Making Sense of Service–Learning – Critical Curriculum & Just Community

A history of the University of Cincinnati’s Service-Learning program.

The University of Cincinnati’s most distinguished and respected colleges are busy tearing down walls and breaking out of their “silos.” These colleges understand that students who cross disciplinary borders to work and train cooperatively learn more and are better prepared for employment after they leave the university. The goal of this book is to further break higher education out of its silo, proving that a university that nurtures symbiotic partnerships between students, faculty, and the greater community in which the university is rooted, is stronger for it.

This book highlights the complex evolution of the University of Cincinnati’s Service-Learning program, particularly its connection to the historic Cooperative Education movement in Cincinnati, which was founded in 1906. This action-oriented book solicits lived experiences and stories from a variety of campus and community stakeholders, which are then analyzed through the theory of structuration. Sharp’s work contributes to the development of structuration theory by detailing key watershed moments that have underscored the evolution of the University of Cincinnati’s service-learning program. This work has important implications for other service-learning programs, for the field of education leadership, and for the literature on campus-community organizing.