We have been awarded 340,000 € for the project "Europe
Engage - Developing a Culture of Civic Engagement through Service-Learning
Within Higher Education in Europe", a KA2 Action for Strategic Partnerships
in Higher Education. The 3-year project aims at promoting service-learning as a
pedagogical approach that develops civic engagement in higher education and creating a European network.
The Bolonia Declaration states that, “A Europe of
knowledge is now widely recognised as an irreplaceable factor for social and
human growth and as an indispensable component to consolidate and enrich the
European citizenship, capable of giving its citizens the necessary competences
to face the challenges of the new millennium, together with an awareness of
shared values and belonging to a common social and cultural space. The
importance of education and educational co-operation in the development and
strengthening of stable, peaceful and democratic societies is universally
acknowledged as paramount, the more so in view of the situation in South East
Europe”. Central to this ambition goal will be the adoption of approaches
within higher education that allow for the development of this aspiration. Once
such approach is through Service- Learning.
Service-Learning is a pedagogical approach that connects
academic learning to community service through partnership, reciprocity,
reflection and social contact. The values of trust, mutuality, co-creation,
inter-dependence and mutuality are central to community-university service
learning partnership. Students learn with the community and work on community
related and/or directed projects that can enhance academic learning, the
community and the process towards the co-creation of knowledge. Students in
turn attain academic credit based on the work they undertaken within the
community and the knowledge they harness form the experience. Research
indicates that Service-Learning strengthen significant learning, facilitates
the development of professional competences, improves the students´ motivation,
critical thinking and social commitment, as well as social relations in the
classroom. It is a tool for sustainability curriculum, as it increases the
effectiveness of the education for a sustainable development while focusing on
diversity, multiculturalism, functional diversity, inclusion, human rights and
the more vulnerable groups.
Even though in many parts of the world, over the last
decade, there has been growth and development in the areas of civic engagement
and service learning within higher education, in Europe much remains to be
done. In Europe there are isolated experiences in some countries and an Irish
association (Campus Engage) devoted to promoting S-L in Higher Education, but
there is a need to identify such experiences and create networks based on
common grounds.
The Project is led by us (Autonomous University of Madrid -Research
Group “Educational Change for Social Justice” GICE) and co-directed by the University of Ireland Galway. Higher education
institutions involved include:
1. Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain (leader)
2. National University of Ireland, Galway,
Ireland (co-director)
3. University of Brighton, United Kingdom
4. University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
5. Erasmus University of Rotterdam, Netherlands
6. Instituto Superior de Psicología Aplicada,
Portugal
7. University of Zagreb, Croatia
8. University of Bologna, Italy
9. Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
10. Ghent University, Belgium
11. University of Applied Science-Krems, Austria
12. University of Helsinki, Finland
