Academic Excellence and Community Engagement: Reflections on the Latin American Experience

Abstract

Community engagement has traditionally been a strong feature of Latin American universities. Under the “extension” secretariats, or through mandatory service programs, most universities in the region have developed a wide range of social activities. At the same time, however, many faculty and administrators still consider community service as something peripheral to the core academic life of the university. In the last decades, a growing movement toward service learning programs has been building bridges between the “scientists” and the “socially engaged.” This chapter will focus on the concept of “service learning” and its pedagogical and philosophical roots, and will also analyze different models of service learning programs, showing the links between teaching, research, and community engagement in best practices, and their impact on the students and the community.