Convergent/Divergent Perceptions of Faculty and Community Partners’ Collaborative Service-Learning Projects

Abstract

This qualitative study of the perceptions of pairs of faculty and community partners who worked together on service-learning projects at two comprehensive state universities in midsize midwestern communities reveals a good deal of convergence on their understandings of the goals, work done, and products/outcomes of their projects. However, significant divergence existed on different aspects of these projects based on partner involvement with one side of the exchange or the other. Faculty emphasized impacts on students and often seemed unaware of the impacts on organizations and community, while community partners seemed more focused on their organizations and the community more broadly. As service-learning practitioners are urged to create sustainable, egalitarian partnerships that incorporate the views of both parties, these results suggest that partners make explicit their goals so that each may benefit from students' work, and at the same time create a meaningful relationship, where faculty and students can understand the impacts on community valued by their community partners. This seems to require extensive debriefing at the end of projects. Such a step would both enhance the value of participation for the partners and enrich students’ and faculty views of the projects’ worth, increasing sustainability of the relationship over time.