Contribution of the Community Partner in Service-Learning

In service-learning, one of the challenges is to maintain a proper balance between the students’ learning and the benefits for the community.  From the perspective of power relationship, it is often perceived that the university holds the balance of power over those of the community partners.  

The community partners play an important role in the education of the students, in partnership with the teachers of the course.  Much of the students’ learning come from exposure to the community, listening to the community, understanding the needs of the community, and providing the service to satisfy part of that need.  Without the cooperation - passive as well as active - of the community, the students’ learning will be greatly diminished.  The teacher normally decides what the students are expected to learn.   The teacher also does much of the teaching, particularly the conceptual elements.   

But the experiential aspects of the learning, the most distinctive and valuable part of service-learning, typically comes from interaction with the community.  In this sense, the community is teaching the students.  This can happen explicitly and intentionally, when the community partners explains their situation, the social issues they are suffering from, the impact of those issues, and possible remedies.  It can also happen implicitly through the students’ experience in the community, observing, interacting, investigating, and problem solving.  

The community partners invest in the relationship their time, effort, knowledge, and attention.  This contribution should be properly recognised and rewarded.  However, it appears that this may not always be the case.  The contributions of the community partners are often considered to be passive.  Or the potential contributions from the community partners may not be fully utilised.  Partly as a consequence, the university does not feel obligated to recognise and compensate the community partners for their contributions.  When benefits are created for the community, it is often considered something offered by the university out of the goodness of their heart, rather than an obligation arising from the teaching the students receive from the community.  

It is important that this aspect of the relationship between the university and the community be properly acknowledged.  The community partners’ contributions to the students’ learning should be recognised fully, in all relevant aspects.  It should be recognised at least in the following ways: 

1. In the syllabus or description of the service-learning course, who are the community partners and in what way do they contribute to the learning of the students?  
2. The community partners should be aware of the contributions expected of them.  The project is probably initiated by the university, who has a much better understanding of the relationship and related issues.  The community partners may not be very knowledgeable of the concept of service-learning.  They may not have a clear understanding of the relationship, the expectations and the capabilities of the students.  It is the responsibility of the university to help the community partners become aware of these issues.  It should be done, at least, such that the community partners can play their role effectively.   It should also be done for the sake of fairness and justice.  Both sides should have a full understanding of the relationship. 
3. How are the community partners compensated for their contributions? Most likely it is in the form of benefits for the community generated by the service projects carried out in the course.  The efforts contributed by the community partners may not be directly comparable with the benefits generated, since they can be in very different forms and natures.  But the two should be broadly comparable in order for the relationship to be fair to both parties. 

The relationship between the university and the community partner is similar to that of a contract between parties.  The university (and its students) provides a service to the community, in return, the students learn from the community.  The community provides a service to the university, by teaching the students; in return, the community receives certain benefits from the service provided by the students.  

The power relationship between the university and the community partner is on a more or less equal footing.  The roles and responsibilities of both sides are clearly understood by both sides.  When both sides are fully aware of their roles and responsibilities, there is much less chance of misunderstanding, unequal power relationships, and even exploitation, either intentionally or un-intentionally.  It will also be more conducive towards a long-term, sustainable relationship.

In practice, this recognition rules out certain types of projects.

1. Projects of little to no benefit to the community.  The students may learn a lot from the field work and experience, while doing nothing for the community. The community receives nothing in return, after spending time and effort in interacting with the students.  The students may write a report and organise events to publicise their experience and the community.  But the real and practical benefits to the specific community partner are minimal.  Even if the publicity does bring some benefits in the future, to the wider community of which the current community partner is a part, it may still be grossly unfair to the current partner, who may or may not fully realise the reality of the situation, who may enter into the relationship without full understanding.  Often, in such projects, it is claimed that the community benefit from the care and love shown by the visiting team.  Generally such claims greatly inflate the significance and true impact to the community partner.  
2. Projects in which there is a high possibility of failure.  It can be due to poor preparation, very high level of skills possessed by the students, poor understanding of the issue, unrealistic project time allocation and planning, etc.  Students can still learn a lot from a failed project, sometimes even more than successful projects.  Hence a failed project can still be very valuable to the university and its students. But the benefits to the community is minimal.  Often it can even cause loss and damage, when the community puts in time and effort, and make preparations which cannot be completed.