Institutional Impacts and Organizational Issues Related to Service-Learning

The implementation and sustainability of service-learning depends in large part on our better understanding of the institutional impacts of service-learning, and of the organizational changes that are often needed to make service a central element of academic work and study. Recent literature has outlined the features of an "engaged" institution, and identified organizational characteristics that seem to contribute to the success of service-learning. Future research must tell us more about the comparative forms these characteristics may take in different institutions, explore the possibility of stages of implementation, and clarify our language regarding service as scholarship. Research on institutional change processes, strategies and policies is especially urgent.