Epistemology and Service-Learning Research

Evidence that service-learning as a pedagogy is maturing if found both in the growing body of research directed at service-learning and the increasing interest researchers and theoreticians are devoting to the nuances of research techniques and their implications within a broad epistemological context. As Richman (1996) pointed out, "A pedagogy must assume an epistemology. That is, a method of teaching, as a method of increasing knowledge, requires an account of what knowledge is and how it is acquired and tested" (p. 5). The purpose of this chapter is to identify some general themes and issues raised regarding research in service-learning, and place these within perhaps a more global context about how a better common understanding of the methodological vocabulary for research on service and experiential education might be developed. It is not the purpose of this chapter to enter the philosophy of science debate represented by the exchange between Liu (1995) and Richman (1996), for example, except as it relates explicitly to research methods pertinent to service-learning. [author]