Journal of Service-Learning in Higher Education Announces Second Edition

BATON ROUGE, La. – The second edition of the peer-reviewed Journal of Service-Learning in Higher Education (JSLHE) is now available, and its editor is pointing to a 61 percent increase in article submissions from the first edition as an indication of the journal’s initial success.

The subscription-free, online publication, designed to encourage academic research about service-learning, is available at www.ulsystem.edu/JSLHE.  

The international journal, which the University of Louisiana System launched in fall 2011, is an outgrowth of collaboration between all nine universities in the UL System and managed by the System’s Service-Learning Council.  David Yarbrough, Associate Professor of Child and Family Studies and Dean of Community Service at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, serves as the journal’s Executive Editor.

“We were pleased to have 57 manuscripts submitted for this second edition, an increase from 35 for the inaugural edition. Considering that this is a new academic journal, I find the increase in article submissions to be indicative of the level of interest that’s out there. It’s very encouraging. In addition, although 23 percent of the submissions were from Louisiana – not surprising, given the awareness of the journal here – overall, submissions came from 14 states, Canada and the Philippines,” Yarbrough said.

A diverse segment of the 57 registered journal reviewers conducted blind reviews of the manuscripts and selected the following for JSLHE’s second edition:

  • Service-Learning Through Marketing Research Class Projects by William T. Neese, J. Robert Field, and R. Charles Viosca from Nicholls State University;
  • Using Service-Learning to Increase Pre-Service Teachers’ Sense of Self-Efficacy Regarding Parent Involvement by Diana Brannon of Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, IL;
  • How Are We Doing? Making Service-Learning Assessment Simple by Michael A. Moulton and Patrice Moulton of Northwestern State University of Louisiana;
  • Pre-Service Teachers Serving Students: Service-Learning Through Virtual Tutoring. A Case Study by Cynthia B. Vavasseur of Nicholls State University, Courtney R. Hebert of the Diocese of Baton Rouge Schools and Tobey S. Naquin of Lafourche Parish Schools; and
  • The Effects of Service-Learning in the Social Psychology Classroom by Travis S. Crone of the University of Houston-Downtown.

In addition to the five articles published, JSLHE’s second edition includes an invited paper from the Center for Engaged Democracy at Merrimack College titled Core Competencies in Civic Engagement.

“The topics covered in this second edition of the journal reflect the diversity and scope of service work underway in higher education. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, last year was a dynamic service year, with over 3 million college students engaged in over 100 million hours of service,” Yarbrough said.

“Our goal for this issue was to present service-learning project ideas and examples that can be useful for the novice, as well as the experienced service-oriented faculty member, and to discuss what it means to design and implement a theoretically sound service-learning experience,” he said.

In addition to the executive editor, there are four section editors and 10 review board members.  They are:

  • Section Editor Morris Coats, Professor of Economics at Nicholls State University;
  • Section Editor Steven Gruesbeck, Instructor of Psychology and Director of Service-Learning at Northwestern State University;
  • Section Editor Sandra Hill, Head of the Department of English at the University of Louisiana at Monroe;
  • Section Editor Jackie Tisdell, Assistant Vice President of Communications at the University of Louisiana System;
  • Rory Bedford, Director of Service-Learning at Grambling State University;
  • Michael Buckles, Head of the Department of Performing Arts and Associate Professor of Music at McNeese State University;
  • Nancy Darland, Professor of Nursing at Louisiana Tech University;
  • Tena Golding, Director of the Center for Faculty Excellence and Professor of Mathematics at Southeastern Louisiana University;
  • Marybeth Lima, Director of the Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership at Louisiana State University;
  • Mike McCullough, Director of the Institute for Civic Engagement at the University of Tennessee at Martin;
  • Brad O’Hara, Vice President, Academic & Provost, Langara College, Vancouver, British Columbia;
  • Kenneth Reardon, Director of the Graduate Program in City and Regional Planning at the University of Memphis;
  • Shirley Theriot, Director of the Center for Community Service Learning at the University of Texas at Arlington; and
  • Shannon O’Brien Wilder, Director of the Office of Service-Learning at the University of Georgia.

“Service-learning has become such an important aspect of our mission and we greatly benefit from thoughtful scholarship on this topic. That’s why this journal is so important,” said UL System President Sandra Woodley. “As we look for new ways to connect what we do in the classroom with the value our students provide to the world, it’s even more important that we have forums such as this one to share ideas for making service-learning an even more powerful tool for our students, our campuses and the communities we serve.”

The online journal is being housed by Simon Fraser University through the Public Knowledge Project’s Open Journal Systems.  This is to ensure a streamlined submission, review, and publishing process with sustainability. More information about the journal is available at www.ulsystem.edu/JSLHE.  

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ABOUT THE UL SYSTEM: The University of Louisiana System is Louisiana’s largest higher education system enrolling over 92,000 students at the following nine universities: Grambling State University, Louisiana Tech University, McNeese State University, Nicholls State University, Northwestern State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the University of Louisiana at Monroe, and the University of New Orleans.