We’re in This Together: Exploring Challenges Related to Service-Learning

3. Upward Bound Program, Center for Academic Access & Opportunity, Suffolk University, USA)

Abstract: Teaching service-learning courses in higher education poses a set of challenges that are at odds with institutional mission and prevailing institutional discourses touting the benefits of service-learning and community engagement for students. As inter-disciplinary faculty members and professional staff, we sought to explore the ways that service-learning and community-engagement was conceptualized in our home institution. Survey results show confusion about the definition and differences between the various forms of student engagement and community-engagement. This sentiment was echoed during a faculty focus group where six faculty members discussed the challenges, the trepidation, but also value associated with teaching service-learning courses. Drawing on critical theory, this paper discusses how despite a lack of clarity and at times uncertainty, faculty members at one institution continue to teach-service-learning courses with the support of each other enabling them to navigate the power dynamics within a traditional higher education atmosphere.