| Service-learning is a method by which students learn through active participation in service experiences that meet community needs and that are integrated into students' academic curriculum. School-based service-learning provides students with another way to acquire, enhance and apply knowledge and skills that are taught in schools by extending learning beyond classrooms walls into the community. This study presents the findings from a multiple case study of four teachers who engaged in school-based service-learning projects with their students. The success of service-learning relies on the motivations of the teachers who use it. The role that the teacher plays in service-learning is central to the prosperity of service-learning in American public schools since teachers ultimately have the responsibility for guiding students in serving their communities and in integrating service-learning into the academic curriculum.;The purpose of this study was to examine how teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning influenced their participation in service-learning. The study's questions examined teachers' backgrounds, their perceptions of themselves as learners, their beliefs and attitudes about teaching and learning, their classroom practices, and their motivations for using service-learning.;The research methodology was designed to collect data from a single set of individual case studies within one public school district. The data was collected over a period of five months from December 2000 to April 2001 from all teachers who met the study's criteria. Data collection techniques in this study consisted of research interviews/conversations, teacher stories, and document and records review. Utilizing Clandinin and Connelly's (2000) narrative inquiry approach to collect data, teachers' "personal practical knowledge" and "professional knowledge landscape" was investigated through an examination of teachers' experiences as lived stories in three-dimensional narrative inquiry spaces.;The findings reflect four influences on teachers' beliefs about service-learning and their subsequent participation. First, teachers' decisions to use service learning were influenced by personal convictions, circumstances, family influences or a combination of these. Second, teachers' learning styles identified with the methodological characteristics inherent in service-learning. Third, service-learning teachers possessed unique yet similar core beliefs that served as a framework for their teaching. Fourth, teachers attributed their motivations for using service-learning to it connections to pedagogical or personal beliefs.;The findings from this study suggest the need for future research to focus on teachers. They suggest a shift that focuses away from service-learning and how it impacts students to teachers and how they impact service-learning. |
