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W hat are the best ways to instill studies of service learning participants in its volunteer component but has
democratic values and create civi- show enhanced compassion and interest explicit links to classroom curricula.
cally engaged citizens? Much political, in social problems generally, those atti- Perry and Katula (2001) produce in-
public, and scholarly attention has re- tudinal changes do not consistently teresting results with their comprehen-
cently been paid to these and similar translate into behavioral changes (Eyler, sive review of 219 empirical studies of
questions. Service learning and commu- Giles, and Braxton 1997; Perry and the relationship between service (includ-
nity service for adolescents and young Katula 2001). This paper reviews recent ing service learning and community
adults have received the most attention empirical studies of community service, service) and citizenship. After caution-
(Perry and Katula 2001). Civic education service learning, and volunteering, and ing that limited empirical studies, small
has also been studied but does not draw then frames the consistently strong evi- sample sizes, and differing objectives
the same attention as service learning dence that participation in clubs and or- and methodologies affect the ability to
(Niemi and Junn 1999). The September ganizations during adolescence leads to draw concrete conclusions, they con-
2000 issue of PS: Political Science & higher levels of civic engagement dur- clude that a) service appears to favor-
Politics addressed service learning in ing adulthood within the political partic- ably influence citizenship related
higher education, but service for high ipation model developed by Verba, cognitive understanding; b) service and
school students is also receiving increas- Schlozman, and Brady (1995). I suggest volunteering appear to positively influ-
ing amounts of attention. Estimates are that the reason such participation is ence later volunteering and giving; and
that 83% of high schools nationally linked to later civic engagement is less c) the type of service that produces the
offer community service opportunities related to civic identity development as most consistent positive results is serv-
(Westheimer and Kahne 2000), that half suggested by some (Yates and Youniss ice learning. However, they find that
of all community colleges have service 1998; Youniss, McLellan, and Yates existing research does not address the
learning courses and that nearly two 1997), than it is to development of fun- relationship between citizenship skills
million college students at four-year damental civic skills necessary for civic and behaviors sufficiently to draw con-
institutions participate in service learningengagement. clusions. While attitudinal changes were
(Hepbum, Niemi, and Chapman 2000). I am interested in how adolescents somewhat common there was no evi-
While specific articulated outcomes vary learn to become active adult members dence of behavior changes. Perry and
widely, researchers suggest that studentsof their communities-to become Katula (2001, 15) observe that "given
who participate in service programs will "engaged," not only in political activi- the centrality of active citizenship in
become more civically engaged (Yates ties such as voting and campaign work, most theories and proposals for service,
and Youniss 1998), understand and but also in community improvement the paucity of research about citizenship
become more tolerant of our diverse activities via civic and volunteer associ- outcomes, particularly behaviors, is
society, and improve classroom learning ations (similar to Campbell 2000). I fo- noteworthy."
(Hepburn, Niemi, and Chapman 2000). cus on how adolescents learn the doing Hunter and Brisbin's (2000, 625)
Empirical research suggests some posi- of democracy, that is, active participa- evaluation of college student's service-
tive outcomes from service learning rela- tion, not simply cognitive knowledge oflearning experiences in three locations
tive to student cognition and classroom political systems. Building upon the is exemplary of the mixed findings
learning but little evidence supports premise that adolescence is a critical common in empirical research in this
expectations that service learning encour- time for socialization and development area. Their study confirms that service-
ages civic behaviors such as voting, con- (Erikson 1968), I ask, "What activities learning participants "learn about their
tacting elected officials, and being active during adolescence lead to long-term community, further develop some aca-
in community affairs (Perry and Katula civic engagement?" demic skills and feel that they have
2001). helped members of their community."
This paper suggests one reason for However, little to no change was indi-
the weak empirical results relative to Community Service, Service cated for self-reported attitudes towards
civic engagement is that many service Learning and Volunteering political engagement.
and volunteer programs have failed to
Impact Civic Engagement Similarly, empirical evidence indicates
sufficiently address development of fun- volunteering has positive results for indi-
damental civic skills such as expressing
Weakly
viduals on cognitive and attitudinal
opinions and working collectively to Service learning, community service, measures but weak results for increasing
achieve common interests as part of and volunteering have been put forward civic engagement of participants. A 1996
their design. As a result, while some as mechanisms to increase civic engage- survey found approximately 60% of
ment of individuals (Yates and Youniss teens volunteered during the previous
1998). Community service programs typi- 12 months (Independent Sector 1997).
Mary Kirlin is assistant professor of cally consist of requirements for students Adolescent volunteers reported their ex-
public affairs at IUPUI. She spent 15 years to volunteer a given amount of time in perience helped them understand people
working in government and politics before their community. Hepbur, Niemi, and who are different than themselves (48%)
coming to the academy. Her research Chapman (2000) remind us that service and to understand more about good citi-
focuses on adolescent civic socialization. learning is similar to community service zenship (37%); but only 18% said they
Note
*This research was funded by a grant fromThe author wishes to thank Michael Leuthner
the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy.and Jordan Olivetti for their research assistance.
References
Astin, Alexander W., Linda J. Sax, and Juan Beane, J., J. Turner, D. Jones, and R. Lipka. Campbell, David. 2000. "Social Capital and
Avalos. 1999. 'The Long-Term Effects of Vol- 1981. "Long-Term Effects of Community Service Learning." PS: Political Science &
unteerism During the Undergraduate Years." Service Programs." Curriculum Inquiry Politics 33:641-45.
The Review of Higher Education 22:187-202. 11:143-55. Conrad, Dan, and Diane Hedin, eds. 1982a.