Service-Learning and Civic Responsibility in a Sample of African American College Students

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the impact of past and current service-learning on the civic attitudes of African American college women: 44 students enrolled in either service-learning or non–service-learning courses were given pretests and posttests measuring civic attitudes. Repeated measures analyses of variance were conducted to examine the effect of previous and current service-learning experiences on 6 different aspects of civic attitudes. Results did not indicate changes in civic attitudes over time for service-learning students. However, there was a significant interaction between past and current service-learning in predicting political awareness. Implications of the findings are discussed.