Reciprocal exchange: Understanding the community partner perspective in higher education service-learning

This study investigates service-learning from the community partners' perspective, especially in terms of reciprocity. As a central construct in the theory of service-learning, reciprocity for community partners is virtually unknown. Little scholarship exists that explains or explores the benefits and opportunity costs of service-learning. One purpose of this study is to help higher education become better informed about how communities contribute to the education of students involved in service-learning and how colleges and universities can take steps to ensure reciprocity. This qualitative study uses constructivist grounded theory to gain insight into the experiences of community partners with service-learning at the collegiate level. The study sought to answer the following research questions: What are the community partners' experiences with higher education service-learning? Reciprocity is a definitional characteristic of service-learning. Do community organizations experience reciprocity when they partner with institutions of higher education for service-learning? How does higher education service-learning contribute to the community organizations where students do their service-learning? From the community partner perspective, what do their organizations contribute to student service-learners? All twenty-four participants in the study are community partners for service-learning associated with Rockhurst University. Individual interviews, Donor Edge organization profiles, and the Rockhurst University self-study for the Carnegie Elective Classification in Community Engagement were utilized for data collection and analysis.;Keywords: service-learning, higher education, campus-community partnerships, reciprocity, mutual gain, community-based organizations, and nonprofit organizations.