demonstrate just how far service-learning research has come. Researchers, practitioners, and students alike have benefited from its dissemination and use the research to improve practice. The research does not simply inform educators how to create a better pedagogy. Rather, it informs a service-learning practice that can transform both individuals and institutions.

The authors examine samples of experimental learning programs in higher education to better understand the influential drivers of service-learning pedagogy, as well as potential barriers that hinder service-learning adoption in higher education settings. Service-learning is a structured learning experience that links academic course work and community service, stressing reciprocal learning and reflective practices to address community identified needs, while engaging and developing students citizenship skills and critical thinking for social change. This book discusses how service-learning projects impact students, faculty, higher education institutions, and service-learning clients through domestic and international experiences. The research methods demonstrated throughout this text include: survey research, mixed-methods research, literature reviews, quasi-experiments, and case studies. Chapters within this book evaluate the impact of service-learning projects through learning competency outcome measures or reflection analyses. We believe the empirical data and knowledge provided through this book will advance service-learning research and support the adoption/integration of service-learning opportunities in higher education settings. Moreover, we hope that future research will expand upon lessons provided in this book, to continue to build the service-learning knowledge base for faculty, students and institutions. Part I of this book provides a brief literature review of overcoming service-learning barriers in higher education, including discussion of online service-learning challenges and strategies. To offer an interdependent analysis of the service-learning approach, Parts II, III, and IV include case studies grouped by what may be considered the three primary stakeholder groups: Faculty, Students and Institutions. Part II: Faulty will provide detailed analyses of faculty, both tenure-track and off-tenure track, encountered issues and considerations regarding the integration of service-learning projects with the course curriculum. Part III: Students will discuss learning, reflections, and personal development outcomes of students who participate in service-learning opportunities. Part IV: Institutions will examine the partnerships between the higher education program and stakeholder communities, both in the domestic and international context. Chapter authors include professors from public, private, domestic and international universities with experience in student learning and experimental learning. These professors represent disciplines in public health, communication science and disorders, psychology, community engagement, and education and have incorporated service learning in their teaching and instruction. It is with sincerity that we express our appreciation to these professionals for their passion and commitment to advance our knowledge base of service-learning pedagogy and research in higher education.

Throughout the 90s and early 2000s, service-learning research was intensely focused on the student outcomes. That body of research has effectively brought service-learning from the fringes into the mainstream of institutionalized pedagogies. In the past decade service-learning research has experienced an infusion of exploration in three distinct ways: first, large-scale quantitative methodologies; second, a proliferation of research that has explored how different sub-groups of students experience the pedagogy differently, thusly resulting in variation among outcomes; and third, a focus on the experiences and outcomes associated for communities and community partners engaged in service-learning. In an effort to support these movements, this volume of the Advances in Service-Learning Research series, Service-Learning to Advance Access & Success: Bridging Institutional and Community Capacity, focuses on how service-learning can advance access and success. Not simply access and success of students, but the ways that service-learning can advance access and success for all through bridging institutional and community capacity building. The chapters in this volume serve as a testament to the ways in which service-learning research continue to be advanced by thoughtful scholar-practitioners. The 12 chapters included in this volume are organized into three sections. The first section focuses on how institutional and community partnerships can be leveraged to build community capacity. The second section focuses on how institutions might build their own capacity to effect change for the good of society. The third and final section focuses on six studies exploring the relationship service-learning pedagogy has with access and success for students. Of the six studies, three are situated within the context of teacher-preparation programs.

Transforming Teacher Education through Service-Learning provides a fresh look at educational reform through the lens of teacher preparation. It poses the question “Why service-learning now?” as it discusses the meaningful ways service-learning pedagogy can transform the approaches used to prepare teachers to educate tomorrow’s children. The pedagogy of service-learning has significant implications for teacher education. Its transformative aspects have far reaching potential to address teacher candidate dispositions and provide deeper understanding of diversity. Knowledge of the pedagogy and how to implement it in candidates’ future classrooms could alter education to a more powerful experience of democracy in action and enhance the civic mission of schools. The current and ongoing research found within this volume is meant to continue support of the notion of educational reform. Because the vision we hold becomes the reality we experience, it is imperative to consider the question—Why service-learning now?—as we adjust teacher preparation programs to promote engaging opportunities for today’s youth.

This book establishes community engagement and service-learning as pathways to advancing human development and common good. Using the human development and capability approach as normative frameworks, with South Africa as a frame of reference, the author investigates the theoretical contributions and ultimate benefits of university-community partnerships. In doing so, this book demonstrates that three interrelated capabilities – affiliation, common good professionals and local citizenship – are developed through community engagement and service-learning. Subsequently, the notion of transformative change through community engagement and service-learning is illuminated, particularly when operating within the context of power differentials, inequality and extreme poverty. This book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of service-learning, and its implications for partnerships between universities and external communities.

When considering inequality, one goal for educators is to enhance critical engagement to allow learners an opportunity to participate in an inquiry process that advances democracy. Service?learning pedagogy offers an opportunity to advance engaged?learning opportunities within higher education. This is particularly important given the power dynamics that are endemic within conversations about education, including the conversations around the Common Core, charter schools, and the privatization of education. Critical inquiry is central to the ethos of service?learning pedagogy, a pedagogy that is built upon community partner participation and active reflection. Within higher education, service?learning offers an important opportunity to enhance practice within the community, allowing students to engage stakeholders and youth which is particularly important given the dramatic inequalities that are endemic in today’s society.