abstract: High schools throughout the country posit leadership as one of the characteristics they develop while students are with them. All too often though, this leadership development is limited to those in title positions of leadership or is only accomplished through informal training mechanisms. The challenge for educators is to develop leadership that can critically address community problems, a challenge that is made more difficult in a broader social environment that is becoming politically, economically, and racially more polarized. This action research study investigated how high school students understand transformative leadership as one way to address this problem. Using a hermeneutic orientation, this qualitative study investigated high school students’ (N = 8) understanding of transformative leadership. Situated within a leadership class open to any 11th or 12th grader, participants engaged with a community-based, service-learning project as a method to enact their leadership in a meaningful way. The use of Catholic Social Teaching as a way to frame the service-learning project allowed for a direct connection with the school’s Catholic identity and mission. Data sources included reflection journals, interviews, focus groups, and a researcher observation journal. Findings from the study suggest that high school students understand and enact transformative leadership through participation in a service-learning project. Participants understood transformative leadership to different extents, indicating that transformative leadership develops in different stages. These results, along with implications for future research, are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Leadership and Innovation 2016

abstract: In this document I detail the inception of the community service learning program, Flashback, that I created for Actor's Youth Theatre of Mesa Arizona. I first provide the organization's history and then expound upon my beliefs and how the ASU theatre for youth program, along with the needs of AYT, led me to create the program. I then describe the goals and processes of implementing the community based project. I also define service learning and why the program was designed around its principles. Finally, I describe the program's curriculum, devising process and Flashback's first trial run, and then continue, evaluating the performance and reflecting upon the process. The appendix includes the devised script, photos of the performance and interaction with the community, some of the planned curriculum and portions of my journals written during the process. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Theatre 2012

M.Tech. (Public Relations Management) / Learning through experience or experiential learning is an aspect of learning that proved to be very challenging to study. This study aimed to investigate the contemporary view of experiential learning and the practices used by higher education service providers In South Africa in the implementation of experiential learning activities in public relations qualifications. Higher education service providers play a significant role in determining the content of a curriculum and for that reason it was decided to start this investigation by focusing on higher education service providers. The study aimed to explore and analyse the concept of experiential learning as it pertains to public relations education and training and develop a framework for effective and standardised implementation. Experiential learning can be defined as a holistic approach to learning in which the learner is actively involved in the learning process by means of concrete experience, abstract conceptualisation, observation and reflection as well as active experimentation. Higher education service providers have included experiential learning activities in their education and training programmes for a number of years. International and local public relations qualifications have as part of the proposed curriculum, internships or cooperative education programmes included as a credit bearing component to the qualification. The research study began by determining what experiential learning is, how higher education service providers view experiential learning, its relevance to public relations education and training and how it is implemented in public relations qualifications across South Africa. Educators, learners and future employers all form part of the stakeholder group involved in the education and training of public relations practitioners for the South African industry. The expectations of these groups of individuals need to be taken into consideration when designing qualifications, and partnerships are needed to ensure that all are involved in achieving the set objectives. Developments in higher education and training in South Africa include the forming of closer working relationships between education and labour...

Ph.D. (Marketing Management) / In South Africa there are a number of government and private institutions that provide higher education. Competition amongst these is intense and all are competing for students. Dobbelstein (2003: 3) argues that higher education institutions have to consider their relative competitive advantage in this landscape. The institutions that fulfil customers’ requirements the best will get the most students. This situation must be seen in the light of the current skills shortage in South Africa. In order to meet future demand for appropriately skilled managers and workers, ongoing collaboration and consultation between the business sector and higher education providers is required in order to ensure that the goals are met of all primary stakeholders – industry, educators, and students. Students getting workplace experience (or internships) can benefit all three stakeholders (Petrillose & Montgomery, 1998: 46 – 51). The present study seeks to determine the impact of an experiential learning project on the development of marketing students – by using an occupational interest questionnaire. Research conducted by the University of Johannesburg (UJ) indicated that there seems to be no general agreement on the use of terminology for concepts such as experiential learning (EL), work-based learning (WBL), work-integrated learning (WIL), or service learning (SL) (Geyser 2007: 5). There are subtle differences between the terms:  Experiential learning is a term traditionally used within the context of the former technikons to mean what is now known as ‘work-based learning’.  Work-based learning is a component of a programme of study: it focuses on the application of theory in an authentic, working context. It addresses specific competencies identified for the acquisition of a qualification. These competencies relate to the development of skills that will make the student employable, and will assist in developing personal skills.  Service learning is applied learning which is directed at specific community needs and is integrated into an academic programme or curriculum.  Work-integrated learning is a structured portion of a qualification in which the volume of learning allocated to WIL should be appropriate to the purposes of the qualification. WIL programmes must be appropriately structured, supervised, and assessed.  Co-operative education is a teaching and learning strategy which integrates classroom teaching and learning into structured learning that occurs in an authentic and approved setting. This concept is based on a partnership between the university, the student, and industry, or the community at large (Geyser 2007: 7).

Interaction with local speakers of a second language (L2) in a naturalistic setting during study abroad is beneficial to language learning in many respects; particularly in the development of pragmatic competence, or the awareness and ability to use the appropriate language for a specific social context (Kinginger, 2011; Magnan & Back, 2007; Schauer, 2009; Shively, 2011). Service-learning - volunteering in the local community combined with an academic pursuit - during study abroad provides the opportunity for meaningful interaction between language learners and local speakers of the L2 in authentic and collaborative settings (Overfield, 2007). This study examines the interactions of Italian L2 users and local speakers of Italian while engaged in service-learning in Italy. A sociopragmatic framework revealed emergent trends and linguistic norms in this context. Using a discourse analytic approach, this study offers a detailed description of directive use of the L2 learners and the local Italian speakers (Blum-Kulka, et al, 1989; Ervin-Tripp, 1976; Nuzzo, 2007). The study also examines (mis)understandings and relational work (Locher & Watts, 2008) that occur in the interactions. Primary data consists of audio recordings of the naturally-occurring interactions at three service-learning sites during a short-term summer study abroad program in Italy. Secondary data consists of interviews with the L2 users and their interlocutors. The data reveal that the majority of directives came from the local Italian speakers, not the L2 users, likely due to the clear power dynamic and the nature of the activities at each site. The directives were most commonly in the imperative with little or no mitigation for purposes of clarity or urgency of the tasks. Misunderstandings expressed by the L2 users were primarily linguistic, although there were also instances of pragmatic misunderstanding. Relational work emerged in the interactions, yet clear, explicit direction took precedent over face-work and rapport building among interactants. Findings from this study can be used to inform foreign language pedagogical practice in myriad ways; from developing practical applications for situated language use, to using actual transcripts from the data in pre-departure language and cultural activities in U.S. Italian language classrooms. Findings also provide community partners with data regarding the challenges, linguistic and otherwise, that L2 user/volunteers face during service-learning in Italy, and suggest areas for further research.

The focus of this phenomenological research project is to delve into the question of ‘what it is like’ for teacher candidates to experience the phenomenon of learning to teach-in-relation in the context of a community service learning project. A sense of the phenomena of learning to teach-in-relation emerges as the five teacher candidates make and play with hula hoops beyond the initial intention of cultivating joyful physical activity on campus. This research is guided by van Manen’s (1997) phenomenological approach to researching lived experience, as well as an Indigenous research framework based on the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the medicine wheel. Within the relational and embodied framework of the medicine wheel, the following six significant themes shifted perceptions of what it means to teach: 1) waiting to learn; 2) shaping community; 3) learning in movement; 4) sitting with students; 5) learning with students; and 6) embodying a flexible practice.

Resilience implies the concept of buoyancy. Specifically, it denotes an individual's capacity to persevere and even do well in the face of adversity. Service-learning is pedagogy often used to enable students to apply classroom learning in a real world context. The goal of this study was to examine the effects of service-learning upon college student resilience. The study utilized a convenience sample of undergraduate students (N = 172) across three disciplines including counseling, social work and kinesiology. In a pre-post test design, the CD-RISC was employed to measure resilience of the experimental and control groups. Factor analysis of the CD-RISC was also conducted in order to explore interrelationship of the variables among the data. One undergraduate sample (N = 210) was used to conduct the EFA before determining a best fit factor structure for this study's population. A repeated measures analysis of variance was employed to detect any differences between pre-post test groups. No statistical significance was found across pre and post-test among the two groups (p=.49, η2=.00). However significant results were found between the experimental and control groups (p=.00, η2 =.09). Examination of mean score differences among demographic variable yielded interesting findings across the three disciplines as well as between age and gender of the participants. Findings indicated students given freedom of choice within service-learning logistics scored greatest gains in resilience.

To form people that develop in an active and compromised way their citizenship to solve community and country problems is the objective of our present education. However some specialists observe mistakes in our civic education noticing that it needs an integral and structural change. School is the perfect place to constantly practice citizenship through the practice of values, capacities and abilities that allow students interact among them, with their authorities and with society members. In this article, it presents a service-learning proposal which links learning and solidarity service in order to apply the acquired knowledge in the classroom for community service developing competences in daily contexts. / Formar personas capaces de ejercer su ciudadanía de una manera activa y comprometida para afrontar los problemas de la comunidad y del país es un propósito en la educación actual, sin embargo, algunos especialistas observan fallas en la formación ciudadana advirtiendo que precisa de un cambio integral y estructural. La escuela es el espacio de convivencia idóneo para el ejercicio permanente de la ciudadanía a través de la práctica de valores, capacidades yhabilidades que permiten a los alumnos interactuar entre ellos, con sus autoridades y con los miembros de la sociedad. En el presente artículo se plantea una propuesta de aprendizaje-servicio, que vincula el aprendizaje y el servicio solidario, para aplicar los conocimientos adquiridos en el aula al servicio de la comunidad, desarrollando competencias en contextos cotidianos.

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