Service learning is traditionally defined as a curricular-based activity that integrates community service into classroom instruction. Often linked to and grounded in John Dewey's and David Kolb's experiential education, the field of service learning is contemporaneous with the rise of the civil rights movement and the insistence that education be linked to democratic practices and social justice.

Service learning has become an ever more accepted and institutionalized component of K-16 education. As of 2004, more than one-third of K-12 schools provided service learning activities to 5 million students, and approximately 1,000 colleges and universities were members of Campus Compact, a national organization committed to the civic purposes of higher education. Service learning may be viewed as an extension of the federal mandate given to land-grant institutions ...