Education experts discuss service-learning and social responsibility, focusing on the critical role of universities in engaging the community, fostering active citizenship, and promoting ethical responsibility.

In photo (from left to right): Dr Marta Ortega Sáez (University of Barcelona, Spain), Dr Dolors Ortega Arévalo (University of Barcelona, Spain), and Dr Catalina Ribas Segura (CESAG-Comillas Pontifical University, Spain) during their panel discussion at BCE/BAMC2025

The discussion around the future of education invited BCE/BAMC2025 participants to question what its purpose should be, and in turn what the role of the university should be, in this era defined by increasing attention on efficiency and productivity and a disregard for human values. A panel titled ‘Embedding Social Responsibility: Service-Learning as a Tool for Knowledge Transfer in the New University Landscape’ further explored a potential role of education and the university through the lens of social responsibility and service-learning. Panellists Dr Dolors Ortega Arévalo and Dr Marta Ortega Sáez of the University of Barcelona, Spain, and Dr Catalina Ribas Segura of the CESAG-Comillas Pontifical University, Spain, made a good case for focusing on service-learning and social responsibility as a form of giving back to communities, in which educational institutions, teachers, students, and the whole knowledge production process are embedded. 

Starting with a definition of service-learning, Dr Ribas Segura defined service-learning as a pedagogical methodology used in universities and educational institutions worldwide based on two main principles: service to the community and learning of a curriculum by students. It differs from volunteering in that, aside from solidarity service and active participation (what she called the ‘heart’ and the ‘hands’), it also includes a curriculum and a learning component (the ‘head’). With these components in mind, students and associations work with the community to solve problems instead of working for the community.

In photo: Dr Catalina Ribas Segura (CESAG-Comillas Pontifical University, Spain)

Dr Ortega Arévalo presented a brief literature review of service-learning that highlighted the trend and relevance of service-learning as a discipline today. While it started as scattered pedagogies over seven decades ago, it has matured into an interdisciplinary field, with 75% of the field’s research conducted only after 2010, ‘mirroring global interest in active and experimental pedagogies,’ she explained. This is consistent with various debates within IAFOR regarding the rise of interdisciplinary teaching, learning, and research, and the need to ‘cultivate active citizenship, interdisciplinary competencies and ethical responsibility among students,’ something which Dr Ortega Arévalo claimed service-learning can do. 

In photo: Dr Dolors Ortega Arévalo (University of Barcelona, Spain)

Also consistent with what participants have discussed during IAFOR’s Forum sessions at the previous 2025 Paris and London Conferences regarding challenges of making interdisciplinarity work is the fact that service-learning, just like most interdisciplinary fields, is underfunded and lacks recognition in promotional systems. It also lacks variability in terms of the countries that produce related research: roughly 70% of publications originate in the United States, and 96% are published in English, even though in the past few decades, there has been a notable growth of interest and application across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. However, ‘this shift offers new opportunities to examine how culture, policy and local priorities shape service-learning designs and outcomes,’ Dr Ortega Arévalo said, advocating for a more inclusive research landscape. 

According to the panellists, Spain has emerged as Europe’s leading producer of scholarship in service-learning since 2000, and as one of the most successful European countries in its institutionalisation. To demonstrate how Spanish universities have approached the integration of service-learning into formal curricula, Dr Ortega Sáez outlined various courses that have been introduced at her institution: ‘Sharing Ideas’ (informational talks and workshops for secondary school students), ‘Service-Learning Commitment and Social Transformation’ (involving environmental challenges at San Adria de Vazos beach), and the Service-Learning Chair (training, research, and knowledge transfer). Dr Ribas Segura also introduced two courses related to service-learning taught at her institution, the Comillas Pontifical University in Mallorca: ‘Service-Learning Existing While Ensuring No One’s Left Behind,’ involving sports science and primary education students working with Caritas; and ‘Media Report’ and ‘Documentary and Other Nonfiction Forums’ for media studies students. 

In photo: Dr Marta Ortega Sáez (University of Barcelona, Spain)

Dr Ortega Sáez concluded by stating that, although service-learning as an interdisciplinary field has a lot of challenges to overcome, ‘the social and personal benefits outweigh the difficulties, as this is a way for organisations to become more known and for teachers and students to reach and give back to the community’. 

While many questions remained unanswered during these three sessions, such as what creativity is, how to deal with AI in this attention economy, what we will do with our free time once AI takes over, and how to make interdisciplinary research and teaching more viable and attractive, Dr Haldane was hopeful that discussions at the intersection between technology, AI, and humanity and human intelligence ‘will help us find answers to questions from the small and seemingly unimportant to the large and meaningful’. As these discussions correspond to two of IAFOR’s themes for 2025-2029, they will continue to be addressed in IAFOR’s future conference programmes.

Watch the full panel discussion in the video below.

Banner image: The Tampa Bay Estuary Program, Unsplash