I met Barbara Jacoby for the first time while attending a National Society for Experiential Education conference in Snowbird, Utah, in the early 1990s. We were co-sojourners when a handful of conference attendees joined Irene Fisher to visit the University of Utah's Lowell Bennion Center for Community Service, where Irene was the director. Unexpectedly, the weather turned bad about the time we began our journey. The drive up the mountain was dicey. I recall the anxiety in the van driver's voice while trying to reassure us that all was well. We made it up the mountain slowly, surely, at a steady pace, until we arrived safely at our destination.

This drive with Barbara and the other service-learning educators reflects my view of the progress of the service-learning and community engagement movement. Since that day back in the early 1990s (and predating it, too), our work has progressed slowly, surely, and at a steady pace. I see many positive signs that our work is flourishing: new service-learning and community engagement centers established on many campuses, thriving existing centers, a host of new journals, robust dialogue about our work and its future, and conferences every month dedicated to this work.

I credit Barbara for a significant role in our steadfast progress. In particular, she was the founding director of service-learning at the University of Maryland. Three of her prior books with Jossey-Bass—Service-Learning in Higher Education: Concepts and Practices (1996), Building Partnerships for Service-Learning (2003), and Civic Engagement in Higher Education: Concepts and Practices (2009)—are staples in the service-learning literature. This new book by Barbara, Service-Learning Essentials: Questions, Answers, and Lessons Learned, promises to continue her trajectory as one of the most influential voices in higher education service-learning. The mountain climb behind us and the climb ahead of us have been significantly advanced by Barbara's past, current, and no doubt future work.

If Barbara had written Service-Learning Essentials: Questions, Answers, and Lessons Learned twenty years ago, or even ten years ago, it would have been a much thinner and less robust publication. While this is a reflection (I had to get that word in!) of the enormous strides we have made in research and practice, questions, lessons to be learned, and dilemmas remain. What role can service-learning and campus-community partnerships assume in solving our seemingly intractable (and perhaps growing) social ills? How do we best ensure democratic education outcomes for students involved in service-learning? How do faculty committed to this work strengthen their case for promotion and tenure? This book covers all these matters.

Those new to service-learning will find the fundamentals addressed, including clarification of the conceptualization of service-learning, assessing student learning in service-learning courses, building sustainable campus-community partnerships, and the various ways to engage students in critical reflection. Those who have dabbled in service-learning will find useful information on such complexities of service-learning as how to assess community partnerships and enhance students' understanding and appreciation of “isms,” power and privilege, systemic oppression, and other issues that necessarily arise when college students enter disenfranchised communities. Seasoned service-learning educators will find the book replete with important information and resources related to such matters as the relationship of service-learning to politics, institutionalizing service-learning, the future of service-learning in the online environment, and the relationship between service-learning and social entrepreneurship.

In all the chapters, Barbara takes a measured and balanced approach. She does not promulgate, but rather walks us through each issue from multiple perspectives. While most of the chapters will appeal to faculty and those responsible for building faculty capacity to teach with service-learning, the chapters on the “Administration of Service-Learning” and “Designing and Implementing Cocurricular Service-Learning” in particular will appeal to higher education administrators and staff.

Ironically, this book comes at a time when our work, according to some, has stalled (see Hartman, 2013; Kliewer, 2013; Saltmarsh, Hartley, & Clayton, 2009). I agree that we have reached a threshold, or, to continue the metaphor, a challenging mountain slope, in the growth and promise of service-learning and the civic engagement movements that seems to be difficult to get over. When one reaches a threshold, good problem-solving models suggest returning to the beginning, to the origin, to fundamentals. And this is precisely what this book does. It covers the fundamentals and draws on the latest research and practice in the field to deepen our understanding of this rich and challenging work.

Each of us sees the promise of service-learning somewhat differently. Some see it as a chance to reinvigorate or transform teaching in colleges and universities. Some see it as a way to enhance students' academic learning. Some see it as a contribution to addressing social ills. Some see it instilling a sense of social responsibility in our students. Some see it ensuring the health of our democracy. Some see it as enabling the appreciation of diversity. When done well, as Barbara depicts in this book, service-learning can accomplish all of these purposes.

Why Barbara? Because, simply put, she is one of the icons in the service-learning movement. She has been and continues to be in a stellar position to see the need for this book and has the knowledge to write it. Given her longevity in the field, past publications, and myriad speaking engagements and campus consultations, Barbara has had a panoramic and on-the-ground view of our work. She is among an elite group of service-learning and community-engagement educators who have played an outsized role in the progress we have made to make campuses “safe for service-learning.” I think of Barbara as the key individual who has brought service-learning to the masses.

Why is this book important? Many books and articles have addressed the various issues taken up in this book. But this book addresses all the issues one can think of related to service-learning and campus-community partnerships in one place—a one-stop resource. And it does so in a most readable format with clear chapter headings, important questions posed, balanced comprehensive answers provided, and resources for further study identified.

Who will benefit from this book? I see this book as a bestseller for several reasons. First, there is no other comprehensive resource like it. Second, it has so many potential audiences—from practitioners to researchers to faculty development specialists to graduate students. Third, I can imagine service-learning centers sharing this book with educators across campus as well as community partners to assure compatible understandings of this teaching-learning method. And finally, if all the service-learning stakeholders—faculty, students, community partners—would read and use this book, the quality of service-learning's outcomes would be magnified.

How will I benefit from this book? In the past, when faculty have asked me for a foundational yet comprehensive “text” about service-learning, I have been at a loss to provide one. Now I'll have one. I anticipate buying copies to use in my faculty development work.

What is the ultimate significance of the book? I see this book as the definitive word on service-learning and community engagement: what it is, its aims, how to do it well, and all the issues accompanying an enterprise involving students, faculty, community members, community partners, and higher education institutions. When the annals of service-learning are written, Barbara Jacoby and this book will have a very prominent place.

References

1. Hartman, E. (2013). No values, no democracy: The essential partisanship of a civic engagement movement. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 19(2), 58–71.
2. Kliewer, B. (2013). Why the civic engagement movement cannot achieve democratic and justice aims. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 19(2), 72–79.
3. Saltmarsh, J., Hartley, M., & Clayton, P. (2009). Democratic engagement white paper. New England Resource Center for Higher Education, Paper 45. http://scholarworks.umb.edu/nerche_pubs/45.