Why We Use Service-Learning: A Report Outlining a Typology of Three Approaches to This Form of Communication Pedagogy

Abstract

This report offers a framework that acknowledges that not all service-learning shares the same rationales or goals for student development, or engages students in the same way in communities. Key differences are explicated in approaches to service-learning pedagogy that focus on (a) skill-set practice and reflexivity, (b) civic values and critical citizenship, and (c) social justice activism. This typology seeks to broaden the operational definition of service-learning pedagogy to acknowledge and promote multiple approaches to linking service and learning and communicate that service-learning is full of complexity and possibility.

Keywords:

• Service-Learning
• Typology
• Communication Pedagogy

Acknowledgements

This manuscript is based on the author's dissertation. The author wishes to thank Larry Frey and the many service-learning proponents who supported and contributed to the emergence of this framework. The author would also like to thank the editor Paul Witt, and the reviewers for their support for and insightful feedback.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lori L. Britt

Lori L. Britt is an assistant professor in the School of Communication Studies at James Madison University