SETTING A GLOBAL RESEARCH AGENDA for Service-Learning and Community Engagement
THIRD EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON SERVICE-LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION, SLOVAKIA, July 2020
1. Impact Studies
These studies focus on assessing the impacts of service-learning and community engagement on participants, including students, faculty, staff, institutions and the community. The impact studies across a broad range of short term and long term outcomes.
The research agenda should identify questions that explore the impact of service-learning and community engagement across all participants and stakeholders. The questions should be nuanced, and the impacts on specific participant populations should be considered.
- What are the impacts on staff being involved in service-learning?
- What are the outcomes and impacts on employability of students (i.e., supporting their next step to secure employment, transversal skills + gender differences in development of skills)?
- What are particular impacts on community partners within engaged institutions?
- How does service-learning help students to broaden their horizons to boost their soft skills and interpersonal competencies?
- What are the impacts of service-learning on faculty members’ views on their professional role and ways of teaching?
- Why it the field dominated by females?
- What are the ways to identify and measure the benefits and negative impacts of the use of service-learning on students, teachers, and community members? What are the risks of service-learning? What happens when service-learning goes wrong?
- What are the indicators that optimize the positive benefits of a service-learning experience?
- To what extent does participation is service-learning experiences/projects in particular contexts contribute to the development of “solidarity”?
- Is there/what is the relation between existing service-learning practices in higher education and the way how evaluation of those practices influences/impacts the (future) design of degrees in certain disciplinary fields (subjects/courses and engagement activities for students)?
- Does the service-learning today impact how the study programme(s) will be (re)designed for the future generation(s) of students?
- How does interdisciplinary setting of service-learning platform/course/project impact actors/ participants? What are the benefits of placing a service-learning project in an interdisciplinary context vs. a disciplinary-centered one?
- Is there/what is/how diversified is the impact of a professional degree(s) that focus on the teaching of community engagement/service-learning on diversity, structure, sustainability of service-learning projects? (context -teachers/academics that have been educated to implement service-learning vs. those that haven’t but are enthusiastic in continuing their work with SL and self-education)?
- Acknowledging the differences of service-learning projects and possibilities in the context of different educational levels, what tools should be adopted to measure the impact at primary, secondary and tertiary level?
- What is the best way to organise the holistic approach in collecting data, acknowledging the voices of all actors/participants while studying certain service-learning-related phenomenon?
- What is actually the tangible legacy of service-learning courses/projects on our communities?
- Can we/how can we study the impact of service-learning experiences on empowerment and emancipation of students?
- How do service-learning experiences shape students’ (further/future) biographies? (service-learning biographical legacy)
- How do service-learning experiences shape/contribute/impact participants’ tolerance and intercultural competence?
- What is the impact of long-term collaborations on all parties engaged, and the community development? Do project-based service-learning activities still have capacity to contribute or only long-term sustainable partnerships seriously tackle community issues?
- How does service-learning impact alumni in their further work life, social skills, and empathy?
- What long-term changes are notable within partner institutions?
- What themes are taken back to university from service-learning and community engagement experiences?
