Kellogg
and encourages professionally-based faculty and
staff service to the community.
Despite its "urban university" designation, in the
1990s most of the students at Cleveland State have
come from Cleveland's suburbs, creating a university community that is primarily commuter-based, as
is true with many urban universities today (Schuh,
Andreas, & Strange, 1991). The neighborhoods in
Cleveland's urban core that surround Cleveland
State are a mix of low and moderate income residents of many cultures and ethnic backgrounds.
Many of the neighborhoods have organizations that
foster a strong sense of heritage and community
action. The university's students, however, tend to
have very limited knowledge of life in these urban
neighborhoods.
Recently, several articles have described classes in
which students performed service in disenfranchised
urban neighborhoods addressing community development issues (Kellogg, 1999a; Reardon, 1994;
Rubin, 1998). Other articles describe students' service experiences working on issues of homelessness,
poverty, substance abuse, youth violence and other
problems (Education Commission of the States,
1994; Maybach, 1996). The apparent intractability
of many urban problems requires special attention
when asking students to engage in service activities.
We cannot expect students to "solve" complex urban
problems in the context of an academic quarter or
semester. What, then, is realistic to expect in terms
of benefits to the community and to student learning? However difficult, student service must address
a real problem as defined by the community and provide a real benefit to the community. For the students, the service experience should, at a minimum,
foster their understanding of the nature of urban
problems, the political, social and economic relationships that generate and sustain the problems, and
the challenges that arise when addressing problems
precisely because of those relationships.
The remainder of this paper describes the design
and implementation of a service-learning class in
two consecutive years (1997, 1998) that focused on
neighborhood access to environmental information
in a core urban neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio.
The first year activities were carried out as part of an
Americorps program at the CSU's College of Urban
Affairs. The second year activities were carried out
as part of an Ohio Campus Compact (OCC) Faculty
Learn and Serve Fellowship held by this author during the 1997-1998 academic year. I first describe the
model of service-learning and the concerns that
guided development of the course. I then describe,
more specifically, the course goals, structure, activities, and outcomes. Finally, I assess transformations
in the moral, political, and intellectual development
of the students based on results from a class survey
and statements made by students in individual
essays and journals included in the portfolios they
developed for the class.
The Service-Learning Model
I first adopted a service-learning format for the
environmental studies Senior Project class in Spring
1997. My goals for the class project were to address
the concerns of a neighborhood partner and to provide a transformative learning experience for the students. This learning experience entailed giving their
time to mitigate a real environmental problem so
that they would come to understand the political and
economic issues that created urban environmental
problems in the first place.
What model of service-learning would be most
appropriate for this task? The service-learning literature emphasizes student's academic or intellectual
learning and their political engagement in the community. I had an additional concern, however, that
has been raised by others who question, both in
terms of student learning and community change,
the basic assumptions of service-learning. Along
with these researchers, I asked: "in the service of
what?" (Kahne & Westheimer, 1996; Maybach,
1996).
Kahne and Westheimer (1996) present two models of service-learning, each with very different
goals in the moral, political and intellectual domains
of learning. One model is rooted in a charity orientation, the other in social change (see Table 1).
In the "charity" model, learning in the moral
domain focuses on giving, and is designed to foster
altruism in the student. Learning in the political
domain emphasizes civic duty and responsive citizens. In the intellectual domain, service activities are
understood as adding to the learning experience.
In the contrasting "change" model, learning in the
moral domain focuses on caring, which is based on
deepening relationships and connections so as to
change the student's understanding of others and the
context within which they live. In the political
domain, citizenship takes on a new meaning, one
that includes critical reflection on social conditions
and policies as well as individual responsibility.
Finally, in the intellectual domain, the service-learning curriculum transforms students' understanding
TABLE 1
Kahne & Westheimer's Service-learning Goals
Moral Political Intellectual
Charity Giving Civic duty Additive learning
Change Caring Social Transformative
reconstruction learning
64
