Service-Learning: between theory and practice

On July 2, 2020, the Webinar entitled: “Service-Learning: between theory and practice” ( video here ) involved about 200 educators and teachers from different parts of the world : from South America, to Africa, to Europe, Canada and Australia. The meeting was born from the desire to deepen the pedagogy of Service Learning , a methodological approach that aims to make school a key tool for global citizenship education, and thanks to which to allow young people to develop knowledge and skills through solidarity activities, aimed at protecting and promoting the common good. The Webinar is a preview of the training course “ Educating for global citizenship: Solidarity Service Learning ” proposed by AMU, in partnership with CLAYSS and in collaboration with RpU. A precious combination of Education for Citizenship and the methodology that in Italy we commonly know as “Service-Learning”, for the promotion of a new, transversal, interdisciplinary teaching method , which favors new participatory educational processes, which allows to actively act on the relational style between all, on the contents and on the methodologies. To accompany and facilitate the path in the most personalized way possible, the support from specialized tutors trained in the field of pedagogy and citizenship as Agostino Spolti, sociologist and educator, testifies: “The experience of a tutor should be that of a traveling companion. For this reason it is important to remember the phrase of one of the greatest Italian educators Don L. Milani “I taught my kids that the problem of others is the same as mine. Getting out of it all together is politics”. We want to have an experience of sharing the journey, trying to enter the other empathetically”. The idea is that through the APPS pedagogy it is possible to generate learning communities, where common commitment is the result of shared work and experimentation together. During the webinar, Nieves Tapia (Director of CLAYSS) explored the concept and practice of Service Learning, highlighting the elements that distinguish it and make it an effective and unique approach, especially in implementation of projects in the field. Together with her, also Professor Juan García (Delegate of the Rector for the UNED Service-Learning Project) and Mirta Doria (Intercultural School Teacher, Argentina), who told some examples of application of this methodology in distance learning and in particularly vulnerable intercultural contexts. The Webinar was a shared moment that went beyond the educational utility: learning about concrete examples of this methodology, what distinguishes it and its purpose, stimulated the participants to take action in their educational contexts.