Abstract
Most traditional classroom experiences in political science training rarely afford students
an opportunity to participate in community service-learning (assessing and addressing
community needs) and/or research teams (collaborative scholarship). Our service-learning
and research team used the principles of sustainability and community participation in
renovating a 200-year-old campus office building at the Colleg
e of Charleston, South
Carolina. This approach enabled students to address real-world, public policy problems,
and complemented traditional classroom experience and reading exposure by encouraging
students to connect theory with practice. Through active learning, students gained skills in
organization, mediation, and administration. In this case study, direct involvement solving
local problems further fostered a sense of community. Since the project included
community involvement, the students gained a better sense of community.
Introduction
Political Science faculty members often seek ways to promote civic participation
and encourage students to connect theory with practice. For this paper, we review and
analyze an innovative approach to teaching political science concepts while promoting
community service. This method uses Dewey’s concept of civic participation—“learning
how a community works and how to help it work better”—by applying principles of
sustainability [e.g., “meets the needs of the present without comprising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs” (in Rosenbaum, 2002, p. 372)] to a local problem
(Dewey in Ehrlich, 1999, p. 246). For this project, a political science faculty member
organized a graduate and undergraduate student research team to conduct service-learning
activities to address community needs and to conduct campus and community outreach.
Convention