Service Learning and Community Engagement: A Comparison of Three National Contexts
One of the presumptions of a well-functioning, viable democracy is that citizens participate in the life of their communities and nation. The role of higher education in forming actively engaged citizens has long been the focus of scholarly research, but recently an active debate has emerged concern...
Gespeichert in:
Veröffentlicht in: | Voluntas (Manchester, England) England), 2011-06, Vol.22 (2), p.214-237 |
---|---|
Hauptverfasser: | , , , |
Format: | Artikel |
Sprache: | eng |
Schlagworte: | |
Online-Zugang: | Volltext |
Tags: |
Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
|
Zusammenfassung: | One of the presumptions of a well-functioning, viable democracy is that citizens participate in the life of their communities and nation. The role of higher education in forming actively engaged citizens has long been the focus of scholarly research, but recently an active debate has emerged concerning the role of service as a third core function of institutions of higher learning. Service learning (SL), a teaching approach that extends student learning beyond the classroom, is increasingly seen as a vehicle to realize this third core function. By aligning educational objectives with community partners' needs, community service is meant to enhance, among other objectives, reciprocal learning. Although the term and its associated activities originated in the United States (US), theoretical debates linking civic engagement and education extend far beyond the US context. Nevertheless, research on SL as a distinctive pedagogical approach remains a nascent field. A significant gap exists in the literature about what this pedagogical approach seeks to achieve (in nature and in outcomes) and how it is construed in non-western contexts. Using a comparative analysis across three widely different contexts, this article explores the extent to which these differences are merely differences in degree or whether the differences are substantive enough to demand qualitatively different models for strengthening the relationship between higher education and civil society. L'une des présomptions au sujet d'une démocratie viable et opérationnelle est que les citoyens prennent part à la vie de la communauté locale et de la nation. Le rôle que joue l'éducation supérieure pour la formation de citoyens engagés de manière active dans la vie sociale a depuis longtemps occupé une place importante dans la recherche universitaire, tandis qu'un débat actif est récemment apparu pour ce qui concerne le rôle de service en tant que troisième principale mission des institutions de l'éducation supérieure. L'apprentissage par le service communautaire, une méthode d'enseignement qui étend l'apprentissage des étudiants au-delà de la salle de classe, est de plus en plus considéré comme un moyen de réaliser cette troisième mission fondamentale. En mettant en adéquation les objectifs éducationnels et les besoins des partenaires, le service communautaire est destiné à intensifier, entre autres, l'apprentissage réciproque. Bien que le terme et les activités qui y sont associées proviennent des États |
---|---|
ISSN: | 0957-8765 1573-7888 |
DOI: | 10.1007/s11266-010-9133-9 |