Thesis advisor: Sharlene Hesse-Biber / Service-learning is an experiential form of education that moves students outside of the walls of academe to meet community-identified needs through the application and renegotiation of a set of theoretical and methodological skills. It is simultaneously a teaching strategy, an epistemological framework, and an educational reform movement. This research takes the form of multi-methodological case studies of service-learning classrooms and service-learning partnerships, examining the translation of feminist pedagogy to the service-learning experience. The voices of students, faculty, pioneers, administrators, and community partners articulate the common and uncommon struggles of teaching a new generation of students to learn and serve in agencies while simultaneously recognizing their own capacity for agency. This work provides evidence that applying feminist pedagogical principles to service-learning initiatives creates more meaningful transformations for our students, faculty, and communities. The interdependent Feminist Service-Learning Process posited here is an innovative framework for moving our students across the civic borders necessary for community engagement. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Thesis advisor: Jane E. Regan / In Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987) Pope John Paul II proposes solidarity as a social virtue for our fragmented yet interdependent world. This lens raises several important questions, but also suggests new opportunities for moral formation and the promotion of institutional charism in the context of Catholic higher education. Employing a praxis methodology, this dissertation begins by analyzing contemporary declines in social capital and the rise of atomistic individualism. The philosophical writings of Alasdair MacIntyre and Charles Taylor help us to understand the moral and spiritual roots of these sociological trends. With the context established, the dissertation next traces the development of solidarity in the Catholic social tradition and attempts to locate the virtue within a Thomistic moral framework. Closely related to both charity and justice, the vision of solidarity advanced is linked to Aristotle's notion of civic friendship, perfected in its origin (the dignity of the human person) and goal (the common good). Constructive proposal are grounded in the concept of social practices developed by MacIntyre and adapted by religious educators and practical theologians. Beyond textual analysis, this dissertation includes a national survey of 87 senior mission leaders at Catholic colleges and universities. From these findings, concrete recommendations are offered for the practices of mission leadership and service-learning. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

Numerous studies demonstrate the effectiveness of university-based community service programs on students' personal, social, ethical, and academic domains. These effects depend on both, the characteristics of students enrolled and the characteristics of the programs, for instance whether they are voluntary or mandatory. Our study investigates whether effects of voluntary service programs are indeed caused by the service experience or by prior self-selection. Using data from a pre-post quasi-experimental design conducted at a public university in Europe and taking students' socioeconomic background into account, our findings on self-efficacy, generalized trust, empathic concern, and attributions for poverty show that there are no participation effects. Instead, students who join in community service differ significantly from nonparticipants with regard to almost all investigated domains a priori, indicating strong self-selection. Our results underline the importance of structured group reflection, most notably with regard to attitude-related topics.

Service-learning (SL) is a socially embedded and experience-based pedagogy that develops the link between theory and practice through community engagement. It fosters learning outcomes for students and benefits for community members. This thesis builds on recent applications of the pedagogy and advances our understanding of SL by studying a limit case of student autonomy in the absence of faculty intervention. Student-community and peer-to-peer relationships are particularly influential on students' lived experience if their interactions are unmediated by educators. This thesis firstly explores how students enact SL if left to their own devices. Secondly, by adopting a relational embeddedness perspective, it investigates the influence of student-community and peer-to-peer relations on participants' learning experience. An organisational (“at-home”) ethnography in a student-led social enterprise yielded insights into the two streams of research. The findings suggest that students' learning process consisted of a blend of emergent and deliberate micro learning processes that highlight the importance of - among other components of students' learning experience - role enactment, student autonomy, peer engagement, informal learning, and community co-education. With regards to the relationality of this limit case of SL, community and peer relations had an enabling and constraining influence on student learning. The findings further speak to the causality of such impact and suggest that the nature of inter-personal relationships determined the effects they had on students' experiential basis for learning. These findings contribute to the debate about the promise, effectiveness, and principles of SL in business and management education by problematizing student autonomy and faculty intervention. Moreover, this thesis responds to a gap in the literature and sheds light on the relationality of the pedagogy.

Submitted by Jorge Silva (jorgelmsilva@ufrrj.br) on 2017-02-15T16:38:42Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2016 - Adilson Alves Ribeiro Duarte.pdf: 1518018 bytes, checksum: de60d3d9749770a6a7833f73a6252924 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-15T16:38:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2016 - Adilson Alves Ribeiro Duarte.pdf: 1518018 bytes, checksum: de60d3d9749770a6a7833f73a6252924 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-10 / The government has counted there are many years ago with the growth of a workforce often determinative of the results of those organs in which it is inserted. Those are outsourced workers in a continuously way. They were present for consecutive years personally way and even in a functional way, these workers establish a bi-univocal and symbiotic relationship with those who surround them. It is not different at the Rural Federal University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), which has a significant contribution from the workers. This study intends to understand the correlation of concepts involved in the appropriation of knowledge of these workers in service and how this knowledge could be measured and formally recognized through a Certification System for their own knowledge. In the investigations that deal with the Certification by already developed habilities was found the concept of skills. To a better comprehension about the problem we sought to understand how this concept would be or not be useful in this purpose. Having established the possible conceptual space to work, it was intent in an exploratory research allied with case study, since the sample cut focused on workers of Vet UFRPE Hospital, the identification of a certification model that make the most of these workers. Among the methods studied, one has presented as the most appropriate, perhaps because it is more directed to the recognition of acquired skills and not necessarily intrinsic skills. The results, rather than allow the understanding of the elements involved in this relationship UFRPE / worker, brings to light the individual value of each one dedicated to the daily task of contributing to the objectives of the institution, in which they work with care and diligence, though not confirm the possibility and certify them the competences in terms of the study has show. However, it maintains that it can certify them the knowledge and skills gained in services in order to give them a formal qualifying title of his professional status. / A administra??o p?blica tem contado h? j? um bom n?mero de anos com o incremento de uma for?a de trabalho muitas vezes determinante dos resultados daqueles ?rg?os nos quais est? inserta. Trata-se dos trabalhadores em servi?os terceirizados de forma continuada. Presentes por anos seguidos seja essa presen?a de forma pessoal ou at? mesmo funcional, esses trabalhadores estabelecem uma rela??o biun?voca e simbi?tica com seu entorno. N?o ? diferente na Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (UFRPE), que conta com uma significativa contribui??o deles. Este trabalho procurou compreender a correla??o de conceitos envolvidos na apropria??o do conhecimento desses trabalhadores em servi?o e como esses conhecimentos poderiam ser aferidos e reconhecidos formalmente, atrav?s de um Sistema de Certifica??o por seus conhecimentos. Nas investiga??es que tratam sobre o assunto da certifica??o por habilidades j? desenvolvidas encontrou-se o conceito de compet?ncias. Para melhor compreender o problema buscou-se entender como este conceito seria ou n?o ?til a este prop?sito. Estabelecido o espa?o conceitual poss?vel para se trabalhar, buscou-se numa pesquisa explorat?ria aliada ao estudo de caso, uma vez que o recorte amostral centrou-se nos trabalhadores do Hospital Veterin?rio da UFRPE, a identifica??o de um modelo de certifica??o que aproveitasse a esses trabalhadores. Dentre os m?todos estudados, um se apresentou como mais adequado, talvez porque seja mais direcionado ao reconhecimento de habilidades adquiridas e n?o necessariamente ? compet?ncias intr?nsecas. Os resultados, mais do que possibilitar a compreens?o dos elementos envolvidos nessa rela??o UFRPE/trabalhador, nos trazem ? luz o valor individual de cada um dos dedicados ? tarefa di?ria de contribuir com os objetivos da institui??o na qual laboram com zelo e dilig?ncia, embora n?o confirmem a possibilidade e certificar-lhes as compet?ncias nos termos do que este estudo mostrou. Contudo, sustenta que se pode certificar-lhes os conhecimentos e habilidades adquiridas em servi?os com o fim de conceder-lhes um t?tulo qualificativo formal de sua condi??o profissional.

The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between the 3-year completion rates of first-time, full-time, transfer degree-seeking community college students, participation in activities that may encourage persistence and retention, and the demographic variables of ethnicity, Pell grant recipiency, gender, and ACT or Compass subscores in English/writing, reading, and math/algebra. The researcher used a snapshot of students’ degree completion three academic years after initial enrollment to determine 3-year completion. The study focused on first-time, full-time students who were pursuing associate of arts or associate of science degrees at a nine-campus community college in eastern Tennessee. Students who were pursuing applied science degrees, workforce certificates, or other credentials were excluded from the population. Students first enrolled in Fall 2010, 2011, and 2012, and their 3-year completion windows ended in Spring 2013, 2014, and 2015, respectively. The population consisted of 398 degree completers and 964 non-completers. The dependent variable in this study was 3-year completion. The independent variables in this study were participation in service learning courses, participation in courses that involved study abroad, and participation in student athletics, as well as ethnicity, Pell grant recipiency, gender, and ACT or Compass subscores in English/writing, reading, and math/algebra. Two-way contingency tables and Chi square were used to examine the associations between each independent variable and the dependent variable. Multiple logistic regression models were used to examine the associations between all variables. The quantitative findings indicated students who participated in service learning, study abroad, and student athletics were more likely to complete their degrees within three years. Additionally, findings revealed Pell grant recipiency, gender, and ACT or Compass subscores in English/writing, reading, and math/algebra predicted students’ 3-year degree completion. Ethnicity was found to have no significant effect on the 3-year completion rate.

Through our research, interactions, and experiences as teacher educators with young children and their families, various types of family support are provided in the teaching and learning processes in rural communities. A common theme reported within the landscape of rural communities is to connect families and their children with schools that use effective community partnerships and collaborations. Cheatham and Santos (2011) claims that, “a critical component in increasing parental involvement is effective collaboration between teacher and family” (p. 76). Across the nation, usual requests for parental and collaborative support in most school environments takes on a variety of forms – from parent teacher conferences, school governance actions, school program events, volunteering, and an endless number of other engaging activities. In remote and underserved areas, “Rural schools can provide an important social and cultural function for the area’s residents as well, drawing community members together from a wide geographic area” (Corrigan, 2013, p.49). On the other end of the spectrum, schools in rural communities often have inadequate technology usage, lack instructional resources, and the inability to disseminate information in a timely manner on issues concerning education, healthcare, economic development and sustainability, and limited professional development for teachers and parents. In 2017, the College of Education at North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University, partnered with “North Carolina State Employees’ Credit Union Foundation” to financially support 10 pre-service teacher candidates as summer interns. The interns completed 10 weeks of service learning experiences in rural and underserved communities. The overarching goals for the interns was to develop service learning immersion experiences and produce authentic artifacts for children and families with support from various community agencies in rural and underserved counties across North Carolina. The conceptual framework for this collaborative service learning internship program consisted of three methodology phases: Phase I. Orientation and Leadership for the Future. A leadership team provided orientation sessions for all participants and selected the interns and different educational partners from various rural environments. Phase II. Service Learning Immersion Experiences with Blended Research Activities. Interns developed service learning immersion plans and implemented a series of intentional service and research experiences based on the needs of schools serving families, children and community agencies. The interns utilized technology and evidence-base activities to meet the project’s goals. Each intern had a mentor that supervised the diverse service immersion and research-blended experiences. Phase III. Leadership Reflections and Next Steps. Interns and community partners assessed and evaluated the program effectiveness by means of surveys, questionnaires’ and follow-up discussions. Finally, qualitative and quantitative data was disseminated and the interns engaged in reflective presentations in their field of study. This presentation provides alternative strategies which focus on a teacher education internship program using service learning immersion experiences with established community partnerships specifically with schools and educational organizations in rural communities. This presentation also illustrates interns producing high quality service learning artifacts including technology-based products relative to student attendance, parents’ professional development, food pantries, summer backpacks and wellness initiatives to support the family and children needs in the community.

This research explores mentor outcomes of university students serving in service-learning mentoring relationships between university service-learning student volunteers and language minority student mentees. These outcomes are helpful in improving academic and personal progress for both the student mentors and the mentees. The mentoring relationships may be particularly important given the challenges facing an increasing number of language minority students in communities and schools today. Research indicates that student mentees perform better academically when mentors assist in their learning and growth. As part of the greater network of educational and community leaders, university administrators have the opportunity to create mentoring opportunities that effectively contribute to positive outcomes for both student mentors and mentees. The foundation of mentoring relationships is the nature and type of interactions that constitutes each mentoring relationship. The nature of these interactions may contribute to positive effects on the student academic achievement of student mentors and mentees. Universities provide both knowledge and human resources through service-learning experiences for student mentors that can create and sustain valuable mentoring opportunities. This research seeks to help university administrators and community leaders better understand the nature of mentoring relationships and identify the factors that are related to effective service-learning mentoring experiences with language minority students. This qualitative research used both survey and interview data to better understand the mentoring relationships and outcomes of university service-learning students. Factors such as cross cultural understanding, length of time spent in the mentoring relationship, and shared language were found from this research to have the most significant impact on service-learning mentoring relationships.

This chapter describes the implementation of two service-learning courses within the setting of a primary-care clinic for homeless and indigent individuals. The two courses are a campus-wide Introduction to Community Service and a Community Health Nursing Practicum. Although these two courses have different learning outcomes, they both address the primarygoals of service-learning, including (1) developing students' understanding about the responsibility of citizenship and preparing students for effective roles in society; (2) improving students' communication skills, problem-solving skills, and project-specific skills; (3) enhancing students' self-esteem and sense of social reality; and (4) providing an interdisciplinary perspective (Kendall and Associates 1990). The sections that follow describe the setting that the two service-learning courses share, the university-wide course, and the community health nursing practicum. Common issues faced in both courses that are discussed include reflective learning practices, community/client impact, communicating expectations to the student and the site personnel, collaboration to accomplish both service and learning outcomes, and practical issues associated with service-learning in a clinic for the homeless and indigent.

No description available.