Chapter 10: Community Partners Critique

Service-learning scholars have repeatedly called for more research on community partnerships. This article draws on data from three significant community partnership evaluations, including an AmeriCorps program involving 35 institutions and more than 100 community partnerships; sustained global service-learning partnerships in Bolivia, Brazil, Jamaica, and Tanzania; and an urban university piloting a service-learning requirement. Community survey and focus group questions were developed from Stoecker and Tryon’s (2009) insights. The data indicate many of their concerns are overstated; community partners are much more content with partnerships than suggested there. Additionally, partners are clear-eyed in their evaluation of university servicelearning efforts, and they are therefore strategic in their use of partnership opportunities. This research amplifies partners’ voices in considering the quality of relationships between universities and communities.