Abstract

Planning is a ubiquitous dimension of service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) partnership practice. How SLCE administrators conceptualize, inhabit, and negotiate their roles as planners remains empirically under-investigated, however, as does when and why planners experience shifts in perspective that affect partnership quality and outcomes. We introduce the concept of planning orientations and report on a study in which SLCE administrators reflected on their desired and practiced planning orientations as they planned and implemented a partnership reflection process. Key findings illustrate the utility of intentional reflection on planning orientations for examining and enhancing community-academic partnership practice, including the recognition that the minutiae of planning work is partnership practice in action that cannot be reduced to logistics and the opportunity to make meaning of dissonance between planners’ desired and practiced planning orientations. Our findings encourage explicit attention to and reflection on planning orientations as part of professional development for SLCE.

Document Type

Article

Source Publication

Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning

Publication Date

6-20-2025

Volume

31

Issue

1

First Page

226

Last Page

253

Rights

The Author(s)

Comments

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