Background: Service-learning is a pedagogical practice which requires students to learn through engaged service-based community activities. Service-learning requires students become active members in their community. Through this practice student influence their communities, putting their knowledge to use. As a method of instruction,…

This dissertation reports findings from a study documenting the use of multimedia technology among Indigenous language communities to assist language learners, speakers, instructors, and institutions learn about multimedia technologies that have contributed to Indigenous language revitalization, education, documentation, preservation, and…

This paper was developed in the interest of extending the reach and benefits of national and community service programs to larger numbers of persons from disadvantaged populations. In particular, this paper is intended to increase understanding of both challenges and opportunities that may accompany efforts to increase the participation by…

The digital revolution has substantially improved scholarly work, but it has also brought challenges to those who are charged with overseeing their institutions' tenure, promotion, and rewards processes. While several electronic forms compete for legitimacy, the two most prominent are journals published exclusively online and Web sites devoted to…

Many external and societal factors influence health choices and behaviors, including health-related media messages. What people, especially youth, see and hear in health-related media messages often influences their overall health. Students, highly vulnerable to such messages, need opportunities to become media literate to reduce the effects of…

Community asset mapping is one approach to community assessment. According to Kretzmann and McKnight (1993), discovering the assets, capacities, and resources embedded in a community leads people to take responsibility for and ownership of rebuilding and renewing their community. Community mapping is a tool for consideration by family and consumer…

The "Core Indicators of Effectiveness Report" delineates the performance of Wyoming's community colleges as measured by the 14 indicators set forth by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and adopted by the seven Wyoming community colleges and the Wyoming Community College Commission in 2002. These indicators, while…

Relative to other fields, social work has been slow to adopt geographic information systems (GIS) as a tool for research and practice. This paper argues that GIS can benefit social work by: (1) continuing and strengthening the social survey tradition; (2) providing a framework for understanding human behavior; (3) identifying community needs and…

Rural communities face significant obstacles in providing access to the high-quality pre-k programs needed to help mitigate these problems. In addition to limited local tax revenues, many rural areas experience high rates of poverty and a scarcity of qualified teachers. Given these and other challenges, federal investments may be necessary in…

Policy for early childhood music education (birth to eight years of age) in Australia covers a complex and diverse range of curriculum guidelines and legislation relating to the contexts of day care, preschool, and the early years of school. Australian models and policies vary from state to state and according to setting. Furthermore, early…

While universities can play a major role in advancing research-based community development, academic discourses of rigor, quality and ethics often conflict with the participatory and collaborative approaches required by community development principles. While experienced academics often have difficulty negotiating these issues, they present…

New attention is being paid to graduate education and civic engagement. For decades college campuses have worked diligently to connect undergraduate academic study with public service in order to enhance learning and meet community needs, a connection often referred to as service-learning or civic engagement. This brief explores the importance and…

Discusses the work the author did at the Children's Museum of the Arts with a parents' group with the intention of creating a healing place within the SoHo community after the September 11th attacks. Examples of the art produced, comments made by participants, and suggestions made to these parents concerning their own healing and that of their…

A recent nine-month field study considered the relationships among school-sponsored and community forms of literacy practices in a migrant-sending area of rural Mexico. While many teachers in rural Mexico argue that students should remain in school rather than migrate to the U.S., this study demonstrates the ways in which schools in rural Mexico…

Eighteen months after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Mississippi coastal community of Hancock County on August 29, 2005, volunteers and organizations assisting with recovery in the area found chaos, confusion, and a desperate need for leadership. This qualitative study reflects the efforts of two University of Southern Mississippi professors as…