The Review of Higher Education

Butin, Dan W. (Dan Wernaa)
The Limits of Service-Learning in Higher Education
The Review of Higher Education - Volume 29, Number 4, Summer 2006, pp. 473-498

The Johns Hopkins University Press

This article takes a critical look at the attempted institutionalization of service-learning in higher education. It asks whether service-learning can become deeply embedded within the academy; and if so, what exactly is becoming embedded. Specifically, this article suggests that there are substantial pedagogical, political, and institutional limits to service-learning across the academy. These limits, moreover, are shown to be inherent to the service-learning movement as contemporarily theorized and enacted. The article concludes by reframing some of the grounding assumptions of service-learning to position it as a disciplinary field more suited for becoming genuinely embedded within higher education.