Recent Dissertations on Service and Service-Learning Topics: Volume II

This is the second edition of the Learn and Serve America National Service-Learning Clearinghouse review of dissertations on service, service-learning, and related topics. In the first edition we identified approximately 110 studies, limiting the search to studies conducted from 1990 to the present. In this volume we provide information and abstracts on more than 200 studies- and expand the time they were produced to periods prior to 1990. Some date as early as the 1970s. The goals for doing this literature review are many. First, we want to continue to dispel the notion (as mentioned in the first version) that there is little research on service and service-learning. Second, we wanted to focus on dissertation studies, because they tend to identify the most current subjects and interests of graduate students (and programs) throughout the country on topics related to education. If service-learning is ever to become a mainstream topic in educational circles, then clearly there needs to be widespread interest in graduate schools to study service as a viable and important topic . Third, we sought information about who was actually conducting these studies and who on these campuses was sponsoring such works. Our interest in identifying authors and sponsors was to create an information system that could be used to connect these researchers so they might work collaboratively to improve the quality of knowledge and research on service-learning. Our final goal is to encourage others who are doing research on service-learning and related topics to review this document so they can add known studies that are not included in the current database. By working together, we can hopefully develop the most extensive and accurate information piece on dissertations conducted on or about service-learning