The Institutionalization of Service-Learning at Spanish Universities

Abstract

Service-learning is conceived of as an active pedagogical approach that integrates community services into learning processes. Although this practice has a long history in the Americas, it is still emerging in some European countries. Since the Bologna Process, Spanish universities have faced challenges associated with introducing learner-centered pedagogies and fostering students’ social responsibility. However, service-learning fuses these two lines of intervention. This article aims to provide data about the degree to which service-learning has been established and institutionalized at Spanish universities. To obtain these data, an electronic questionnaire based on a self-assessment rubric for the institutionalization of service-learning in higher education was sent to selected informants at Spanish universities. The results showed that most Spanish universities are at a very early stage in the institutionalization of service-learning; in fact, only a few appear to have mechanisms in place to achieve such institutionalization. The authors reflect on the need to support this emerging pedagogical practice to improve the quality of education and community engagement in the context of Spanish higher education.

Avances y desafíos de la institucionalización del aprendizaje-servicio en la Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción de Chile

“…En la literatura se han propuesto rúbricas para evaluar la institucionalización del aprendizaje-servicio (Furco, 1999(Furco, , 2002(Furco, , 2006(Furco, , 2011Bringle y Hatcher, 2000;Heras et al, 2017); modelos de implementación (Jouannet et al, 2013;Cea et al, 2014;Pizarro et al, 2019;Salam et al, 2019;Guiñez et al, 2020;Vivero et al, 2020;Sola et al, 2021) y rúbricas de evaluación (Campo, 2014;Rubio, 2015;Campo, 2015;Puig et al, 2017;Uruñuela, 2018;Ruiz-Corbella, 2019; López de Arana, 2020).…”

Applying andragogy to service-learning in graduate education: An interpretive phenomenological analysis

“…Institutions’ adoption of service-learning can range from individual faculty members using this strategy to the creation of campus-wide programs tailored to graduate students (Goodhue, 2017). Additionally, many institutions outside of the United States are still in the process of building a robust infrastructure to support service-learning as a whole, as has been reported in Australia (Patrick et al, 2019), Spain (Heras-Colàs et al, 2017), Pakistan (Morrison, 2016), and Kenya (VanLeeuwen et al, 2020) to name a few. Aside from structural barriers, the dearth of literature on graduate S-LCE requires continued research to better document its impact on graduate students (Bringle et al, 2012; Harris, 2017; Morin et al, 2016).…”

The Effect Of Institutionalization At Universities On Institutional Reputation

“…analysed the institutionalization of performance-based pay systems in Korean national universities. Korean national universities are compared and discussed in the context of isomorphism using the performance-based pay systems form that is utilized in higher education in the USA Heras-Colàs et al (2017). examined the institutionalization of service-learning at Spanish universities.…”