Made in America? Assumptions About Service Learning Pedagogy as Transnational: A Comparison Between Ireland and the United States

Authors

Susan V. Iverson, Kent State UniversityFollow
Amanda Espenschied-Reilly, Mount Union CollegeFollow

Abstract

Using exploratory, qualitative interviews, the authors studied conceptions of academic service-learning in the United States and the Republic of Ireland in order to elucidate the ways in which culture and social context shaped practitioners' perceptions and practices regarding service-learning pedagogy. Participants articulated a shared understanding of service-learning, identified similar barriers to utilizing service-learning and institutionalizing its practice, and discussed tensions surrounding the purpose of service-learning. However, Irish participants distanced their practice from the historical and cultural context of U.S. service-learning, demonstrating the process of localization. We conclude that the overarching tenets of service-learning may be transferable but the social, cultural, economic, historical, and political conditions of individual countries define how these are to be achieved.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Iverson, Susan V. and Espenschied-Reilly, Amanda (2010) "Made in America? Assumptions About Service Learning Pedagogy as Transnational: A Comparison Between Ireland and the United States," International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Vol. 4: No. 2, Article 15.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2010.040215