Aprendizaje-servicio y aprendizaje comunitario

Community-based learning or service learning is a highly structured pedagogy in which course content and community service are closely tied. Service learning serves many functions: it attracts students to traditional academic programs, it prepares them for their future professions, it gives them access to cultures in their local communities, and it involves them in the theory and practice of social justice. In this chapter, community service learning is situated within its international historic, institutional, and pedagogical contexts. First, the contradictory situation of this methodology that unites the worlds of academia and local communities is explored. Next, some steps are outlined to make service learning fit within existing academic programs. Then, a model of community service learning that bridges the gap between the world of academia and the current and future professional workplace is presented. Finally, the necessity of privileging the needs and perspectives of the local and/or global community is underscored. In the last section, based on a revisioning of the goals and methods for pedagogy that reflect significant institutional and community changes of recent years, a procedure for planning and implementing a service learning course is described.