Introduction: Special Section on the SLCE Future Directions Project

Abstract

The Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning (MJCSL) is delighted to invite readers into a project inspired by the 20-year anniversary of our publishing "Does Service-Learning Have a Future? " (Zlotkowski, 1995). Much of Zlotkowski's envisioned future has been realized in a variety of ways--some anticipated, some unexpected, and some bringing new and exciting challenges--and we are once again at a key moment to think intentionally about the future of our work We are proud to partner in launching the international SLCE Future Directions Project and look forward to seeing where this collaborative exploration takes us in the coming months and years. [JH, Editor] ********** Twenty years ago, having taken a critical look at the state of service-learning (SL) and having thought about what was necessary to move forward, Edward Zlotkowski (1995) issued a warning and a challenge to the movement: Unless we learn soon to respond in a much more differentiated and adequate way to the realities of our institutional and professional contexts, our commitment to social ideals will not generate long-term progress. And without such progress, it is a question if we can--or even should--survive. (p. 15) Many heeded his call, working thoughtfully and collaboratively across campuses and communities to create programs, partnerships, courses, and projects that foregrounded the academic dimensions of the pedagogy. The institutionalization of SL within the academy accelerated, complete with faculty development initiatives, full-time professional positions, internal and external funding, research agendas, and enhanced expectations related to the presence and quality of SL within higher education curricula. Now, in 2015, after the emergence of a plethora of models for community-campus engagement and in light of uncertainty nationally and internationally regarding the nature and goals of higher education in the early 21st century, the movement finds itself at another crossroads. The dedicated leadership of students, community members, faculty, and staff around the world over the last several decades has rendered the earlier question posed by Zlotkowski's title--does SL have a future--largely moot. The richness of what we now understand as service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) and the complexities of how we now position it in local and global social, political, economic, cultural, and ecological contexts give rise to different questions for the coming decades. In general terms: What are our visions now for the future of SLCE, why, and what will it take to get there? With more nuance: How can we best come together around the question of our work's ultimate purposes and focus effectively on what we are trying to achieve? How can we leverage the movement to advance those ends--intentionally, inclusively, and with integrity? What are the points of tension in how we understand and undertake SLCE that we need to hold creatively as we articulate and enact future directions for our work? What fundamental, transformative changes are required to realize our ends and for the associated paradigms and practices to emerge, grow, and be sustained? Such questions prompt us to critically reflect on our practices and their alignment with our goals, on our commitments and the challenges we face in bringing them to fruition, on the possibilities of our partnerships--all with an eye toward deeper understandings of ourselves, our work, and our shared and contested visions for the future and with the intent to build our capacities to work collaboratively as agents of positive change. The nature of the questions themselves as well as the maturation of the movement toward ever-more inclusive generation of knowledge and practice call for the full range of perspectives and experiences to be at the table as we move forward from the current crossroad. The SLCE Future Directions Project is a co-created space for such critical reflection among all who wish to contribute their voices. …