Fundaciones autonómicas

The purpose of this study is to examine the lived experiences and identities of service-learning faculty at UT Austin. This chapter is organized into six sections and provides context for the study through a review of existing research literature. First, the chapter begins by defining service-learning. This section frames the current rhetoric and scholarly need for the timeliness of research around service-learning. The second portion of this chapter is dedicated to the history roots of service learning—including influential scholars and the evolution of the pedagogy within higher education. Next, the literature review briefly covers research findings related to students and community partners in order to describe their role as a stakeholder in the service-learning process. The fourth section gets to the heart of the study by exploring the multiple facets of faculty involvement with service-learning, particularly focusing on factors that have emerged from the motivational studies conducted over the past two decades. After exploring all of these factors, the fifth section defines persistent gaps in service-learning faculty literature. The final section of this chapter reviews two theoretical constructs that will help to guide the research study. Combined, these six sections help to demonstrate the need for qualitative research focused on understanding identities and experiences of service- learning faculty in order to better understand how they may play a vital role in helping to meet the mission of a public research university.

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Defining Service-Learning

Academic service-learning is often folded into the broader definition of civic or community engagement, yet it is a specific pedagogical technique that stands on its own merits (Gibson, 2006). Other types of civic engagement activities may include a one- time community volunteer program, practicum, or internship; however, this literature review is delimitated to focus on service-learning and culls through the literature to identify service-learning as a specific form of engaged scholarship.

Practitioners and academics have struggled with how to define service-learning and to explain how it is different from community service or civic engagement (Holland, 1999; see also Gonsalves, 2008; O’Meara & Niehaus, 2009). The broadest definition is the incorporation of meaningful community service for the purpose of student learning, either through curricular or co-curricular efforts. From this basic definition there are many critical approaches that reflect different disciplinary orientations or institutional missions.

The Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (2011) is a consortium of professional associations with the mission to develop and promulgate standards for the improvement of programs that enhance student learning while promoting good citizenship. The Council (CAS) offered a broad, practitioner-based definition for service learning by describing it as “a form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities intentionally designed to promote student learning and

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development” (p. 3). CAS also noted that different institutions choose different written forms of the phrase service-learning—mainly including or excluding the hyphen between the two words. CAS (2011) substantiated use of the hyphen because it “symbolizes the symbiotic relationship between the service and the learning” (p. 3). Consistent with CAS’s written use of the term, I have chosen to maintain the hyphen throughout this research endeavor to demonstrate the link between service and learning in curricular programs.

The CAS definition provides a service-learning definition from the perspective of a professional association. To supplement the CAS definition, I also follow an academic definition of service-learning provided by Bringle and Hatcher (1995, p. 112) and frequently cited in the research literature:

…course-based, credit-bearing educational experience in which students (a) participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs and (b) reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility.

These two definitions highlight distinct aspects of academic service-learning, helping to illustrate its importance as a unique approach to community engaged scholarship.

The National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (2013) provided a detailed example of how to delineate the practical differences between one-time service, classroom learning, and integrated service-learning. For instance, if students collected trash out of an urban stream, they would be volunteers to the community through their one-time service. If students sat in a science lab to analyze water samples under a microscope, it

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would be considered classroom learning. However, if students from a science class collected trash from an urban stream, analyzed their findings to determine the possible sources of pollution, and shared the results with residents of the neighborhood, they would be engaging in an integrated service-learning class. Together, the connection between course content, teaching, learning, and meaningful community service constitute service-learning.

Another way service-learning differs from volunteerism is through the integral use of two fundamental concepts—reflection and reciprocity (Jacoby, 1996). Hatcher and Bringle (1997) defined reflection as “the intentional consideration of an experience in light of particular learning objectives” (p. 153). CAS further describes the importance of reflection by presuming that a service experience, in and of itself, does not necessarily produce learning; rather, faculty must foster learning and development through consideration of learning goals in relation to course material. In addition to domain- specific knowledge outcomes, faculty may also use reflection activities to consider civic, ethical, moral, cross-cultural, or spiritual learning goals as well.

Reciprocity requires a mutually beneficial relationship for the community, the students, and the faculty member as each commit to learning. Through reciprocity, students and communities engage in mutually beneficial learning experiences while students develop a greater sense of belonging and responsibility as members of the larger community (CAS, 2011). The core concepts of reflection and reciprocity eschew a charity model of service, and instead, focus on students engaging in service with others rather than for others as a model of learning (CAS, 2011).

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Historical Context of Service-Learning

This section of the chapter will include three subsections to develop understanding of the historical and philosophical roots of service-learning, beginning with a discussion of three influential scholars: John Dewey, Paulo Freire, and David Kolb. The second subsection will describe the roots of service-learning in higher education to illustrate how the purpose of higher education has aligned with the United States’ political and societal needs—dating back to the 1862 passage of the Morrill Act to establish land grant institutions. The last subsection concludes with a look at the present- day service learning movement as a reflection of efforts made over the past decade to link higher education institutional resources with addressing societal problems.

INFLUENTIAL SCHOLARS.

More than any other figure, John Dewey has been cast as the father of service- learning because his philosophy was both a precursor to and exemplar for the theory and practice of service-learning (Deans, 1999; Giles & Eyler, 1994; Hatcher, 1998; Jacoby, 1996). Paulo Freire, born in Brazil, has often been called the Latin John Dewey (Deans, 1999), as his philosophies were similar to Dewey. Freire noted the crucial importance of reflection, but due to his impoverished background he emphasized the role of service- learning on creating a more socially just society. This section also includes information on David Kolb as an influential scholar in experiential learning approaches.

John Dewey (1859-1952). John Dewey was a philosopher, psychologist, educator, and political activist (Deans, 1999). According to service-learning scholars

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Giles and Eyler (1994), “For Dewey, pedagogy and epistemology were related—his theory of knowledge was related to and derived from his notions of citizenship and democracy” (p.78). Through his ethical writings, Dewey emphasized the important role of education in sustaining democracy and capitalistic ideas in the United States. These ideals gave service-learning roots in civic engagement as students connect their ability to further democratic ideals. Another important contribution to service-learning was Dewey’s assertion that thinking and experience were inseparable from one another. As such, he touted a student-centered educational theory of combining reflection with action to connect experiences with the production of knowledge.

According to Erhlich (cited in Jacoby, 1996), Dewey engaged in a debate about the nature of education with Robert Maynard Hutchins just before the start of World War II. Hutchins wanted to transform undergraduate education around a canon of "Great Books” as he maintained that a study of the major texts written by Western intellectuals would provide guidance for all aspects of human life. On the other side, Dewey argued that reliance on “the notion of fixed truths” (p. xi) was dangerous and contrary to democratic principles. Dewey also maintained that theoretical study should not be separated from practical study or from great social problems because education should be a process to assist in defining society (Deans, 1999). Erhlich further contended that until the 1970s higher education leaders believed that Hutchins won the argument over Dewey; however, support for Dewey's philosophy has grown as demonstrated by the various pedagogies that link students’ active learning with civic participation and engagement (Deans, 1999; Jacoby, 1996).

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Eyler and Giles (1999) asserted that Dewey’s theoretical writings defined the important role of reflection by describing it as “the hyphen in service-learning.” Throughout his writings in both philosophy and education, Dewey insisted that mere activity did not constitute an educational experience (Deans, 1999). Instead, he promoted an active and participatory theory of learning with reflexive inquiry designed to assess how an experience is processed to produce knowledge and learning. Dewey proposed that reflection included five phases:

1) perplexity, confusion, doubt in response to a situation whose character is yet to be determined; 2) a conjectural anticipation, tentative interpretation of the given elements; 3) a careful survey of all attainable consideration which will define and clarify the problem at hand; 4) a consequent elaboration of the tentative hypothesis to make it more precise and more consistent; 5) the development of a firmer hypothesis upon which to act, as well as remaining open to further testing and revision (as cited in Dean, 1999).

The inextricable link between academic service-learning pedagogy and reflection activities stems directly from Dewey so that students working in the community on real life complex problems have a way to process it as an educational experience.

Paulo Freire (1921-1997). Freire was a Brazilian educator and philosopher who drew most of his theoretical perspectives from the poverty he experienced, particularly how hunger impeded his learning and caused him to fall behind in school (Gerstenblatt, 2012). Freire's writings criticized the traditional role of education and politics because it formally emphasized the dominant political regime and played a part of the larger societal milieu (Deans, 1999). Yet, Freire contended that education could encourage democratic participation by giving students a voice and social agency to actively focus on

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social and economic transformation by understanding, reforming, and revitalizing systems of oppression. Through this, Freire connected service-learning pedagogies as a way to reveal social injustices and to call students to action against the culture of oppression.

Another one of Freire’s major contributions to service-learning literature was the idea that experiential education provided an opportunity for students to engage in inductive reasoning—questioning traditional content-driven, deductive modes of teaching (Deans, 1999). Freire is best known for his attack on what he called the banking concept of education where he asserted that the traditional lecture-style teaching reduced students to passive “banks” into which the teacher “deposits” information (Jacoby, 1996). This traditional model sets the teacher as the narrator, turning students into empty vessels to be filled with content that is alienated from reality (Deans, 1999; Gonsalves, 2008). Instead, Friere sought to promote education as a revolutionary process where knowledge emerged as the invention and re-invention of a restless, impatient, continuing, and hopeful inquiry (Deans, 1999). He built upon Dewey’s concept of reflection by calling students to engage in critical consciousness, thereby, restructuring the relationship between a teacher and his or her students. As such, Freire laid the foundation for critical pedagogy where students become active participants in their learning and counteract traditional modes of learning (Jacoby, 1996).

David Kolb (1939). In 1984, David Kolb developed an experiential learning theory (ELT) defined as "the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping and

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transforming experience" (Kolb 1984, p. 41). Kolb’s theory has been widely used by practitioners, professors, and researchers because service-learning has its roots in experiential education—the idea of learning by doing (Hatcher & Bringle, 1997). Kolb conceptualized the ELT, which was originally based on Dewey's conception of reflective inquiry (Deans, 1999; Gonsalves, 2008; Hatcher & Bringle, 1997). The ELT model consists of a four-step learning process: 1) concrete experiences; 2) observation and reflection; 3) forming abstract concepts; and 4) testing new situations through active experimentation (see Figure 2.1).

Figure 2.1 Kolb’s experiential learning theory (ELT). This figure was retrieved from Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning experience as a source of learning and development. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Jacoby (1996) asserted that a person might enter Kolb’s cycle at any point; however, a student engaged in service-learning would begin with a concrete experience and then embark on a period of reflection that would lead to analyzing their observations

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from the experience. Students would then reflect on the implications that arise from their observations and begin to integrate this newfound understanding with existing abstract concepts and knowledge. Most service-learning students would find that the acts of service combined with their classroom instruction deepened their understanding of the world and the root causes of larger societal and systemic issues. In the fourth step of the model, Jacoby states that students begin to see ways they can further test these concepts in different situations. “This experimentation leads the learner to begin the cycle again and again” (p. 10). This cycle reinforces the powerful nature of an experiential learning technique such as service-learning.

HISTORICAL ROOTS OF SERVICE-LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION.

The evolving role of higher education has been directly connected to the historic political, social, and economic movements in the United States over the past century. Universities and colleges have served as backbone to the country by providing domestic stability through promotion of democratic ideals and civic education, while at the same time helping to keep the nation globally competitive through technological and scientific advancements. A brief review of some key milestones in American history follows to illustrate how the roots of service-learning in higher education are intimately tied with the nation’s wellbeing.

While the term service-learning gained popularity in the 1990s, the scholarship and pedagogical methods of incorporating meaningful service into academic programs is actually much older than that (Speck & Hoppe, 2004). Service-learning is one form of experiential education, and this concept was rooted in the land grant movement of the

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l860s. The Morrill Land Grant Act signed by President Lincoln in 1862 during the Civil War, and the second Morrill Act in 1890 to establish research institutions for African Americans, were the first official legislative documents to link higher education to the nation’s agricultural, technological, industrial, and economic revolutions (Jacoby, 1996). Land grant colleges and universities were purposefully designed to provide a range of practical educational opportunities to all economic and social classes, and promoted service and civic engagement as part of the mission of education. The founding purpose of land-grant universities was service to society.

In 1914, Congress passed the Smith-Lever Act as the culmination of five years of debate over how agricultural extension work should be organized. The Act created the Cooperative Extension Service which funded universities and colleges to develop and share technologies in agriculture, such as the uses of solar energy (Titlebaum, Williamson, Daprano, Baer, & Brahleer, 2004). This measure furthered the public- oriented mission of land-grant colleges by directing faculty members and students to share their teaching and research with the community through public demonstrations, publications, and printing and distribution.

The 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s were peppered with war, recession, global competitiveness issues, and civil rights movements that affected higher education and its ability to meet its civic mission. In response to an influx of veterans return home from World War II, Congress passed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, also known as the G.I. Bill (U.S. Department of Education, 2011). This law provided a range of benefits for returning veterans including cash payments of tuition and living expenses to

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attend college or vocational education. By the end of the program in 1956, roughly 2.2 million veterans had used the G.I. Bill education benefits to attend colleges or universities, and an additional 6.6 million used these benefits for some kind of training program (Titlebaum, et al., 2004). While the G.I. Bill did not include provisions for veterans to participate in community engagement activities, such as service-learning, it provided yet another clear link between the connection of civic duty and higher education.

The start of the Cold War in the 1950s questioned the United States’ position as a world superpower. The first large-scale federal student loan program was born in response to the launch of the Soviet Union satellite, Sputnik on October 4, 1957. Sputnik caught the world’s attention and prompted the U.S. federal government to take swift political, technological, and scientific action. Fearful that the United States was lagging in science and technical education, President Eisenhower proposed spending $1.6 billion to improve education. To help ensure that highly trained individuals would be available to help America compete with the Soviet Union in scientific and technical fields, the federal government provided support for loans to college students, the improvement of science, mathematics, and foreign language instruction, graduate fellowships, and vocational-technical training (U. S. Department of Education, 2011). While this shift in focus prompted higher education institutions to prioritize science and technological research, the undercurrent of connecting education for the public good was not lost. Indeed, efforts to strengthen the United States’ competitive edge are evident in public and

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private higher education funding today because “science and technology have great potential to improve lives around the world” (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2012).

The anti-poverty and civil rights laws of the 1960s and 1970s further connected the importance of education, community service, and social justice. In an effort to continue to maintain allies abroad, President Kennedy established the Peace Corps in 1961. Kennedy planed to promote world peace and friendship by connecting college- educated men and women of the United States to provide peaceful service to the poorest areas of countries, and to help promote a better understanding of the American people (Titlebaum, et al., 2004). President Kennedy had a vision to also activate young adult volunteer corps domestically to help strengthen America’s socio-economic wellbeing. Following Kennedy’s untimely death, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a "war on poverty" and signed the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 to fulfill President Kennedy’s vision (Titlebaum, et al., 2004). This Act created the Volunteers In Service To America (VISTA) which gave college students the opportunity to provide services and programs to address poverty in the United States, addressing the needs of depressed areas such as of the Appalachian region and migrant worker camps in California (Titlebaum, et al., 2004).

In the 1980s and early 1990s, higher education institutions were criticized for failing to extend their rich resources to address public concerns around issues such as