Service-Learning and Educating in Challenging Contexts explores the potential of service-learning identified as a way to integrate community service with academic study to enrich the on-going professional development of educators, especially in schools that are located in challenging contexts. This collection offers a further refinement of what typically comes under the remit of service-learning, switching the focus from the learning experience of the learner, to the educator and the deep and enriching professional learning opportunities that service-learning can offer. This approach to service-learning promotes collaborative practices amongst professional and in-service educators, and encourages an integration of theory and practice. The international contributors use their own experiences as well as current research to provide a thorough exploration of service-learning from national and international perspectives.

Service-learning is a powerful method of teaching and learning that has been used effectively for more than two decades. Its efficacy has been researched in a variety of ways and this volume continues to expand that research base. In particular, in this volume, Service-Learning Pedagogy: How Does It Measure Up?, we explore three broad areas of service-learning research and practice that reflect broader discussions of the role of pedagogy in today’s educational reform efforts: Teacher Education, Crossing Boundaries: Deepening Relationships in Service-Learning and New Paradigms/Conceptual Frameworks. Many have called for more rigorous methods when researching service-learning pedagogy. That has been the major impetus for this volume. We seek to generate knowledge regarding service-learning pedagogy, while developing theories about it. We surface some elusive affective characteristics of the pedagogy, which we know has the power to produce transformational learning. To this end, the authors who have contributed to this volume effectively add to the growing body of knowledge in the field and help us get closer to understanding the extent to which service-learning does and does not measure up.

Eminent educator Greg Prince examines how colleges should set an example of behaviour to students in order to maximise their success. The author investigates both the national and international implications and reveals how these simple measures will revitalise not only the world of education but also wider society.