South Africa Workshop for Social Entrepreneurship - 2008/Reflections/Group D Inspiration

Group D stressed how much there is to build on. Variations on this type of work have been going on for many years under different names (service-learning, engaged learning, community-based learning, etc.).

The diversity of the group highlighted differing views of "communities" (contrasting the conception of one participant who comes from a rural community with others in the group from more urban and/or academic environments).

A representation of the types of community engaged learning was presented on one of the flipcharts placing the forms on an axis from a focus on primary beneficiaries to primary goal of the service. For example:

{ Community	<---	Beneficiary	--->	Student }
{Service	<---	Goal	--->	Learning }
		Service Learning
	Community Outreach		Cooperative Education
Volunteerism				Internship

Much of the discussion centred around "service-learning". A good reference for the topics discussed (for curriculum development) is

Service-Learning in the Curriculum. A Resource for Higher Education Institutions. CHE/HEQC-JET Education Services. June 2006. (PDF).

See:

• More References on Service Learning from University of the Free State.