The development of democratic citizenship and youth leadership requires an ability to collaborate with others in ways that are jointly empowering. In this study, we sought to understand how students at an urban liberal arts college in the United States framed their own and others’ efficacy and responsibility in narrative accounts of situations they faced in civic and community engagement. We were interested in how young people learn and work alongside local stakeholders, rather than serve on behalf of people and communities considered to be in need. We aimed to gain insight into occasions in which collaborative agency emerged, or failed to emerge, in the coordinated activity of individuals engaged in the creation of intersubjectivity, shared commitments, and perceptions of group accomplishment. We collected narratives over a 4-year period from 123 Bonner Scholars, campus leaders whose scholarship includes a substantial weekly commitment to service. Our analysis of stories featuring or problematizing collaborative agency showed students grappling with limits of collaborative agency, but also generativity and interdependence. They described civic agency and leadership with other students, non-profit partners, and citizens. In some settings, we heard students striving for a collaborative solidarity, moving beyond collaborative agency toward relationships affording mutual empowerment.

Although we have evidence that reflection on community service enhances student development outcomes, we have little understanding of the process by which students integrate their academic and community experiences. This study is a part of a larger Participatory Research project, for which we collected 403 narrative accounts of awkward or meaningful experiences written by 123 Bonner Scholars. Members of an interpretive community which included Bonner Scholars examined a subset of these stories pertinent to students’ integration of classroom and community work. We reliably identified several ways in which students talked about course material in their descriptions of their community experiences. Students wrote frequently about applying skills or concepts that they learned in the classroom to their work in the community. In some instances, this integration led to expressions of cultural humility and critical analysis. In contrast, few authors discussed how their community-based learning contributed to the classroom. We identified obstacles to this, and we argue that the types of knowledge and knowledge production privileged in academia inhibits genuine collaboration with our students and colleagues across institutional divisions. We suggest ways in which we might better support integrative student learning, faculty development, and institutional improvement.