Learning at the Edges: Challenges to the Sustainability of Service Learning in Higher Education

In this article, we attempt to make both practical and theoretical
contributions to the literature on service learning. On one hand, we focus
pragmatically on the sustainability of service learning efforts, given the
institutional culture of the university. On the other hand, we also examine
service learning through the lens of sociocultural theory, as a form of
learning through apprenticeship. Our intent is to understand the multilayered expert-novice roles implicit in service learning as a sociocultural
activity, and to interpret how the negotiation of those roles, especially the
expert role assumed by participating faculty, directly impacts the
sustainability of such programs in higher education. In the course of our
discussion, we seek as well to contribute to the understanding of the
expert's role in apprenticeship-like learning activities, a theoretical focus
that has been largely neglected in previous literature.