ABSTRACT
Student research and community service are core experiences for many undergraduates at small liberal arts institutions such as Bates College. In this chapter, the authors describe a course in which undergraduates learned from and with members of the local community by doing research that contributed to the solution of significant community problems involving services to children. The revival of service-learning over the last 10 years has been stimulated by Campus Compact, a national organization formed by college and university presidents to foster citizenship skills and values in students through active involvement in collegiate-based public and community service. Action research and service-learning also involve less-hierarchical relationships between researcher and practitioner and between teacher and student. Both students and practitioners wished for more time and guidance in formulating research questions. Practitioners also wished for greater involvement in the research tasks that followed question formulation.
