Chapter 7: Exploring the Challenges of Service Learning in Contemporary Higher Education

Service Learning (SL) is an experiential pedagogy through which students take part in meaningful real-world activities designed to respond to a community partner’s needs. Advocates of SL view it as a transformative pedagogy, and systematic reviews and meta-analyses provide substantial evidence of its positive impact for all parties involved. However, to better enable the realisation of its considerable potential, academics intending to adopt SL need to be mindful of its challenges and ethical issues as well as its many strengths and potentialities. This chapter highlights some of the key considerations associated with SL to assist those working in Higher Education in gaining a more critical view of this potentially powerful pedagogy.