The Unheard Voices

by Stoecker, Randy; Tryon, Elizabeth A.; Hilgendorf, Amy

• ISBN13: 9781592139958
• ISBN10: 1592139957
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-07-28
• Publisher: Temple Univ Pr

Summary

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 toThe Unheard Voicesask, "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 Voiceschallenges 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.

Author Biography

Randy Stoecker is a Professor in the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin, with a joint appointment in the UW-Extension Center for Community and Economic Development. He is the author of Research Methods for Community Change: A Project-Based Approach and Defending Community: The Struggle for Alternative Redevelopment in Cedar-Riverside (Temple).

Elizabeth A. Tryon is the Community-Based Learning Coordinator at the Morgridge Center for Public Service based within the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Previously she was a community partner specialist for the Human Issues Studies Program at Edgewood College’s School of Integrative Studies, Madison, Wisconsin.

Amy Hilgendor is a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Human Development and Family Studies.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Unheard Voices: Community Organizations and Service Learning	p. 1
Motivations of Community Organizations for Service Learning	p. 19
Finding the Best Fit: How Organizations Select Service Learners	p. 38
The Challenge of Short-Term Service Learning	p. 57
Managing Service Learners: Training, Supervising, and Evaluating	p. 73
The Heart of Partnership: Communication and Relationships	p. 96
Service Learning in Context: The Challenge of Diversity	p. 116
One Director's Voice	p. 136
Principles for Success in Service Learning-The Three Cs	p. 147
The Community Standards for Service Learning	p. 162
Epilogue The Two Futures of Service Learning	p. 187
References	p. 193
Contributors	p. 203
Index	p. 207
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