As an added value, the book describes and provides contact information for national organizations that support service-learning and resources that are useful in helping students make postcollege service and career choices. Service-Learning in Higher Education is an invaluable resource for all campus professionals - including faculty members, student affairs practitioners, and senior academic leaders who are interested in advancing the goals of student learning and development while simultaneously making a unique contribution to the community.

Advocates have positioned service-learning as a real-world, real-time opportunity for students to encounter academic knowledge in a meaningful and relevant manner. Service-learning in higher education settings offers a powerful alternative to traditional models of teaching and learning. Students are encouraged to develop links to local institutions, volunteer their time, and create a special bond between the university and the community in which they live. Service-learning has become a very popular alternative to standard courses in higher education and is gaining significant popularity. This book takes a serious look at the unintended consequences and alternative conceptualizations of this mode of learning and explores what it could offer us in the future.

This book offers a comprehensive rethinking of the theory and practice of service-learning in higher education. Democratic and community engagement are vital aspects of linking colleges and communities, and this book critically engages the best practices and powerful alternative models in the academy. Drawing on key theoretical insights and empirical studies, Butin details the limits and possibilities of the future of community engagement in developing and sustaining the engaged campus.

Service learning brings together students, academics and the community whereby all become teaching resources, problem solvers and partners. In addition to enhancing academic and real-world learning, the overall purpose of service learning is to instil in students a sense of civic engagement and responsibility and work towards positive social change within society. Embedding Service Learning in European Higher Education promotes service learning as a pedagogical approach that develops civic engagement within higher education. It both describes and assesses the most recent developments and contextual positioning of service learning in European higher education and considers if and how the pedagogy is responding to European Union policy and the strategy of higher education institutions and towards engagement with broader societal issues. With case studies from 12 universities across Europe, this book draws on existing practice, shares knowledge and develops best practice to provide conceptual and practical tools for teaching, researching and practising service learning. This book: exposes service learning as a key approach in terms of embedding a culture of political and civic literacy within higher education; considers service learning in Europe, an area of growing research in service learning practice; explores the issue of university social responsibility; presents chapters from leaders in the service learning movement at a national and international level. Practical and engaging, Embedding Service Learning in European Higher Education is a fascinating read for anyone working in service learning as well as those working at universities with an interest in social and civic engagement and institutional reform.

This book will help stakeholders in higher education appreciate service-learning as an innovative and active approach with the potential to enrich students’ learning experiences, while adding value to the service mission of higher education. The approach not only links academic learning to everyday life, but also exposes students to a variety of opportunities for the development of life and career skills. The book will serve to bring university teaching out of the clouds and restore in students’ minds the connection between what they are learning and the people their education is meant to help. The approach advocated here will serve to have a long-term and salutary effect on the whole nature of university learning. When students are given the opportunity to participate actively in the learning process, which includes civic engagement, they will be able to learn not only theoretically, but also experientially through practice, as experience is generally one of the best ways to learn.

This book emerges from the discourse of the Third International Symposium on Service-Learning held at the University of Indianapolis in Athens, Greece, in November 2009 as part of the biennial collection of papers on service-learning. This fourth collection highlights service-learning (SL) theories and methods in higher education, presents selected case studies of local projects that exemplify the theories and methods in action, and points the way toward future possibilities for international partnerships. Part One demonstrates how practitioners have translated SL theory into model programs of best practices. Part Two examines nationally based SL experiences that enrich indigenous local communities, national communities, and teaching institutions. Part Three explores international SL (ISL) programs with their unique reciprocal national relationships, hybrid methodologies, and site-specific challenges. Part Four covers networking national SL settings to international venues while forecasting SL concepts that span academic disciplines and geographic distances. The selected papers in this collection were contributed by educators in twenty-three universities in four countries.

It is clear that service-learning has the potential to yieldtremendous benefits to students, communities, and institutions ofhigher education. Increased student learning has been welldocumented. As communities gain new energy to meet their needs andgreater capacity to capitalize on their assets, service-learningenables higher education to fulfill its civic responsibility. Whenservice-learning lives up to its potential to lead colleges anduniversities to transform themselves into fully engaged citizens oftheir communities and the world, its ability to bring aboutpositive social change is limitless. To be successful, service-learning must be grounded in a widerange of solid, reciprocal, democratic partnerships. BuildingPartnerships for Service-Learning assembles leading voices inthe field to bring their expertise to bear on this crucial topic.Faculty, administrators, student leaders, and community andcorporate leaders will find this volume filled with vitalinformation, exemplary models, and practical tools needed to makeservice-learning succeed. Comprehensive in scope, Building Partnerships forService-Learning includes: Fundamentals and frameworks for developing sustainablepartnerships Assessment as a partnership-building process The complex dynamics of collaboration between academic affairsand student affairs Partnering with students to enhance service-learning How to create campuswide infrastructure forservice-learning Profiles and case studies of outstanding partnerships withneighborhoods, community agencies, and K-12 schools Partnerships for collaborative action research Exploring the challenges and benefits of corporate andinternational partnerships The dynamic relationship of service-learning and the civicrenewal of higher education Building Partnerships for Service-Learning is theessential guide to taking service-learning and partnerships to thenext level.