mixed methods research on service learning, maturity and pro-social responsivity with youth ‘at risk’

[Sam Stott]

my doctoral research uses a mixed methods approach in a longitudinal (panel) design, drawing on:
* structured and semi-structured interviews
* exemplifying multiple case studies
* ethnography (including photo-elicitation & participant observation)
* action research
to identify the key features of community service learning which assist young people ‘at risk’ to develop maturity and pro-social responsivity and develop a reflective tool which meets their cognitive and developmental needs while learning through service.

[Liberty]

Hi Sam,

Congrats on this cool project. Are you already familiar with Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (http://www.servicelearning.org)? We are the world’s largest research and practice library and archives on service-learning. We provide traditional library reference support and do all we can to help grad students in sl. What can we do to help?

Check out our new Research Capacity Hub (a collection of oodles of resources to help both experienced and emerging service-learning researchers): http://servicelearning.org/research_capacity_hub/index.php.

You’ll also be interested in our page on sl & higher ed where we have a calls for proposals rss feed. And check out our collected theses and dissertation abstracts listed on the bottom of that page too http://servicelearning.org/higher-education-sector. We’ve also gathered together material on at-risk youth that might be of interest: http://servicelearning.org/instant_info/hot_topics/at-risk/index.php

Finally, we have a totally rockin’ librarian, Heather, who lives for helping folks with their research projects. You can contact her for reference help at: nslc-info@servicelearning.org.

Best of luck with this essential work,

Liberty

***************************
Liberty Smith, Ph.D.
Program Manager
Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse
America’s Resource for Service-Learning Information
Toll-free 866-245-7378, ext. 139
Fax 831-430-9471
libertys@etr.org
http://www.servicelearning.org

[Sam Stott]

thanks liberty!

learn and serve america’s national service-learning clearinghouse was actually the first place i went to when i began my literature review, and i’ve been visiting the site regularly ever since because it has been so helpful.

I do have a question about the resources in the clearinghouse library though. i don’t have ready access through my university’s library to much service learning material as the discipline is virtually unheard of here in australia. how could i access the material in the clearinghouse library? are inter-library loans a possibility? or do you have a partner agency in australia which i could approach?

cheers,

sam
university of sydney

[Liberty]

Sorry to have missed this reply, Sam. It’s good to hear that the Clearinghouse is useful to you. Unfortunately, because of restrictions associated with our federal funding, we are not able to lend materials internationally. We do, however, photocopy material (as copyright permits) and ship it (at the user’s expense). If you’re interested in exploring this, you could identify items of interest and contact our head of circulation, Jason Burrage, at circulation-nslc@servicelearning.org. You may also know (or if not, be interested to know) that US service-learning scholar, Barbara Holland, has been on sabbatical at the University of Western Sydney for the last two years. This means that her university library may well be collecting service-learning items in earnest. You may want to check it out.

Wishing you the best (and apologizing again for missing this),

Liberty

[Sam Stott]

thanks liberty,

you’re spot on with the uws library, which is great because i can access their material through inter-library loans. for anything else, i’ll get in touch with jason:-)

cheers,

sam

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