Service-Learning Research with Children and Youth

Posted by on January 25, 2010

FREE: New Information for Action Journal

Now Available Online
http://www.service-learningpartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=PUB_ifajournal_vol2no1

The National Service-Learning Partnership, in collaboration with the University of Minnesota and the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, is pleased to announce the latest edition of its research journal, Information for Action: Service-Learning Research with Children and Youth.  The journal is made possible with support from the State Farm Companies Foundation. The current issue, Volume II, Number 1, contains seven articles and a book review on a variety of topics.

ACADEMIC ARTICLES

* The Development of Community Service Self-Efficacy in Middle School Students through their Participation in a Service-Learning Summer Camp Program Judy L. Dauberman, Ph.D. As part of an intensive study of a two-week summer camp, three separate two-week programs were examined through pre/post testing on issues of self-efficacy.  The results indicated that, even though the camp experience was only a few weeks, its intensity produced noticeable changes in the self-efficacy of the middle school youth.

* An Analysis of Volunteer Motivations among Youth Participating in Service-Learning Projects Janet Fox, Krisanna Machtmes, Mark Tassin, and Lanette Hebert. Explore the functional motives for volunteering among youth serving in a year-long community-based program.  Using quantitative and qualitative methods for data collection, the authors discuss the patterns and themes that emerged, indicating that youth are motivated by a need for understanding, a demonstration of values, and an interest in career exploration.

* Beyond the Language Lab: Serving and Learning in Dual Immersion Classrooms Karen Muñoz-Christian, Ph.D. Learn more about the impact of students from a college Spanish class on the learning and development of elementary school children enrolled in a language immersion program.  Some of the elementary school children were engaged in a dual enrollment program, where Spanish was only spoken in some of their classes.  The impacts of service-learning in this cross age program was highly positive for elementary and college students.

PRACTITIONER ARTICLES
* A First Time Journey Into Service-Learning: Urban Teachers’ Descriptions and Reflections on the Practice, Process and Product Michele Reed, Tamika Williams, Crystal Barnes, and Ketasha Brooks.

* Journey with a group of third grade teachers from Detroit as they experience service-learning for the first time.  In a highly personalized piece, examine the challenges of trying to develop a project around voter awareness that was interesting to youth, and at the same time, easy to tie to the school curriculum and relatively simple to implement.  Their story will resonate with many teachers around the country who struggle with their first effort at doing service-learning.  “Talk to Us”: A Study in Student Generated Service-Learning, Mentoring Middle School Girls Jennifer L. Martin.

The author describes a study of a mentoring model between high school and middle school girls in a unique Women’s Study program. The study uses qualitative and quantitative data to report on the impact of the program on the high school mentors, and on the community.
* Partnering for Youth Empowerment in Urban Middle Schools: An Autoethnography Examining the Synergies and Tensions between Positive Youth Development and Youth Participatory Action Research Amy Engelman and Cynthia Hazel.

Examine the benefits and tensions between positive youth development and youth participatory action research with an urban middle school population. This article focuses on the roles of facilitators in a program designed to empower youth through participatory action research. The authors describe some of the tensions inherent in working with a system that espouses positive youth development, but sometimes stumbles when youth participatory action research and youth voice are actually added to the mix.
* “Know Greater Heroes” A Program that Connext Service-Learning, Character Education and Leadership: A First Person Account Jason V. Slack, Ph.D. and Christopher L. Brown, M.S. Christopher Brown and Jason Slack recount a very personal effort to develop a program that combines service-learning with character education.  Called “Know Greater Heroes,” this project sought to connect college students with K-12 youth to develop a coaching/mentoring/role model initiative to support character development in children.

YOUTH-LED ARTICLES
* Developing An Internet Café Chew Keng Chee, Eugene Gan, Ng Zhuo Yang, and Samson Cheung. Our youth research section is again graced with a study by five Singaporean youth who document the development of a program designed to create an internet café at a school for developmentally disabled students.  The students from Raffles Institution chronicle their progression from researching the topics related to their service-learning effort, to working with children from the target school, to reaping the rewards of doing work that benefits others.  Their detailed study demonstrates that middle/high school age students can conduct studies of rigor and relevance, connecting their work to their academic program.

BOOK REVIEW
* This Happened in America: Harold Rugg and the Censure of Social Studies. Reviewed by Robert Shumer.

The book review for this volume covers a book selected by the National Council of the Social Studies as the “research book of the year.”  Dealing with a topic that is very relevant to service-learning, the book, It Happened in America, by Ronald Evans (San Diego State University), describes the work of Harold Rugg, contemporary of John Dewey and a leading proponent of progressive education in the period between 1920 and the 1940s.  Rugg developed textbooks that focused on student centered, community connected, critical examination of justice and fairness in society — all key elements of service-learning — and is met with crushing opposition by representatives of business and conservative elements of society.  The story of Harold Rugg can be the story of service-learning.  Hopefully, we can learn from his tale how to be more effective in our own efforts to survive and thrive in American society.

We believe you will find the articles worthy of your time to read and reflect on some of the current research on service-learning from the perspective of academics, practitioners, and youth.

Visit the Partnership’s website to review the articles online.  And while you are there, see what else the Partnership is doing this year.  You will be amazed at how much is happening in the service-learning field.