From charity to justice - The potential of university-community collaboration for social change

The authors synthesize what has been learned from the two-issue series of A merican Behavioral Scientist on universities' responses to troubled times. They argue that educators and community leaders should channel the vast res ources of volunteerism toward social change for a more just society and dis cuss ways that service-learning endeavors contribute to this process. They contrast the current stare of higher education with a vision of a transform ed institution they think preferable to the status quo and then focus on th e difference between charity and social justice. Through service learning, acts of charity-which typically end up reproducing the status quo-can facil itate the politicization of students and help them to become active promote rs of a more just society. Six questions are posed to assess the extent to which community-based education or research endeavors engage in charity or facilitate social justice.