How service-learning students make meaning of civic learning outcomes : a mixed methods approach highlighting the voices of students of color

Service-learning has been a key pedagogical tool for over 50 years. During that time, research in the field moved from proving the worth and validity of the pedagogy to better understanding how student civic learning was impacted. That research often did not disaggregate the data by race and was therefore incomplete. The purpose of this study is twofold. The first is to use racially disaggregated data from the Civic Attitudes and Skills Questionnaire (Moely et al., 2002b) to compare the civic learning outcomes of students who completed a course with an integrated service-learning component. The second is to use qualitative methods to uncover how students make meaning of their civic learning through the statements used in the CASQ. Special attention was given to how student outcomes differ based on race in survey responses and focus group conversations. Using multiple methods that intersect during the analysis of the data allows for a deeper understanding of the meaning students made of the survey statements and the impact it had on their civic-learning.