Abstract
Service-Learning is a form of experiential learning where faculty integrate a service or community engagement component into academic coursework. Supported by a growing body of literature documenting the impact of service-learning on undergraduate students as a high-impact practice in the United States, the scholarship and practice of service-learning frequently neglects graduate students as an important and unique demographic of learners. Graduate students pursue master’s degrees to achieve their career goals, but employers claim that students are graduating ill-prepared for the workforce. The disconnect between employers’ perspectives and students’ educational goals presented an opportunity to explore the relationship between service-learning and career preparation using Knowles’ andragogy as a theoretical framework. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological analysis study was to explore the relationship between service-learning and career preparation from the perspective of graduate students as adult learners. Findings suggest that (1) service-learning is both as a professional experience itself and is an opportunity to further prepare for their future careers and (2) service-learning is a genuine way for students to develop skills and self-efficacy important to their career trajectory. Recommendations are provided for educators who are considering integrating service-learning into their teaching to support the professional goals of graduate students.
Keywords
Supported by a growing body of literature documenting the impact of service-learning on undergraduate students as a high-impact practice in the United States, the scholarship and practice of service-learning frequently neglects graduate students as an important and unique demographic of learners (Kuh, 2008; Jacoby, 2014; Bringle et al., 2012; Harris, 2017). Service-Learning is a form of experiential learning where faculty integrate a service or community engagement component into academic coursework (Bringle & Hatcher, 1995; Jacoby, 2014; Welch & Saltmarsh, 2013). The dearth of service-learning and community engagement (S-LCE) literature related to graduate student education has sparked a call for more research and has garnered more attention in the past decade (Morin et al., 2016; Harris, 2017).
One component that is well-documented and known about graduate education is that the primary reason a person pursues formal graduate education is for professional and career advancement (Merriam et al., 2012). Teamwork, collaboration, responsiveness to feedback, critical thinking, and problem-solving are among the skills that employers are expecting master’s degree holders to have as they enter or advance in the workforce (Chhinzer & Russo, 2018; Wendler et al., 2012). But what has happened is that students are pursuing master’s degrees to achieve their career goals, yet employers are claiming that students are graduating ill-prepared for the workforce (Wendler et al., 2012). The disconnect between employers’ perspectives and students’ educational and professional goals is a critical issue that needs to be addressed. This presented an opportunity to explore the relationship between service-learning and career preparation, especially for graduate students (Roe, 2021). Service-Learning has been adopted by faculty in many disciplines across higher education globally, but its connection to students’ career preparation and therefore academic motivations are not always explicit, particularly for masters’ students in the United States. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between service-learning and career preparation from the perspective of graduate students as adult learners.
Theoretical framework
This study employed Malcom Knowles’ adult learning theory, also known as andragogy, as the theoretical framework to undergird this research. As “the art and science of helping adults learn,” andragogy assumes that adults and children learn differently, and the relationship between andragogy and pedagogy could be understood as being on a continuum (Knowles, 1980, p.43; Knowles et al., 2005). Higher education commonly refers to pedagogy when discussing teaching and learning, but by reframing the conversation to be focused on andragogy, scholars and educators may explore a new way of understanding adult learners’ experiences in educational contexts. With its roots in humanism, andragogy’s focus is on the individual and self-actualization of the learner. This distinction allows Knowles to defend the theory from critics asserting that it does not take social environments into consideration of the learner’s experience (Knowles et al., 2005; Merriam & Bierema, 2013; Sandlin, 2005).
Andragogy encompasses six key principles. First, adults become more self-directed in their learning as they age and become more independent (Hagen & Park, 2016; Knowles, 1980; Merriam & Bierema, 2013). Second, adults learn best through experiences and lean on their prior learning experiences in new contexts (Knowles et al., 2005; Merriam & Bierema, 2013). Third, adults’ readiness to learn is intertwined with their social roles (Knowles, 1980; Merriam & Bierema, 2013). Fourth, adults are problem-centered as opposed to subject-centered in their learning (Knowles, 1980; Knowles et al., 2005). Fifth, adults tend to be internally motivated rather than externally motivated (Knowles, 1984). Sixth, adults need to understand why they need to know something (Hagen & Park, 2016; Merriam & Bierema, 2013). Knowles adapted his theory over time and added the fifth and sixth principles of andragogy in a later iteration (Knowles et al., 2005). In sum, the six principles of andragogy both reinforce one another’s significance and offer flexible application in practice.
The learning gleaned from the few studies applying Knowles’ andragogy or adult learning theory to undergraduate service-learning is not directly transferable to a graduate student population where the motivation to pursue formal education for graduate students is dominated by career and professional interests. Only a few studies apply Knowles’ andragogy or adult learning theory to graduate service-learning, and scholars in business and management appear to be among the first. Wickam (2015) used Knowles’ adult learning theory in a study of a service-learning MBA capstone and employability skills. Similarly, Dietz (2018) applied Knowles’ adult learning theory in a study of a service-learning graduate capstone in management and leadership to explore personal and professional gains.
The scarcity of Knowles’ andragogy applied to graduate service-learning experiences presented an opportunity to better understand the experiences of graduate service-learning students specifically as adult learners. Therefore, the driving research question in this study was: how do graduate students perceive the relationship between their service-learning experiences and career preparation? Institutions and educators who are invested or exploring models of experiential learning for their graduate student populations may benefit from the insights and lessons learned through this research that highlights the complexities of the student experience as they consider, design, and implement service-learning projects embedded in coursework.
Review of the literature
Higher education institutions in the United States began to reaffirm their commitment to the public and civic purposes of higher education in the 1980s and early 1990s, which shifted greater attention to broader community engagement priorities (Morin et al., 2016; O’Meara & Jaeger, 2006). This was furthered by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching adopting a community engagement definition in 2006 and Boyer’s (1990) Scholarship Reconsidered expanding our understanding of how faculty members actively participate in and contribute to this commitment (Gelmon et al., 2012; Morin et al., 2016; New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE), 2016). Together, this generated opportunities for faculty to integrate service-learning into their teaching as a valid form of scholarship. Currently, service-learning is used globally in K12 through graduate education, though to various extents. Beyond the United States, scholars have been researching the complexity, implementation, and impact of service-learning in England, Croatia, Kenya, Spain, China, Pakistan, and Australia, just to name a few. The International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARS-LCE) has helped to amplify geographically diverse research across educational networks and has created a global community of scholar-practitioners to support the practice and research of S-LCE.
As a form of experiential learning, service-learning is heavily influenced by the work of Dewey (1938) and Kolb (1984). Conceptually and in practice, service-learning is a teaching and learning tool that integrates academic coursework with service or community engagement through intentional course design and reflection (Bringle & Hatcher, 1995; Jacoby, 2014; Welch & Saltmarsh, 2013). The educational nature of a service-learning experience requires a cycle of action and reflection to allow students to make sense and draw meaning from their experiences (Bringle & Hatcher, 1995; Kolb, 1984).
Morin et al. (2016) reflections on 10 years of graduate S-LCE demonstrated promise and progress across the field, evidenced by an increase in social impact requirements for funding agencies’ grant applications, dissertations with an S-LCE component, and interdisciplinary programs to name a few. However, some barriers remain such as graduate education and research institutions being discipline-focused, graduate students struggling to make a connection between community engagement and their scholarship, and lack of reward structures for faculty (Morin et al., 2016; O’Meara & Jaeger, 2006). Institutions’ adoption of service-learning can range from individual faculty members using this strategy to the creation of campus-wide programs tailored to graduate students (Goodhue, 2017). Additionally, many institutions outside of the United States are still in the process of building a robust infrastructure to support service-learning as a whole, as has been reported in Australia (Patrick et al., 2019), Spain (Heras-Colàs et al., 2017), Pakistan (Morrison, 2016), and Kenya (VanLeeuwen et al., 2020) to name a few. Aside from structural barriers, the dearth of literature on graduate S-LCE requires continued research to better document its impact on graduate students (Bringle et al., 2012; Harris, 2017; Morin et al., 2016). Several studies report on graduate student satisfaction of their service-learning experiences (DeBonis, 2015; Maccio, 2011), and while this is an important contribution to documenting the student experience, there is an opportunity to dig deeper on the impact on student learning and outcomes.
A primary reason service-learning is used by faculty is because it offers an applied, hands-on, real-world learning experience to students to promote skill and competency development. Disciplines that already adopt a professional education model such as social work, nursing, teacher education, law, and business frequently employ experiential learning in their curricula (O’Meara & Jaeger, 2006). Service-Learning has been documented to have a positive impact on graduate students’ skills and professional competencies that are benchmarked by professional associations. This can be seen in public administration (Lu & Lambright, 2010), social work (Faria et al., 2010; Severity-Seib & Tadrick Parkah, 2014), and physical therapy (Hayward & Charrette, 2012) to name a few. Additionally, skills graduate students have gained through service-learning include interpersonal and communication skills in public administration and law (Boys et al., 2015; Lu & Lambright, 2010), instructional and pedagogical strategies in physical education teacher education (Meaney et al., 2012), cultural competencies in social work, teacher education, instructional design, and nursing (Brescia et al., 2009; DeBonis, 2015; Faria et al., 2010; Meaney et al., 2012), and leadership and problem-solving skills in public administration and business management (Carey, 2018; Dietz, 2018; Lu Lambright, 2010; Wickam, 2015). Increases in professional self-efficacy has also been attributed to service-learning (Long, 2014; Meaney et al., 2012).
Although not exhaustive, these empirical studies establish that service-learning is a credible way for faculty to help graduate students develop professional skills and competencies. Additionally, it is posited that service-learning may be more impactful for younger rather than older graduate students (Lu & Lambright, 2010). An Australian study examining mid-career doctoral students classified early-career professionals as ages 20–34 (Robertson, 2017) and since the age range of graduate students is so vast, these concepts helped frame design decisions for this study.
Research methods & design
Grounded in a social constructivist-interpretivist paradigm, this qualitative research study used interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) as a method of inquiry (Creswell, 2008; Ponterotto, 2005). This decision was informed by the theoretical framework and the principles of andragogy with a focus on the individual. Introduced in the mid-1990s by British psychologist Jonathan Smith, IPA focuses on the lived experiences of the participant and how they make sense of the world (Smith et al., 2012; Smith & Shinebourne, 2012). IPA’s integration of three core pillars—phenomenology, hermeneutics, and idiography—distinguishes it from other qualitative approaches. First, phenomenology is both a philosophy and research approach focused on the human experience and consciousness (Smith & Shinebourne, 2012). Next, hermeneutics is the theory and practice of interpretation. Unlike other forms of phenomenology, IPA presumes that the researcher is unable to bracket or suspend their biases when interpreting experiences of others (Lopez & Willis, 2004). Therefore, IPA features a double hermeneutic loop where the researcher is making meaning of the participant making meaning of their experience (Noon, 2018; Smith et al., 2012). Finally, idiography is “concerned with the particular experience of the individual” person (Smith & Shinebourne, 2012). Other research methodologies seek to analyze data at the group-level, but IPA seeks to explore the individual’s experience in great detail and depth as something that is particularly unique to the person (Smith et al., 2012).
Participation & recruitment
Aligned with IPA methodology, this study called for a small, homogeneous sample size (Smith & Shinebourne, 2012; Smith et al., 2012). Using purposive sampling, six participants were recruited through faculty outreach to former students who took their service-learning course. To be eligible to participate in the study, individuals met four criteria: (1) be currently enrolled in a master’s degree program at the research site or have graduated within the past year at the time of the interview, (2) completed a graduate-level service-learning course within the past 3 years, (3) be intending to enter or re-enter the workforce upon completion of their program of study, and (4) be within the age range of 21–35 years old. The study welcomed participants of all genders, ethnicities, races, and socio-economic levels. The research site was a predominantly White institution and the diversity of enrollment in graduate service-learning courses was unknown to the researcher. Participants ranged from age of 25 to 34 with one participant identifying as male, five as female, two as Jewish, and five as white. At the time of the interview, all participants had graduated from the degree program 6–12 months prior and were working or seeking employment in a career directly related to their degree.
This study received IRB approval from the research site, permitting the research methods and associated recruitment. I conducted individual semi-structured, in-depth interviews with each of the six participants for them to “offer a rich, detailed, first-person account of their experiences” (Smith et al., 2012). Interviews took place over Zoom in November and December 2020 using the audio recording and auto-transcription features. I kept notes during and after the interview to help contextualize my data, which turned into brief analytic memos (Smith et al., 2012). All data files were stored in a safe, password protected folder.
Procedures
The analysis stage of IPA is “complex, iterative, and [a] multi-directional process” and generally follows a six-step process (Smith & Shinebourne, 2012, p.77). First, I immersed myself in the data by listening to the audio files in an attempt to re-center the participant’s experience, followed by continuous rereading of the transcript (Smith et al., 2012; Smith & Shinebourne, 2012). Second, I began an exploratory coding process where I noted anything of interest within the transcript while keeping an open mind, including descriptive language, use of metaphors, and broader concepts discussed (Noon, 2018; Saldana, 2016; Smith et al., 2012). In vivo coding was used when possible and I kept handwritten notes to add to my analytic memos (Saldana, 2016). Third, I developed emergent themes that embodied the essence of the data (Smith et al., 2012). At this point in the process I transitioned from hand-coded notes to using the qualitative coding software Dedoose. Fourth, I made connections between the emergent themes within the same interview. Fifth, I repeated the process separately for each participant’s transcript. The idiographic approach to IPA was key to ensuring each participant was treated as a particular and unique case (Smith et al., 2012). And finally, sixth, I looked for “patterns across cases but trie[d] to retain the individual detail and nuance of the case” (Smith & Shinebourne, 2012, p.74). This required reviewing the themes that emerged across all of the participants. Additionally, I transitioned from exploratory coding to process coding to ensure the analysis was not limited to being descriptive (Saldana, 2016).
Throughout the research process, I worked to ensure I met the criteria and standards of quality and rigorous qualitative research. Essential procedural ethical standards were met, including IRB approval, informed consent processes, and secure data storage (Creswell, 2008; Tracy, 2010). To address credibility and trustworthiness, I included thick descriptions in my data presentation and detailed excerpts from the participants’ interviews, engaged in member checking, and reflected on my own use of codes to ensure I was being consistent (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Smith et al., 2012; Tracy, 2010). Additionally, qualitative researchers have a responsibility to be transparent about their values and biases that influence their worldview and perceptions as scholar-practitioners, and as such a self-reflexivity statement is included as part of this study (Briscoe, 2005; Milner, 2007).
Self-reflexivity statement
My positionality is rooted in the multiple identities I hold, including being a white, cis-gender female in the United States. As a first-generation college student, I always made a direct connection between education and work. This eventually resulted in believing higher education has a responsibility to its students and families to prepare students for the workforce. I believe that institutions need to intentionally create and integrate experiential opportunities throughout the undergraduate and graduate curriculum so that students understand how their education can prepare them for their career. As an undergraduate I was fortunate to have multiple experiential learning opportunities to apply my classroom learning in real-world contexts, but it was not until I began working in higher education that I realized not all students have the same opportunity. Being a community engagement professional in higher education for 13 years has also influenced my perceptions of higher education’s responsibility. Although my experiences and beliefs may influence my interpretations, they also drive my goal of contributing to the scholarship on this topic. Additionally, the study presented here is an expansion of my doctoral dissertation.
Research site & context
This research took place at a large, private research institution in the northeast United States. The six participants were all members of a Fall 2018 inaugural cohort in a new media advocacy masters’ degree program. The program focused on the intersection of communication, digital media, and law and policy. One of the foundational-level courses in the first semester included project-based service-learning. The course introduced frameworks and concepts to inform media strategies of the future with a focus on advocacy and activism. The students took the course without knowing about or opting into the service-learning component, as both the course and the project were required. The students worked in groups of 3–4 as a consulting team, each assigned to a different community partner organization to take on a project related to digital media advocacy. Teams chose their community partner through a process moderated by the faculty member to account for student interests and ensure each organization was assigned a project team. All participants were working either full- or part-time while taking the course and in their graduate program, and they all had at least some previous professional work experience. For confidentiality purposes, participants have been assigned pseudonyms.
Data analysis
In their interviews participants shared reflections on their service-learning experience including the course itself, the faculty member, their peers, and their community partners. But what emerged as most significant was how they interpreted the experiential learning element of the embedded service-learning project in relation to their career. Iterative analysis of the data resulted in four themes: motivation and goal alignment expectations, applied learning and skills, self-efficacy and confidence, and authenticity.
Motivation and goal alignment expectations
All of the participants pursued their master’s degree in media advocacy for career-related purposes, most notably, to pursue a career with social impact. Four of them made a distinct connection between their service-learning experience and their academic and professional motivations and goals. However, as they reflected deeper on their experience, whether or not their expectations were met, and why, varied. Rachel, who worked to develop an online presence for an elder-serving organization, shared, Service-Learning is certainly something that I see as being very valuable and so I was excited to do the class..I think something I was looking for in my graduate degree experience was actual real-life experience and semi-professional experience … We had to produce an actual project for [the community partner] that would be practical and actually be relevant…I would say that the primary learning benefit was the actual interaction with a real organization and having the opportunity to function as if we were being asked to do it as a in a professional role, but then of course we also got to apply what we were learning in the class.
Rachel ultimately credits her service-learning experience to part of the reason she’s in her current professional role. Similarly, Heather described service-learning as a “welcomed surprise” because she enrolled in the program knowing it would “open up doors” for her future career path working for a charitable organization. Her service-learning project included creating public relation materials for a youth-serving organization.
Jocelyn also “wanted resume builders out of grad school” and saw the potential of the service-learning project aiding her in that goal. Ultimately, she had mixed feelings towards the experience. It was really cool to fully take on the role of a consultant in terms of just going in auditing the organization’s communications and then figuring out where we step in with our skill set. If I’m thinking grad school level work, that to me is grad school level work … [However,] I knew what I wanted to do and I didn't want to sacrifice on that. I knew I wanted to pursue this one field and I was kind of bulldozing to get experience in that field. I didn't want to mess around or play games anywhere else, especially given that I had experience before grad school...And so while I recognize the constraints of having to choose between partnerships that you’ve established, it just would have been like chefs kiss for me if I have been able to do this work with an environmental organization because at the end of the day, I didn't even put it on my resume...The ability to be very direct and targeted with career goals would be super awesome if it was able to translate into service-learning as well.
Jocelyn’s career advancement was her driving force in graduate school, which meant she was focused on getting experience in a specific field. Her service-learning project was developing strategic communications for a women’s empowerment organization. Essentially, experience in and of itself was welcomed, but unless it was tailored to her specific end goal of gaining experience in her industry, she felt the impact was not as great as it could have been.
Gwen had an appreciation for experiential and applied learning based on her academic and professional background, which informed her expectations of her graduate program. She reflected on her initial response to learning about the service-learning course, As soon as we got the curriculum and I saw that there was service-learning I was very excited because that was one of the main reasons that I wanted to pursue a degree at [my institution]...The service-learning component was right up my alley of what I was looking for my education ...When they announced ‘who wants [this community partner],’ I was like ‘oh my god, me because I think I might work there someday.’ So that was huge for me.
Service-Learning became an opportunity to build a relationship and work with a future potential employer. Her project involved creating marketing materials for a large multi-service organization. However, her expectations did not fully align with the outcomes. She shared, I think it had a lot of potential, but I think that it didn't lay the groundwork for my degree in the way that I wanted. It was a nice activity, but it didn't necessarily reframe any learning in a big sort of macro way that changed the trajectory of my career. And that’s asking a lot from a project.
Gwen included service-learning on her resume and talked about the experience in an interview with her current employer, but Gwen reframed her expectations of what was realistic for an individual course and project. Overall, participants were able to make the connection between their motivations for enrolling in their degree program, the potential benefits of service-learning, and their career trajectory.
Applied learning and skills
Service-Learning offered an opportunity for students to apply their learning and gain skills related to their career, even if they discussed the significance of the overall experience to various extents. Each team of students had a strategic communications project with a different focus depending on the community organization they were paired with. As they considered how service-learning applied to their learning and skill development, they reflected on how their learning was personalized and influenced by their experience, goals, and prior knowledge.
Heather had a lot to say about what and how she learned through this experience. She shared, “[the] service-learning course felt a lot more hands-on in trying to teach us skills and have us learn things for ourselves through doing.” She emphasized becoming a stronger communicator because of the experience and learned “more about being a professional in general.” She strengthened her communication skills by engaging with her group members and community partner, but communication was also coupled with other skills. For example, she reflected, How can you work with a client, and even if they aren't the best communicator, take everything that they’re giving you and kind of sort through it and make an assessment helping guide him towards ‘here are a couple ideas’? He was very much a person who would then look at all those ideas with ‘yes, that’s great, let’s do it all.’...How do you sometimes tell a client ‘no’ or how do you rein them in? That’s a valuable life skill, not only if you’re working with a client, but just in general...That’s something that I’ve struggled with as an employee and as a student and a person. I don't like saying no to people, but [the service-learning project] definitely teaches you that.
Heather had to balance being realistic about her group’s capacity to deliver something concrete, prioritizing, and saying “no” even when it was hard for her. She went on to say, The service-learning course taught you how to think outside of the box in a roundabout way. [My professor] is not standing there telling you ‘you’re going to think outside of the box,’ but I think a lot of it was coming up with creative solutions to problems...I think that creative thinking really carried over into some of my other courses and then kind of spread off in different directions with the different things we were learning.
Communication, prioritization, and creative problem-solving were transferable skills Heather further developed in tandem with one another.
Similarly, David discussed how he applied and further developed his communication, prioritization, and problem-solving skills with both his group members and community partner. His project involved creating a promotional video for a youth-serving organization. He shared, There [were] skills of negotiating with partners and figuring out minimum viable thing to submit while still being respectful to [the organization’s] needs, while not allowing scope creep. And as a group cohort you learn skills of talking with somebody your age in a way with professional boundaries while nonetheless being in a situation that’s personally or professionally demanding.
David referenced negotiation as both a process and a skill he learned through this experience, with service-learning being the first time he truly had to employ this skill in a professional context and with different groups of people. He also emphasized the importance of working on a team and how that positively contributed to his perception of his experience.
Gwen made the direct connection between her skills and the career trajectory she had already been on. She reflected, In my experience at nonprofits the fundraising team and the marketing team have so much in common in the work they’re doing, and yet there’s always this tension so they never collaborate super well which means that you kind of pick one...And so you don't have a lot of opportunities to learn the other…To be able to cross that divide in a service-learning opportunity meant that I could test out some of the things I was learning in the course. I could test out some of the things I was reading and some of the things I’ve seen done in the workplace that I had no idea how they were approached...I was looking at a leadership track position and building strategy muscles, and I think the marketing strategy was definitely a muscle I was missing. So [service-learning] was really a great opportunity to do that.
Service-Learning afforded Gwen the opportunity to develop a skill she hadn’t experienced in her career to date.
Not all applied learning came in the form of a specific skill, but rather focused on applying theory to practice in the real-world. Alexis, who created a strategic communications plan for an organization that supports people with dimensia, shared, We were learning a bunch of the theories and in real life nonprofits are much more complicated than the theories. So there’s all kinds of little issues like they didn't have the resources to focus on this as much as they wanted to and that’s a very real issue working around all these resources and maybe logistical questions that don't come up in your ideal world in a university setting when you’re thinking about it in theory, so [this project] was really useful.
Alexis was able to apply theory to practice, as well as identify gaps, because the service-learning project was part of the course. The two happened simultaneously resulting in real-time, first-hand learning.
For David and Jocelyn, it was equally important that they were able to identify that their prior experiences influenced their skill development and learning. David, for example, already had videography and photography skills that were technical and while he used them during his service-learning project, they were not something he learned. Jocelyn also believed her prior experiences and learning had an impact on what skills she was able to take away from the experience. Her group decided to divide responsibilities of the project based on existing skills of each member. The same autonomy that allowed Jocelyn and her group members to divide responsibilities of the project ultimately minimized her ability to learn new skills because she employed the skills that she already had versus being challenged to develop others. Interestingly enough, Rachel had a converse experience where she saw it as a benefit to have the autonomy of identifying group members’ strengths to create conditions for learning.
The individualized skills, how they were applied and learned or not, and the way the participants positioned their prior learning varied across their narratives. However, they were able to articulate the relationship between their service-learning experiences and their skill development in relation to their career.
Self-efficacy and confidence
It did not matter if the participants felt they gained a lot of skills or were generally excited about service-learning in order to be able to have an experience that built the participants’ sense of self-efficacy and confidence. For some, service-learning signified an important professional first, where others further developed their professional identity.
Jocelyn shared that before graduate school she had been employed in entry-level positions, but had big professional goals for herself. She shared, The issue with [my previous positions] was not only did I feel ill equipped to transcend the barriers that I felt like I was facing, I also felt like they were imposing upward mobility barriers on anyone in my level. It’s not like I could just go to my managers and be like, ‘hey, here’s some responsibilities I want to take on. I want the added responsibility.’ If I did that, I would get reprimanded for it in the jobs that I was in. So [the service-learning experience] was really nice. It was one of the first times I was able to kind of step out and take on this greater role. Like I said, the grad school-level [consulting] role of looking at problems, looking at potential fixing points, analyzing them, and then just diving in was nothing I was afforded before and didn't really have a chance to explore before.
So, while Jocelyn had been critical of her service-learning experience because she did not feel that she developed new skills and that she was heavily focused on gaining experience in a particular industry, service-learning still offered her something significant she hadn’t experienced before, but longed for. She wanted to take on the challenge of big picture thinking. She shared, “part of the reason why I feel so critical of the service-learning is because I do have other experiential learning opportunities that I’ve been able to compare it to that were much more oriented towards my bulldozing trajectory.” Cutting across her critique of service-learning, especially in comparison to other opportunities, was also recognition that it was able to offer her a professional first. Gwen also associated service-learning with a significant professional first. She shared, I think the service-learning project definitely threw me into a situation of unknown territory. Like I said, all the [fundraising and development] work I’d been doing is probably the most similar from job to job of any position...So the idea of trying new things was like very daunting because I had kind of practiced and practiced and built a reputation and built a level of expertise and the level of career identity around knowing how to do things. I hadn't really tackled any adaptive challenges… We’re dealing with one in my current organization. We want to launch a press program, but I have no public relations experience. But I feel comfortable that I don't know how to start by doing research and talking to people and saying, we will launch this program and it’s something I know nothing about. Having that confidence to do something you know nothing about is hugely important for leadership and hugely important for career growth.
Gwen had the most prior professional experience among all the participants and was comfortable in her abilities, but service-learning created a new challenge. From that, she learned not to be afraid of the unknown and how to figure out how to solve new challenges when they arise. What Gwen and Jocelyn ultimately describe is how their professional firsts, thanks to service-learning, contributed to their self-efficacy.
Rachel and Heather also described how service-learning contributed to their self-efficacy, but in the form of confidence, professional identity, and self-advocacy. Rachel stated, [Service-Learning] allowed me to essentially have a receipt. I was able to say I got a degree in essentially strategic communications in a nonprofit or advocacy space and within that degree I also had the opportunity to consult a nonprofit organization on their strategic communications approach in such a way that they probably wouldn't have been able to afford or wouldn't been able to devote the resources to actual communications firm or professional marketing professional. So I think being able to say that I filled that that role in some way was certainly beneficial because I feel that it just gave me more experience, real tangible, real life experience and it kind of gave me the confidence to be able to speak on that whereas I think without this course and without this degree, in particularly without the course, I wouldn't have been able to say that that I had experience like consulting an organization on their communication strategy.
The tangible evidence, or receipt, of service-learning to demonstrate her mastery boosted Rachel’s self-efficacy and confidence in relation to her professional identity and abilities. Additionally, as early as her first semester in her graduate program Rachel began to view the quality of her work worthy of filling the gap of a paid marketing professional.
Heather also began to recognize how important service-learning was to her professional expertise and confidence. She shared, I think approaching [the service-learning project] as kind of a, I don't want to say expert, but you know expert with some knowledge on the background to go in and work on that it gave me a lot of confidence as far as I could do this as an actual expert with a degree and go in and say, ‘I’ve worked with a nonprofit and I’ve learned the skills through my master’s program and I’ve learned these skills through working with clients and service-learning through project-based things’… I think that carried over into how I approached some of my other coursework.
She went on to say, I used this experience to adapt future assignments in other classes to be career-oriented. It really helped me advocate for myself and using some creative problem-solving to make these [other course] projects that we were doing something that I could use, this portfolio piece in a job interview, or as I’m kind of carving out my career path and to make it something that I was passionate about
Not only did she grow her confidence and professional identity but Heather leveraged her service-learning experience to advocate for her academic and career goals in future course assignments throughout her program.
Authenticity
Participants associated service-learning as a professional experience because of its authenticity, or being real. This manifested in the behaviors and decisions of the participants. For example, Rachel reflected, [Service-Learning] was attractive to me because we were doing something that would actually potentially have a benefit or an impact on the work of a real organization. So that meant that it was a little higher stakes than a hypothetical project or something. So it meant that we had to be pretty invested in the work. It also allowed us to develop a relationship with the members of the organization that we were working with and allowed us to have that face-to-face connection that you might have if you were doing that for an actual professional role … I remember actually we all decided that the first time we met with this [community partner], we would dress professionally just because it felt very real. You know this person, this organization, member of this organization is actually taking time out of their schedule to come and meet with us and work with us. So it’s important to be professional and have respect for that person’s time and really honor the commitment of the partnership and of the class.
Rachel emphasized that service-learning was viewed as a real professional experience for her and her group members, and therefore they adapted their behavior to match. Alexis also considered the authenticity of the project, which led her to question the impact that she was making. She shared, I always feel like, am I really helping? Is this really helping? I think in some ways it is because it provides an outside perspective, but it always seems to me like our recommendations were for them to hire interns who could actually do a lot of the work and as students and coming from an outside perspective, there’s only so much you can do in a short amount of time for class.
Alexis wanted to believe her contributions had a positive impact, but also realized there is a possibility that it didn’t have as great of an impact as she had hoped given that the project is only a semester long. Essentially, Alexis suggested that it's possible that the authenticity of the project would have increased if it could have extended beyond a semester.
David also recognized that his service-learning project had real-world implications, and therefore influenced the professional relationship he had with his community partner. He was aware of his community partner’s long-standing relationship with the university and used that to help him navigate his project. He said, “There’s some amount of figuring out [that] we don't want to embarrass the university to [my community partner].” The partnership extended beyond this course and project, and he acted accordingly.
To some extent, Gwen internalized the service-learning project as having greater implications beyond a time-bound or one-off class project. She enthusiastically chose her community partner because it was an organization she wanted to work for 1 day, but her negative experience with her group members had an impact that she did not expect. Gwen reflected, It left me feeling a little alienated from the company and I didn't pursue networking opportunities after the fact because I was a little embarrassed, which is a bummer. And then I saw that they were advertising a job I would have been right for recently and I probably would have been more apt to pursue that job had it gone a little better, which is a bummer, which is my own thing. I think they saw the value in the work I was doing and I totally could have reached out.
She knew she had delivered quality work to her community partner, but in the end, she did not pursue a career opportunity with the organization 2 years later. The authenticity of the service-learning project carried implications that transcended the boundaries of the course, and the participants were fully aware of it.
Findings and discussion
The experiential learning nature of the service-learning experience prompted the participants to reflect on their motivation and goal alignment expectations, applied learning and skill development, growth of self-efficacy and confidence, and the authenticity of the project as it relates to their career preparation. The driving question for this study was how do graduate students perceive the relationship between their service-learning experiences and career preparation? At least four of the six principles of andragogy apply to the service-learning context in this study. The projects were extensively self-directed, problem-centered, offered direct experience, and related to students’ social roles as early-career professionals (Knowles et al., 2005; Merriam & Bierema, 2013). The inductive process of this qualitative IPA study (Gaudet & Robert, 2018) within the context of Knowles’ andragogy and graduate S-LCE literature, results in two key findings.
First, participants perceived service-learning both as a professional experience itself and as an opportunity to further prepare for their future careers. All participants pursued their master’s degree for reasons related to career advancement such as seeking resume builders, real-life experiences, employer connections, opportunities for future leadership in careers, and additional exposure to a particular industry. This aligns with existing knowledge that graduate students seek out advanced degrees for career and professional purposes (Merriam et al., 2012). On the surface, integrating service-learning into an individual course as a form of experiential learning in and of itself may not inherently support the career goals students identify for themselves. However, when peeling back the layers of interpretation, it becomes more complex. Whether or not students thought service-learning was in direct service to the goals each person had for themselves, their expectations of the service-learning experience varied. Given that adults are independent and self-directed learners, perhaps this is not a surprise. The more specific or focused the students’ goals were from the experience, the harder it was for them to be met versus those who had a broader expectation of what service-learning was able to offer them. Ultimately, regardless of the personal goals, service-learning still contributed to their career preparation.
Andragogy assumes that adults learn best through experience, which is what service-learning was able to provide participants (Knowles et al., 2005). The “high stakes” conditions of having an impact on a real community organization manifested in the way students behaved or conceptualized the significance and professionalism of the community partner, navigated professional relationships, critically reflected on whether or not they were making a positive impact, and deciding whether or not to apply for a job post-graduation with their community partner. One participant described the consulting project as “grad school level work,” implying that it required advanced skills and knowledge to be successful. In sum, participants viewed service-learning as a professional experience in and of itself.
For several participants, service-learning offered an authentic and concrete experience from which they had a “receipt” or documented evidence they could share with a future employer. Additionally, even the participants who did not feel that service-learning was a significant experience overall still identified ways in which the experience prepared them for their careers in very concrete and important ways, such as professional firsts that they leveraged in future positions, skill building, and bridging the gap between theory and practice. So, while self-identified goals may not have been met for all, service-learning still had something to contribute to participants' career preparation that they valued for their future.
Second, service-learning is a genuine way for students to develop skills and self-efficacy important to their career trajectory. Communication, negotiation, prioritization, problem-solving, teamwork, and strategy development were all skills participants said they gained or developed through this experience. This is consistent with findings from other graduate S-LCE studies (Dietz, 2018; Levkoe et al., 2014; Lu & Lambright, 2010; Moorer, 2009; Wickam, 2015). These are also skills valued by employers. These skills varied by individual due to their prior experiences in relation to the course, but also the service-learning project itself which was unique for each group working with different community partner organizations.
Self-efficacy, or the one’s belief that they can do something, emerged as significant through reflections on confidence building and professional identity. Previous studies have also documented that graduate service-learning can lead to gains in self-efficacy (Borgerding & Caniglia, 2017; Long, 2014; Meaney et al., 2012). Not only did two participants discuss the importance of professional firsts such as taking on greater responsibility and surpassing the fear of diving into the unknown but others also began to see themselves as experts in their fields for the first time as early as first-semester graduate students because of their service-learning experiences. Hardré and Hackett’s (2015) study of doctoral and master’s students found that master’s students have lower perceptions of their professional identity compared to doctoral students, so service-learning may be a way to capitalize on further developing self-efficacy and professional identity for master’s students. It is possible that skill building and self-efficacy emerged as significant because adult learners are more engaged in problem-centered learning, and the service-learning project was problem-centered (Merriam & Bierema, 2013).
Implications & recommendations
Overall, findings from this study demonstrated that graduate students identified direct and indirect connections between service-learning and their career preparation. The indirect connections emerged as experiences that contributed to their career preparation, but were not explicitly identified as their goals. Perceiving service-learning as being a professional experience itself and an opportunity to prepare for future opportunities, coupled with service-learning’s ability to help students develop skills and self-efficacy, has implications for practice and research in the field of graduate education and adult learning.
Participants’ service-learning experiences highlight the importance of viewing the adult learner as a diverse demographic when it comes to life experiences and learning expectations. It can be a challenge for faculty to cater to the needs of adult learners when considering their individualized and personalized needs. Therefore, it is recommended that faculty and graduate educators think critically about why they would choose to integrate service-learning into a course and if one of those reasons is to support students in their career preparation, then it is important to be explicit about the faculty members’ perceived expectations for the students (Roe, 2021). Perceptions of how much students gain from service-learning can be positively influenced based on the amount of time they spend on their projects (Levkoe et al., 2020; Lu & Lambright, 2010; Levkoe et al., 2014). Students are drawing the connections and seeing the potential of service-learning to help them achieve their professional goals, but faculty can guide them by helping set realistic expectations of what they may expect from a one-semester experience. This will contribute to adult learners’ need to know why they are learning something and better frame the importance of being self-directed in their learning (Knowles, 1980; Merriam & Bierema, 2013).
Although service-learning may not universally meet all individuals’ personal goals that they expected at the onset of the experience, the fact that students had the expectation that it could meet their goals at all signals something important. Students are eager for opportunities in graduate school to support their professional goals and faculty are called upon to integrate career preparation and professional development opportunities into the curriculum so students do not always need to seek them out elsewhere (Gu et al., 2018). Students’ reflections emphasized that they believed service-learning had a lot of potential to support them professionally. Therefore, educators should begin and continue to integrate service-learning as a form of experiential learning into their teaching for graduate students. This includes incorporating reflection opportunities so that students can make the connections between learning in the course and their career development (Bringle & Hatcher, 1995; Kolb, 1984). Service-Learning creates opportunities for graduate students to develop skills that are important to employers such as teamwork, collaboration, and problem-solving (Chhinzer & Russo, 2018; Wendler et al., 2012). Therefore, service-learning addresses students’ motivations to pursue graduate education and problem-based experiential learning opportunities as adult learners (Merriam & Bierema, 2013). Service-Learning should be among the portfolio of experiential opportunities for students in graduate schools. It also warrants further exploration of thinking beyond a single course and how service-learning projects could be integrated across the curriculum.
Finally, very few empirical studies use Knowles’ andragogy as a theoretical framework to better understand the perspectives of graduate service-learning students as adult learners, so there is a clear opportunity for further exploration and research using this theory. Given that there were over 1.8 million graduate students in the US as recently as 2019 (Okahana et al., 2020) and employers’ expectations of graduate students in a 21st century workforce (Wendler et al., 2012), it is critical for educators to understand the experiences and needs of this population. Additionally, educators should be seeking out the perspectives and perceptions of their graduate students as adult learners so that we hear their voices in the research (Cooke & Kemeny, 2014).
Limitations
There were several limitations of this study. IPA involves a small sample size and is concerned with the unique and particular experiences of each individual, and therefore the study lacks broad generalizability (Smith et al., 2012; Smith & Shinebourne, 2012). This is coupled with the concern that the study focuses on participants from a single course (Harris, 2017; O’Meara & Jaeger, 2006). However, implications from this study are still transferable to other contexts such as the way faculty consider the needs of adult learners as individuals, projects are implemented to meet the career goals of students, or the various ways students might conceptualize their experiences (Tracy, 2010). Additionally, due to the two-year time lapse between the service-learning experience and the interviews, it is likely that memories of the experience have been skewed or impacted (Giele & Elder, 1998). Self-selection bias is also a limitation, both in terms of willingness to participate and the degree program being social change-oriented. Finally, this study began 2020, but the interviews took place during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The evolving landscape of US graduate education and labor markets will likely have implications for future master’s degree enrollments, job security, and employment needs and opportunities globally.
Conclusion
Pairing andragogy and IPA to explore the relationship between service-learning and career preparation from the perspective of graduate students as adult learners offers an original contribution to the adult learning and continuing education field. This study illustrated how participants interpreted the meaning of the experiential learning nature of their service-learning in relationship to their career. Although not yet widely adopted across all graduate education programs in the United States or globally, service-learning continuously shows promise for supporting graduate students’ pursuit of continuing education to advance their careers. Therefore, faculty and graduate educators are encouraged to consider adopting service-learning in their curriculum to support the goals of their graduate-level adult learners.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
