The Unheard Voices

Community Organizations and Service Learning

Randy Stoecker, Elizabeth A. Tryon, Randy Stoecker, Elizabeth A. Tryon

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9781592139958, 9781592139941
• eBook ISBN: 9781592139965
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Service learning has become an institutionalized practice in higher education. Students are sent out to disadvantaged communities to paint, tutor, feed, and help organize communities. But while the students gain from their experiences, the contributors to The Unheard Voices ask, "Does the community?"

This volume explores the impact of service learning on a community, and considers the unequal relationship between the community and the academy. Using eye-opening interviews with community-organization staff members, The Unheard Voices challenges assumptions about the effectiveness of service learning. Chapters offer strong critiques of service learning practices from the lack of adequate training and supervision, to problems of communication and issues of diversity. The book's conclusion offers ways to improve service learning so that future endeavors can be better at meeting the needs of the communities and the students who work in them.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1 Unheard Voices: Community Organizations and Service Learning
• Chapter 2 Motivations of Community Organizations for Service Learning
• Chapter 3 Finding the Best Fit: How Organizations Select Service Learners
• Chapter 4 The Challenge of Short-Term Service Learning
• Chapter 5 Managing Service Learners: Training, Supervising, and Evaluating
• Chapter 6 The Heart of Partnership: Communication and Relationships
• Chapter 7 Service Learning in Context: The Challenge of Diversity
• Chapter 8 One Director’s Voice
• Chapter 9 Principles for Success in Service Learning—the Three Cs
• Chapter 10 The Community Standards for Service Learning
• Epilogue The Two Futures of Service Learning
• References
• Contributors
• Index