University Social Responsibility, Service Learning, and Students' Personal, Professional, and Civic Education

Abstract

The long-standing vision of universities as the “alma mater” of students and graduates is a demonstration of its role as sustaining the person, the expert/professional, and the citizen. This role has persisted in the face of rising global challenges such as the emergence of new learning spaces, the growing diversity of publics, the call for productivity and performativity, and the hope for a significant engagement with the community and the public good. These sometimes conflicting tendencies have also stimulated higher education institutions to further pedagogical strategies that articulate in novel ways the classical elements of learning: action/experience and reflection/theory. In this context, service learning received a new impetus, particularly in the post-Bologna European Higher Education Area, as universities were looking for ways in which to articulate the social dimension of HEI and their “third mission” as institutions not only committed to addressing and solving societal problems, but also committed to fostering public-minded alumni through powerful experiences of engagement for both the students and the community.This paper is based on the experience of Erasmus+project ESSA, a service earning based project focused on University social responsibility (USR). ESSA engaged four groups of students from three European universities (Edinburgh, Porto, and Kaunas) in conducting a 1-week on-site USR audit based on an ecologic and situated concept of social responsibility. We will consider the perceived impact of ESSA on 44 students through a thematic analysis of focus group discussions and student self-assessment reports produced during and after their participation in the USR audit.

The engagement CUBE: a dialogical tool for designing, facilitating and monitoring engaged research and teaching strategies

“…Secondly, by explicitly covering the “conflict dimension” of boundary crossing practices, will it broaden our understanding of both learning opportunities and challenges presented by engaged campus-community initiatives. At the policy level, we would situate our approach at the “critical-transformative pole of the USR-continuum” (Coelho and Menezes, 2021). It builds on an ecological perspective, considering USR as a principle that runs through all higher educational spheres: from teaching and research to governance and community engagement.…”

“…It builds on an ecological perspective, considering USR as a principle that runs through all higher educational spheres: from teaching and research to governance and community engagement. It allows for looking at engaged practices as multifaceted and context-specific learning spaces where students, university staff and community partners engage in active, participatory, inclusive and democratic processes of inquiry, allowing them to adapt to “an increasingly mutable social space” and build capacity to “mutate it as well, not only as an individual but also in conjunction with others” (Coelho and Menezes, 2021). Future research will be needed to look more closely into the dynamics shaping meaningful interactions and connections across CERL-scales and dimensions.…”

A Responsabilidade Social Universitária Vista Pelos/As Estudantes

“…O seu desenvolvimento teve por base os objetivos traçados para este estudo, tendo em conta não apenas a revisão bibliográfica do tema, mas também várias escalas já existentes e usadas pelo nosso grupo de investigação em estudos anteriores (Fernandes-Jesus et al, 2012;Malafaia et al, 2016), escalas construídas com base nos dados qualitativos de estudos sobre RSU, seja os dados de entrevistas e grupos focais realizados no contexto do ESSA (Coelho & Menezes, 2020, 2021, seja o trabalho de revisão e construção de termos de referência europeus sobre RSU (Amorim et al, 2015). As escalas já existentes incluem várias dimensões do desenvolvimento pessoal, cívico e político relevantes, como o pensamento reflexivo (Kember et al, 2000), o bem--estar social (Keyes, 2009), competências académicas e profissionais (Gonçalves et al, 2009) e a qualidade das experiências de participação (Ferreira & Menezes, 2001).…”

“…Foi ainda usada uma versão adaptada ao contexto universitário da escala de sentido de comunidade para jovens (Chiessi et al, 2010) e da escala de autoeficácia política (Niemi et al, 1991). As escalas construídas de raiz para este estudo são focadas nas questões da RSU, dada a ausência de instrumentos nesta área, e centram-se nas conceções e nas práticas de RSU (Coelho & Menezes, 2020, 2021. A opção pela seleção de escalas de diferentes questionários já validados prendeu-se com a necessidade de manter a extensão do questionário o mais breve quanto possível (cerca de 15 minutos necessários para o preenchimento), uma estratégia que não inibisse a continuação do preenchimento online voluntário.…”

The Impacts of College Students’ Civic Responsibility on Civic Engagement via Online Technology: The Mediations of Civic Learning and Civic Expression

“…The literature indicated the importance of civic responsibility for college students to construct their considerations of civic learning and promote the appropriate outcomes by civic pedagogical practices via online technology (Coelho & Menezes, 2021; Langhout & Gordon, 2019; Schwehm et al, 2017). OCL activities play an important role in educational curriculum to help college students engage in our society via online technology (Barnhardt et al, 2019; Bowyer & Kahne, 2020; Reichert & Print, 2018).…”