Establishing Criteria for Implementing and Evaluating Community Agency Involvement in Service-Learning

Abstract

Many academicians, business people, and government officials are calling for college students to not only earn a degree but to leave college ready to be active and engaged citizens in their communities. One of the fastest-growing responses to this call within higher education has been the introduction of service-learning courses across disciplines. This study was designed to attempt to bring some focus to community agency needs and desires in service-learning relationships, both in domestic and international programs. Factors and criteria frequently cited in the literature as important to community agencies and when creating partnerships were compiled into a list of 10 criteria. Community agencies and faculty/staff involved in service-learning at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) were then asked to respond to each factor, indicating how important each was to them and how satisfied they were with how each factor was carried out in their current relationship(s). Overall, the 62 respondents found having interaction based on mutual respect and relationships built on trust as most important and the factors with which they are most satisfied. Faculty/staff respondents tended rate each factor as more important than community agency respondents, though there were no significant differences between the two groups’ satisfaction ratings. International respondents, including both faculty/staff and community agency respondents, in general, rated each item more important and reported greater satisfaction than domestic respondents. Aspects of the relationships under study, including frequency of interaction, type of interaction, and frequency of supervising service-learning students, were also related to respondents’ ratings of each factor. Even with limitations, the study helps move toward a greater understanding of working with community agencies, establishing criteria to aid in evaluating and implementing service-learning relationships, and providing a base for future studies.