Abstract
Background: Higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly affording greater prominence to various forms of engaged education, including Community Service Learning (CSL). Embedding CSL into institutional cultures, climates and expectations so that it becomes a mainstream pedagogy is often referred to as institutionalisation. Given the growing significance of CSL within the higher education landscape, more needs to be understood about aspects that may contribute to its institutionalisation. Purpose: This review study sought to gain insight into the factors that facilitate the institutionalisation of CSL, how they relate to each other, and how the institutionalisation process unfolds over time. Design and methods: We conducted a systematic and configurative review of peer-reviewed literature that described the institutionalisation process in HEIs. Through a thematic analysis and synthesis, factors and related strategies that contributed to successful institutionalisation were identified and categorised. Findings: Our literature analysis indicated that factors and strategies for institutionalisation of CSL can be categorised within three main phases: start-up, scale-up and sustaining. CSL can result from a top-down effort or might be initiated from the bottom up. Depending on the approach used, the strategies change accordingly. When scaling up CSL, various individuals need to decide if they want to adopt CSL; the review offers strategies to support adoption. Finally, the strategies related to the start-up and scale-up phases need to become formalised in order to sustain CSL within HEIs. Conclusion: Our review resulted in a comprehensive overview of factors and related operational strategies that can contribute to the institutionalisation of CSL. By bringing the three phases and related strategies together, this review offers a synthesised view of how the institutionalisation process of CSL may be conceptualised.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 143-169 |
| Number of pages | 27 |
| Journal | Educational Research |
| Volume | 65 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 1 Mar 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 3 Apr 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Creating ongoing internal funding opportunities: The main concern with funding in relation to sustainability is that most external funding cycles are not stable in the long run. This is particularly problematic for organisational change, which is typically a very slow process (Furco ). Some form of internal funding is crucial to sustain CSL in an HEI, not only because of the unpredictability of external funds but also because having internal funding sends a message of institutional commitment (Clark ). Bringle and Hatcher () state that HEIs with permanent CSL funds achieved greater institutionalisation. They specifically note that the central office should be funded by internal grants to ensure its sustainability. After the scale-up phase, it might be more appropriate to establish grants for entire departments rather than for individual faculty members (Zlotkowski ). These grants should allow for ongoing faculty reward and support (Vogel, Seifer, and Gelmon ; Jones and Sandmann, ; Ostrander ). Vogel, Seifer, and Gelmon () suggest that internal grants should ask applicants to specify how they will foster the sustainability of CSL. Although the reliance on grant funding may risk stagnation or even the collapse of the programme, Vogel, Seifer, and Gelmon () reflect that CSL can potentially still be sustained, even without any additional funding, if it is embedded in the existing course structures.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords
- 21 century competencies
- Community service learning (CSL)
- engaged learning
- Higher education institution (HEI)
- institutionalisation
- literature review
