e-Learning

Environmental citizenship through applied community service learning

26 April 2017
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This course seeks to advance innovation in teaching, learning, and action within school systems- based on local contexts and cultures – for students and communities to create and maintain a more sustainable and peaceful environment. This course mission is to empower university students to design their own environmental service project in their local community and develop exceptional leadership, citizenship, and post-graduate employment skills.

Community service learning pedagogy has strong connections with sustainability education and place-based education and has been adopted in many higher education curriculums worldwide. A wide range of disciplines such as business, engineering, sociology, tourism, environmental studies, etc. have integrated CSL pedagogy. CSL within the university context can contribute towards the “development of student, faculty, university, and community interactions and capacity in a progressive and transformative manner” (Levkoe et al., 2014, p. 80). The way this transformation occurs is of interest for further defining CSL not as a ‘course based’ or ‘credit bearing’ educational experience, but as a transformative educational experience for the student, teacher, and the community.