Lori E. Kniffin, Fort Hays State University
Sarah E. Stanlick, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Patti H. Clayton, PHC Ventures & NC Campus Engagement

When the MJCSL called for retrospective reflections on articles published in the journal throughout its 30-year history, we hopped in our metaphorical DeLorean and traveled back to the future. In 2015, the three of us (Lori, Sarah, and Patti) and our colleagues Edward Zlotkowski and then-editor of the MJCSL Jeffrey Howard, launched the Service-Learning Community Engagement (SLCE) Future Directions Project (FDP). Twenty years earlier, Edward had published an article in the MJCSL asking “Does service learning have a future?” Intrigued by what the SLCE community as a whole might think of as the most important directions for the (at-
the-time seemingly assured) future, we posed a new question: What are our visions now for the future of SLCE, why, and what will it take to get there? and invited anyone and everyone involved in SLCE to share their ideas and thereby help to co-create that very future. It ultimately consisted of 29 thought pieces (accessible, approximately 2500 word essays) written and co-written by 57 authors and published in Special Sections across three issues of the MJCSL (22.1, Fall 2015; 23.1, Fall 2016; 23.2, Spring 2017). The authors of these thought pieces included community partners, undergraduate and graduate students, community engagement professionals and directors of teaching and learning centers, faculty, heads of SLCE associations, SLCE journal editors, independent scholars, and retired practitioner-scholars from across the United States and abroad.

As our way of contributing to MJCSL’s 2025 Editorial Reflections project, we recently sought input from FDP authors on three questions: (a) what thinking from their FDP thought piece remains important, (b) what they would say differently today, and (c) what impact their piece has had on them, their work, their colleagues, or the field generally. These responses, as well as those we discuss below, were enriched by two respondents who were not FDP authors but who were familiar with the project. Some of the key take-aways we gathered include:

● Community engagement values, frameworks, and personal experiences remain relevant
● The thought pieces served as justification and inspiration to apply CE principles
● The FDP served as a touchstone amidst setbacks from external forces
● The FDP helped advance tangible work and outcomes and stimulated further thinking

Given the very nature of the FDP, we couldn’t stop at the MJCSL’s question about the impact of earlier articles but rather also wanted to look around us and look forward. Therefore, we posed three additional questions: (a) What do you see as the most notable changes in the field since the start of the FDP project (10 years ago)?, (b) What is your vision now for the future directions of SLCE?, and (c) Where are you finding hope and possibility in your work today? Responses regarding changes in the field over the past decade formed four primary clusters: (a) changes–or not–in higher education; (b) changes related to professional staff; (c) shifts regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion; and increased attacks on higher education and civic engagement. Six categories surfaced regarding current visions for the future of SLCE: (a) developing SLCE further as a teaching and learning strategy; (b) emphasizing local work; (c) improving boundary spanning practices; (d) embracing a political orientation; (e) connecting with larger public issues such as the growth of artificial intelligence, social equity, and democracy; and (f) persisting in the work. On the question of where we are finding hope and possibility in our work today, we found considerable consensus. We find hope in being in community with others; in the work itself; in individuals and organizations around the world who are speaking truth to power; in our movement’s own lived commitment to equity; in singing, writing, playing together, and poetry; and in exploring together who we are (individually and as a field), who we want to be (ditto), and how we can nudge ourselves, our campuses, our communities, and our world in that hopefully-not-too-future direction.

We concluded the MJCSL essay that launched the SLCE FDP in 2015 with an ask of readers: that they would “engage with these essays and join us in this project, so that we might all – intentionally and with a sense of hope – co-create our shared future” (Stanlick & Clayton, 2015, p. 80). In some ways it feels like we have come full circle: revisiting hope. In other ways as we look back over the 10 years since the FDP began, much less the 30 years since Jeff launched the MJCSL, and see the many ways in which that hope for the future has been rendered elusive it seems we have miles to go. We thank this project’s participants for confirming that none of us need walk those miles alone. Perhaps the most salient of our collective convictions about the future–and the one most dependent on nurturing a climate of hope–is that SLCE is a powerful pedagogy and change strategy capable of strengthening relationships and practices that underpin democracy. Stepping into that potential fully is the challenge our movement faces today. We ask that you use the example of the SLCE FDP as a prompt, a spark, to imagine what that potential – realized – would look like. It has never been more important.

Authors’ Note

We invite you to read more about the origins and process of the SLCE-FDP as well as the full findings from the responses we received in this project in our white paper (Kniffin et al., 2025): “Back to the Future: Reflecting on the SLCE Future Directions Project,” which can be found here: https://doi.org/10.58809/WOSD7948 As always, we welcome hearing your thoughts, questions, and new ideas in response. (Lori E. Kniffin, lekniffin@fhsu.edu; Sarah E. Stanlick, sstanlick@wpi.edu; Patti H. Clayton, patti.clayton@curricularengagement.com)

References

Kniffin, L. E., Stanlick, S. E., & Clayton, P. H. (2025). Back to the future: Reflecting on the SLCE Future Directions Project [White paper]. FHSU Scholars Repository. https://doi.org/10.58809/WOSD7948

Stanlick, S., & Clayton, P. H. (2015). Introduction: Special Section on the SLCE Future Directions Project. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 22(1), 78-81.