SETTING A GLOBAL RESEARCH AGENDA for Service-Learning and Community Engagement
THIRD EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON SERVICE-LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION, SLOVAKIA, July 2020
8. Cultural/Regional & Cross-Cultural/Regional Research Issues and Considerations
At each regional meeting, issues that are particular to certain practices and contexts within cultures and regions are likely to emerge. Also likely to emerge are research interests in how service-learning and community engagement is practiced and studied across cultures and regions. These issues should be embraced and discussed, with an eye toward identifying questions or action steps for the research agenda. The issues might include, but are not limited to:
- Conducting research within and across different cultural or geographic settings.
- Examining service-learning and community engagement across the educational spectrum.
- Community voice.
- Multiple frames of service-learning and community engagement.
- Establish a set of common expectations and rules of cooperation for service-learning and community-engagement research.
- Develop a plan to ‘reconcile’ differences in disciplines around the globe (e.g. pedagogy is a scientific discipline in Europe, but not in the USA). Invite scholars to consider this aspect when familiarising with theories from kindred fields of study.
- Conduct comparative studies on service-learning and community engagement incorporation into various educational policies and how are they communicated with relevant actors (teachers, academics, etc.).
- How do cultural differences facilitate the capacity of community members to co-create research agenda?
- How do different cultural contexts shape/influence reflection practices?
- How do different educational (historical and present) contexts shape/contribute to the implementation of service-learning courses/projects?
- Different cultural/national/educational contexts shape the ‘battle’ of disciplinary vs. interdisciplinary approach. How does this ‘battle’ and the centrality of disciplines (the power of discipline) shape/influence research on service-learning and community engagement?
- How do cultural/historical/governmental/institutional contexts shape strategies for keeping/strengthening service-learning courses and students’ engagement in time of crisis (e.g. Covid-19)?
- What is the best way to learn from each other as communities of practice while acknowledging contextual particularities in terms of culture and institutional context/history/culture?
- What are the qualitative differences among implementing models of service-learning across cultures?
- Identify the roles of the actors in service-learning across cultures.
- What factors influence the community engagement across cultures (e.g., the roles of professors on the perception of service-learning as normative in different cultural contexts)?
- Use the existing databases (e.g. European Service-Learning Observatory) to identify potential contexts to compare and contrast.
- Develop a map of the differences of key partners and networks across cultures, geographies, and
- Set up regional research partnerships to conduct joint studies.
