RE-IMAGINING SERVICE-LEARNING THRU PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH FOR COMMUNITY IMPACT: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

The traditional Service-Learning approach, practiced in the Philippines, emphasizes the learning process that emerges from the students’ engagement with the community. While traditional service-learning has revolutionized pedagogy since it started in the 1970s, the collaboration with the community and evaluation of the impact of the service-learning projects on the community is not highlighted or missing in the SL projects conducted in the Philippines. Combined with the Participatory Action Research for Community Impact (PARCI), a re-imagined service learning is possible. Participatory Action research highlights meaningful collaboration with the community stakeholders and sustainable outputs that create a long-term relationship with the community. A reimagined Service-Learning has its roots in the principles of social justice informed by the Social Teachings of the Catholic Church. At the same time, its leaves and branches respond to the increasing demand for higher education to sustain a long-term relationship with the community outside of the academia’s classrooms with a goal in mind to bring about social transformation.