Creating Our Identities in ServiceLearning and Community Engagement

In this volume in the IAP series on Advances in ServiceLearning Research, top researchers present recent work studying aspects of program development, student and community outcomes, and future research directions in the field of servicelearning and community engagement. These chapters, selected through a rigorous peer review process, are based on presentations made at the annual meeting of the International Research Conference on ServiceLearning and Community Engagement, held in October, 2008, in New Orleans. This volume features efforts in research and practice to support and expand servicelearning and engaged scholarship in both K12 and higher education. Models of effective partnerships between institutions of higher education and their community partners are developed in chapters looking at relationships between campus and community in terms of partnership identity or in terms of shared understanding by campus and community partners. Outcomes for K12 and college students engaged in service learning are the focus of several studies. The impact of highquality servicelearning on K12 student achievement and schoolrelated behaviors is described. Racial identity theory provides a useful frame for understanding developing student conceptualizations, while another chapter emphasizes aspects of selfexploration and relationship building as bases for gains in student attitudes and skills. In a final section, chapters deal with servicelearning and community engagement as a coherent research field with a distinct identity, reviewing current work and proposing directions for future research.