How Critical is Service-Learning Implementation?

Background: Service-learning is a pedagogical approach to teaching designed to create space for students to reflect critically on community service within an academic course of study with the aim of developing socially minded and actively engaged citizens. Purpose: As service-learning has moved away from the margins of educational practice, its potential as a high-impact practice has become increasingly well documented. This documentation speaks only to the theoretical potential of service-learning and does little to consider its practical impact on students and the communities with which they are asked to engage. Methodology/Approach: We conducted an exploratory mixed-methods study to examine the impact of the implementation of service-learning pedagogy in classrooms on students’ civic attitudes. Findings/Conclusions: Results show that endorsement of some key components of service-learning pedagogy on course syllabi are associated with increased changes in students’ reported civic attitudes, suggesting that implementation of pedagogy plays an important role in student experience and learning outcomes. Implications: These findings point to important differences in student outcomes between traditional and critical service-learning pedagogy implementation and point to the challenges inherent in shifting to implementation of critical pedagogy within a hierarchical structure of higher education.