Organized into ten chapters and an epilogue, the book focuses on recurrent themes that the research uncovered: organizations’ motivations for taking part in service learning partnerships, issues of timing, fit, management, communication and diversity. Chapters One, Ten, and the Epilogue are written by the editors, while the individual chapters are authored by the graduate students in a research seminar taught by Stoecker. The one exception is Chapter Eight, which is written, unedited, by a nonprofit director. There Amy Mondlach recounts success and failure stories worth hearing, yet her feedback seems aimed at other nonprofits more than university audiences. The final chapter articulates community standards for service learning- and is filled with useful concrete suggestions- like sharing syllabi and contracts of understanding—but I’m not sure they address the full scope of the problems that the research uncovers.
A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric