Making Sense of Service-Learning

A history of the Service-Learning program where coop education started.

The University of Cincinnati’s is busy tearing down walls and breaking out of their “silos.” Their colleges understand that students who cross disciplinary borders to work and train cooperatively learn more and are better prepared for employment after they leave the university. The goal of MAKING SENSE OF SERVICE-LEARNING is to further break higher education out of its silo, proving that a university that nurtures symbiotic partnerships between students, faculty, and the greater community in which the university is rooted, is stronger for it.

Sharp highlights the complex evolution of the University of Cincinnati’s Service-Learning program, particularly its connection to the historic Cooperative Education movement in Cincinnati, which was founded in 1906. This action-oriented book solicits lived experiences and stories from a variety of campus and community stakeholders, which are then analyzed through the theory of structuration. His work contributes to the development of structuration theory by detailing key watershed moments that have underscored the evolution of the University of Cincinnati’s service-learning program.


ADVANCED READING COPY. Chapters of this book are published iteratively in open access as they are received to solicit and engage experiential educators, and college administrators in discussion that will impact the finished version of this book. We invite you to highlight, annotate and share the content with colleagues at your own college and elsewhere.