Experiencing Citizenship: Concepts and Models for Service Learning in Political Science, Introduction

Introduction to "Experiencing Citizenship", the Political Science Volume in the AAHE Series on Service Learning in the Disciplines by Richard M. Battistoni and William E. Hudson. This chapter introduces the essays in "Experiencing Citizenship" and points out that they suggest the centrality of connecting service-learning to civic education. Illustrates ambiguities and challenges as well as successes in utilizing service-learning as a method of teaching political science. Two issues are explored that are only hinted at in the essays. The first is how service-learning should contribute to the democratization of student learning and the resulting changes in teaching. The second issue is the need to mirror the values of neighborly civic responsibility and pay attention to relationships with the surrounding community. (NSLC)