Academic excellence and community engagement: reflections on the Latin American experience
Nieves Tapia (A Non-Profit community and Education Development Organization)
Abstract
Community engagement has traditionally been a strong feature of Latin American Universities. Under the Secretaries of “Extension”, or through mandatory service programs, most Universities in the region have developed a wide range of social activities. At the same time, many faculty and administrators still consider community service as something peripheral to the core academic life of the University.
In the last decade, a growing movement towards service-learning programs has been building bridges between the “scientists” and the “socially engaged”. Presentation will focus on the concept of “service-learning”, and its pedagogical and philosophical roots, and will analyze different models of service-learning programs, showing the links between teaching, research and community engagement in best practices, and their impact in the students and the community.
