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| Source: RMC Research Corporation, March 2003, updated September 2007 | ||
| Teachers in many schools have adopted service-learning as a practice for teaching something of value—be it content knowledge and skills, personal responsibility and efficacy, civic responsibility and citizenship, and/or information about potential career pathways. Research and experience have shown that teachers who use service-learning as a strategy tend to embrace it passionately, believing that it is a powerful teaching methodology that motivates students to become engaged in activities and school work and provides an experiential base upon which learning can readily occur. How can service-learning be sustained in an educational environment that stresses accountability and evidence-based practice? The research suggests some answers. |
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Definition | |
| Sustainability is defined as the ability to maintain or increase program efforts by building constituencies; creating strong, enduring partnerships; generating and leveraging resources; and identifying and securing funding sources that are available over time. | ||
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Road to Innovation | |
| Miles (1983) explored institutionalization of educational practices contrasting sites that had sustained or had dropped innovative practices. He concluded, “Whether or not a program becomes a durable part of the curriculum depends on teacher mastery and commitment and administrative action, as well as other factors” (p. 14). Miles identified 20 variables that allowed organizations to foster the innovation. In early stages, adoption of an innovative process started with administrative pressure, support, and assistance to new practitioners. Increased user effort led to greater commitment and technical mastery, both of which were associated with sustainability. The model also specified an alternative path to sustainability where the administration mandated use of the innovation. This also led to increased adoption of the innovation and greater sustainability. Finally, administrators could take direct action to bring about a change in policy, altering the environment to allow for the innovation, encourage it, or require it. However, as Schneider, Brief, and Guzzo (1996) demonstrated, there is no sustained change unless there is an altered culture, psychology, or “feel” of the organization to its member (p. 7). The many changes in policy and practice accumulate to change the psychology of the organization. |
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Necessary Factors | |
Elmore (1996) suggested four factors necessary for sustainability to occur:
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Challenges | |
Senge (1999) showed that efforts to sustain an innovative practice must address three challenges:
If the challenges are overcome, then the innovation leads to other challenges, such as leadership, large-scale diffusion, and reinvention of the organization itself. Meeting the challenges of this next phase involves either finding a way to have the innovation support the current system or forming alliances with key leaders who have the authority to redesign current structures or policies. Strategies suggested by Senge (1999, pp. 372-374) include:
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Diffusion | |
| At the stage when the innovation starts to yield tangible results, diffusing the practice becomes the challenge. The school or district readiness and capacity for change are critical factors at this stage. Communication is particularly important for this final stage: dialogue must occur at all levels, not just between administrators and innovators. Best practice and lessons learned must be captured and professional development and support systems must be easily accessed. The final stage, if successful, results in a change in organizational climate, strong leadership, and an infrastructure for support. Finally, no literature review would be complete without mentioning the seminal work of Rogers (1995). Rogers articulated the stages of change, and pointed out that an innovation is most likely to be sustained when there is awareness of the innovation and its positive consequences, when there are sufficient resources to sustain the change, and when the organization is able to reach a new equilibrium in which the change becomes normative. |
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| For a more detailed discussion, including references and documentation, see the complete online fact sheet at http://www.servicelearning.org/instant_info/fact_sheets/k-12_facts/sustaining/expanded.php | ||
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Suggested Citation: | |
| RMC Research Corporation. Sustaining Service-Learning in K-12 Schools. Scotts Valley, CA: Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, 2007/2008. http://servicelearning.org/instant_info/fact_sheets/k-12_facts/sustaining/index.php |
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