Civic Engagement Resources: General

With the 2007 Carl Bertelsmann Prize for Civic Engagement as an Educational Goal, the Bertelsmann Stiftung presents approaches in diverse countries and discusses how they meet the challenge to promote civic engagement in schools and early childhood education and care. The report also gives a short overview of the status quo of civic engagement in Germany and suggests some reforms for the future.

Describes different forms of professional development for cooperative learning and shows how the use of cooperative learning in professional development is leading to new insights into teaching and professional growth in schools.

Community Service Learning (CSL) is, potentially, the most powerful and far-reaching educational reform movement in recent memory. Yet, that potential has yet to be realized. One major reason for CSL's limited success is found in its runaway conceptual confusion: in becoming everything to everyone, CSL has lost its philosophical bearings and, not surprisingly, its practical value. This study attempts to restore CSL's philosophical bearings, arguing that there are particular understandings of its components that imply particular kinds of educational practices.

This volume presents new paradigms that can lead practitioners to create more powerful experiences, and lead researchers to a better understanding of the relationships between service-learning, participants, context, and outcomes. If implemented, the models in this volume can do much to help us better understand the essence of service-learning and add to its value to education and the development of engaged citizens.

This timely volume is the first to explore service-learning as a valid learning activity. The authors present extensive data from two groundbreaking national research projects. Their studies include a large national survey focused on attitudes and perceptions of learning, intensive student interviews before and after the service semester, and additional comprehensive interviews to explore student views of the service-learning process.

The papers in this volume were selected from nearly 100 presentations made at the 2009 annual conference of the International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement held in Ottawa, Canada's national capital. The conference theme, Research for What? emphasized fundamental questions, namely: to what extent is rigorous research uncovering best practices in, and demonstrating the positive results of, service-learning on teaching, learning and building better communities? The papers examine such themes through lenses that include the application of theory to practice, K-12 and university-based service-learning, interdisciplinary initiatives, and international service-learning.

This volume brings together a variety of current perspectives on the theory and practice of service learning. The Yearbook includes a historical overview, discussion of the roles of state and federal government in establishing and supporting service learning, and descriptions of existing programs at the school and college level. A theoretical framework for service learning is delineated, existing research is described, and additional areas for research and evaluation are suggested.

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 essays in this volume are a collection of reflective narratives, rather than traditional scholarly treatises. Five common themes are described. These themes include the use of service learning and civic engagement as an effective pedagogy, the relationship between civic engagement and political activism, the importance of partnership and collaboration, the meaning found in civic engagement, and the challenges of civically engaged work.

This eighth volume in the Advances in Service-Learning Research series includes eight essays selected from manuscripts submitted by participants in the seventh annual conference of the International Association of Research in Service-Learning and Community Engagement, held in Tampa, Florida, in October, 2007. The volume builds upon the theme of that conference: Sustainability and Scholarship: Research and the K-20 Continuum, bringing together the work of scholars from K-12 and higher education to argue for the connection between rigorous and purposeful research and sustainable service-learning and civic engagement.

The Landscape of Rural Service Learning, and What It Teaches Us All is designed to provide a comprehensive look at rural service learning. This volume includes theoretical frameworks that are informed by the rural, concrete stories that show how rural service learning has developed and is now practiced, practical strategies that apply across service learning contexts, and points to ponder as we all consider our next steps along the path of meaningful service learning.  

A unique resource for students and professors alike, this book reveals the important practical, educational, and emotional benefits provided by college programs that allow students to help others through service work in inner-city classrooms, clinics, and other challenging environments.

The purpose of this work is to improve service learning research and practice through strengthening its theoretical base. The authors bring theoretical perspectives from a wide variety of disciplines to bear as they critically review past research, describe assessment methods and instruments, develop future research agendas, and consider implications of theory-based research for enhanced practice.

Service-learning, a teaching and learning approach that uses the provision of community service as a vehicle for learning, continues to be of interest to those working in K-12 and higher education. Billig, director of a national study of the impact of service-learning, and Welch (service learning, University of Utah) present selected papers

This work looks at service learning. It covers such topics as: challenges for service-learning research; enhancing theory-based research on service learning; dilemmas of service learning teachers; the diffusion of academic service learning in teacher education; and more.

This book, offered by "practitioner-scholars," is an exploration and identification of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that are central to supporting effective community engagement practices between higher education and communities. The discussion and review of these core competencies are framed within a broader context of the changing landscape of institutional community engagement and the emergence of the Community Engagement Professional as a facilitator of engaged teaching, research, and institutional partnerships distinct from other academic professionals.

In this fascinating collection of stories, leaders in service-learning describe their early efforts to combine education with social action. Their reflections help construct a pedagogy of service-learning that will inspire newcomers and guide program development. The authors assess pioneering experiences and recommend steps for future policy and practice, emphasizing the critical need to preserve an activist commitment as programs become increasingly institutionalized. This highly readable book will assist academic leaders, faculty members, student services professionals, educational researchers, adult educators, and public policymakers who seek a common understanding of the origins, purposes, and objectives of this vital learning initiative.

The Civically Engaged Reader assembles more than forty provocative and diverse readings that range across literature, philosophy, and religion. These selections invite reflection on all kinds of civic-minded activities--from giving and serving to leading and associating--and on the vital connections between thought and service.