(Mis)Alignments Between Institutional Mission Statements and Service Learning Handbooks

Institutions self-identifying as social justice advocates are expected to perform social justice roles through their disciplines, policies, and actions (Feldman, 2008). Applying Tania Mitchell’s critical service learning framework (2008), this study examines (mis)alignments between service learning handbooks and their respective institutional mission statements. The first phase was a critical discourse analysis of the service learning handbooks to measure expressions of reciprocity. The second phase was a content analysis of the corresponding institutional mission statements to analyze conceptions of community engagement, social justice, etc. Findings reveal how institutions frame handbooks, considers how that framing undermines reciprocity, and analyzes how universities practice what they preach by evaluating perception and performance. Readers can expect to question how to conduct ethical community work without universities modeling ethical behavior