Perspectives of Community Partner Organizations in the Development of Ethical Service-Learning Guidelines

Abstract

This research brings the voices of community partner organizations into the discussion of ethical obligations of university and student partners in community- based learning. We used a framework for service-learning ethics developed by Wendler (2012), which brings The Belmont Report (1979) on research ethics together with decolonizing, feminist, and participatory action research frameworks, to guide our interviews with staff members of community organizations about their experiences and beliefs about the ethical obliga tions of faculty and students partnering with service- learning courses. We found that the community organization perspective deepened our understanding of the categories elaborated in the Wendler framework (i.e., respect, reflexivity, beneficence, and justice) and situated them in relationship to one another as context, process, and outcome. Based on these findings, we introduce a relational approach to service- learning ethics that centers social justice, and we offer seven key principles to reflect the perspectives of community partners in our ethical practice. framework, which is grounded in decolonial, feminist, and participatory approaches, to understand how community partners interpreted issues related to respect for persons, beneficence, justice, and reflexivity in service- learning partnerships. We found that Wendler’s framework useful in uncovering issues of power and inequality in community- university partnerships as well as in help-ing us to understand what a more just vision for service- learning that’s rooted in the concerns and aspirations of our community partners looks like. Our findings showed that community partners expressed their desire to have more ownership over decision- making processes and that strong relationships grounded in open communication and consent were critical to the success of service- learning projects. We introduced the concept of a relational approach to service- learning ethics, which builds upon existing studies showing the importance of relationships