Building partnership in service-learning : some reflections

Service-Learning is a proven pedagogy for holistic learning and is practiced across the globe by educators both at secondary and tertiary levels. Different models and methods have been developed and adopted to suit one’s educational system, discipline of the learner, socio-cultural context and needs of the community. However the basic philosophy of service learning to mutually benefit the learner and the community remains the same. The success of S-L depends largely upon the partnership involved in the learning process. At micro level (within an educational institution) academic service learning involves two major players other than the community namely, the teacher and the learner actively engaging in the planning & execution of service learning activity. In a capstone model of S-L, the entire department or academic unit may be involved instead of a single course teacher in which case partnership is extended to more members of faculty and students from the same unit/department necessitating coordination at the departmental level. In inter/trans-disciplinary model of S-L involving learners and faculty across many disciplines, coordination is required at the institutional level. Such S-L programs have the advantage of addressing community issues holistically and require an integrated approach. A separate S-L office at the institutional level is essential to facilitate effective partnership among the members. Partnership may be further extended to neighboring like-minded institutions in order to address the community issues more effectively in which case S-L becomes a cooperative venture of many institutions. Further expansion of the S-L network to national and international level (SLAN model) has proved highly beneficial to transcend cultural, racial and linguistic barriers promoting global citizenship. Such networks need committed leadership and financial resources to sustain momentum. The service learning activities usually begin on the campus and get extended to neighboring communities. At community level, partnership involves collectively working with the leaders of the community, concerned Government officials, non-government organization(s) and the corporate sector, with a common goal of meeting the community needs. Establishing links with these partners and collaborating with them to achieve one’s S-L goals are not that easy and require special skills since each community environment is unique and the partnership is complex. Based on my own experience in institutionalizing S-L and establishing international partnerships, the intricacies of S-L partnership at different levels are discussed in this paper while highlighting the advantages of and difficulties in building partnerships