Service-Learning Research in the Disciplines

Insofar as the question of how service-learning can enhance subject matter learning is important, researchers cannot avoid paying special attention to the norms of the disciplinary (and interdisciplinary) communities where service-learning is practiced. Unfortunately, what we know at this point about its discipline-specific efficacy is very limited. In every instance we must understand what naturalizing service-learning into a discipline's discourse community would actually entail. Such an understanding would, perforce, have to deal with a wide range of topics--from a discipline's historical traditions and self-understanding, its key concerns, and basic assumptions to its embodiment in departments, curricula, and professional programming. Only with the active cooperation of national and regional disciplinary/interdisciplinary associations can this agenda begin to be successfully addressed. This article was published in the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, Special Issue Fall 2000, pages 61-67.