Service Learning in Education

Community Engagement

• Emphasizes reciprocal benefits for both students and the community, fostering a deeper understanding of course content through real-world applications and developing a sense of civic responsibility.

Types of Community Engagement

• Direct Service: involves participating in activities that address immediate needs within a community, such as volunteering at a food bank, tutoring children, or building homes for those in need.
• Transitional: involves providing temporary support to address immediate needs, such as delivering food to victims of war.
• Transformational: involves empowering community members to become active contributors to the community building process, such as implementing a community development plan.
• Social Entrepreneurship: refers to the practice of identifying, starting, and managing ventures that aim to address social issues, improve communities, and make a positive impact on society, all while employing entrepreneurial principles.
• Community Organizing: refers to the process of bringing people together to address common issues and concerns, build collective power, and create change within their communities.

Community Characteristics

• A dynamic social grouping whose members settle in a specific geographical space, submit to a common political institution, engage in socio-economic activities, and share common cultural views.

Community Dynamics

• Community organizations and volunteers have played a vital role in providing essential supplies, support, and information to vulnerable populations during the pandemic.
• Impact of rising prices of goods and commodities: may lead to competition and conflict within the community.

Community Perspectives

• Profound sharing of emotional connection: notion of community surpasses the three perspectives in terms of involvement, attachment, and commitment.
• Civil Society Perspective: anchored on advocacies for the welfare of the society or the sector that they belong to.
• Grassroots Level Perspective: related to the people and land where they grew up, built their memories, and experiences.

Community Structures

• Sangguniang Barangay: coordinates with the appropriate national agency for the implementation of youth developments.
• Sangguniang Kabataan: an administrative body, not an organization, identified in the Local Government Code of 1990.

Community Engaged Learning

• Also known as Service-Learning, an educational approach that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.