Approaching Democratic Engagement: Research Findings on Civic Learning and Civic Practice

The field of service-learning has come a long way in its efforts to understand and implement service-learning and its potential connection to education for democratic civic engagement. New and different ways of thinking are needed concerning the approach to what is currently one of the major outcomes for service-learning practice. Work and research in this area over the past few years has indicated that this paradigm shift must occur in 2 important ways. A shift in attention and focus is necessary, along with a need to explore/examine the "premises and assumptions" of the field (to borrow from the conference theme). [author]