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Underrepresented Students in Community Engagement: Approaches and Impacts

Vol. 27 No. 2: Special Issue: The Role of Community Engagement in the Educational Success of Underrepresented Students

Not All Service Is the Same: How Service-Learning Typologies Relate to Student Outcomes at a Hispanic-Serving Institution

Submitted
October 30, 2020
Published
2023-09-28

Abstract

This multimethod study used a sample of eight courses and 220 students from a single Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) to ask whether this HSI had distinctive conceptualizations of service-learning or an association between course conceptualizations (operationalized through course materials) and student outcomes. Adapting Britt’s (2012) service-learning typologies, we created a rubric to assess whether service-learning course materials reflected a focus on advancing students’ personal responsibility, critical citizenship, and/or social justice. Course materials were often rooted in more than one conceptualization. Examining the relationship of course typology to student outcomes, we found that students in courses grounded in critical citizenship and/ or social justice orientations had more positive outcomes related to academic engagement, social insights, personal insights (as a trend), and civic responsibility. These results advance theory development in service-learning by suggesting a more nuanced relationship between service-learning courses and student outcomes.