Building the Reciprocal Relationship: How Students in an Affluent Private University and Low-Income Public High School Became Partners in Service and Learning

This paper presents findings from an embedded case study of a service-learning project that paired primarily white students from an affluent, research university with black students in a struggling inner-city high school. The study identifies four mechanisms that helped foster reciprocity between individual participants and change the balance of power in their relationship. The article also proposes a framework for evaluating reciprocal relationships.