Chapter 4: Promises And Pitfalls of Service-Learning In Teacher Preparation: Lessons from Longitudinal Research

The mixed-methods research of this chapter features a service-learning project that has continued for six years through a course of a teacher preparation program in physical education. Preservice teachers work with low-income, minority youth in neighborhoods characterized by gang recruitment. Quantitative findings document gains in efficacy beliefs of preservice teachers. The qualitative data analyses illuminate findings from the quantitative analyses, providing understanding of the complexity of factors that seem to matter when service-learning experiences are beneficial. Findings also are consistent with other research and tenets of theory. Over time, however, interplay between general notions of what matters and how this was manifested in particular could vary. The plans of the project remained unchanged, but dynamics of interactions of individuals differed. Attributes of the experiences collectively yield understandings of promises and pitfalls that would have remained elusive through analyses of a single semester.