While the co-production of knowledge through community-engaged research is intended to be a reciprocally beneficial process, academic institutions have often devalued community expertise by treating community organizations as subjects rather than co-creators of knowledge. Drawing from Black Feminist Epistemology, this ethnographic study examines…

In addition to many global disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, institutions of higher education within the United States were forced to move classes online and put a pause to many initiatives. Areas that were particularly affected by the pandemic were education abroad and global service-learning (GSL) programs. As GSL programs resume…

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,…

We evaluate how the U-Links Centre for Community-Based Research (U-Links), a nonprofit organization that brokers research for community-based organizations with postsecondary institutions in Haliburton County, Ontario, has impacted this rural region of Ontario. Our approach uses contribution analysis and realist evaluation as layered tactics…

In this article I analyze postcolonial theory as a critical framework to improve understanding of global service-learning (GSL) partnerships. Although research on student learning outcomes from participation in GSL has grown dramatically over the past decade, scholarship on community outcomes and perspectives in GSL continues to lag. Just as…

This article describes the development and psychometric properties of the Community Impact Scale (CIS), a measure of benefits and costs of community-university partnerships across a range of outcomes as perceived by community partners. Scale development was carried out in two phases: (a) item generation, through which the research team, in close…

As a defining aspect of service-learning and civic engagement, relationships can exist among faculty members, students, community organizations, community members, and administrators on campus. This research developed procedures to measure several aspects of these relationships. Investigators collected information from 20 experienced…

This instrumental case study documents a community-based participatory evaluation research (CBPER) project that involved a community partner, two graduate students, a faculty member, and an external funder. It highlights the fact that a participatory evaluation model is a viable way to conduct community-based research (CBR) when a community…

This paper presents the results of interviews with staff from 64 community organizations regarding their experiences with service-learners. One of the themes that emerged from the interviews focused on concerns related to short-term service-learning commitments that last a semester or less. We explore the challenges presented to community groups…

There is an emerging body of literature advocating a "critical" approach to community service learning with an explicit social justice aim. A social change orientation, working to redistribute power, and developing authentic relationships are most often cited in the literature as points of departure from traditional service-learning. This…

This qualitative study is based on in-depth interviews with 40 representatives from 12 community-based organizations (CBOs) working with the Steans Center for Community-based Service-Learning at DePaul University in Chicago. These CBOs see themselves as partners with the University in educating college students about the realities of racial and…

Conversations continue as to whether and how community-based learning and research (CBLR) can be most effectively integrated into the mission and practice of institutions of higher education (IHEs). In 2005, eight District of Columbia- (DC-) area universities affiliated with the Community Research and Learning (CoRAL) Network engaged in a planning…

We analyze a multi-campus collaboration in a Food Stamp Enrollment Campaign to demonstrate that a well-managed public benefits campaign, associated with broader advocacy-based community partnerships, can result in positive outcomes for the community that include measurable benefits for clients, data needed to make policy and administrative…

Analysis of focus groups on service-learning experiences indicated that faculty and community organization staff differed in: (1) their commitment to the idea of expertise and their willingness to identify themselves as learners; (2) their attention to words or actions as evidence of learning; and (3) their tendency to represent learning as an…

Surveyed supervisors from 30 community-based organizations about their perceptions of each service-learning student located at their site at the end of an academic term. Factor analyses yielded two reliable factors explaining over 74 percent of the common variance: students demonstrated service skills (e.g., constructive relationship with others,…