Abstract:

This paper attempts to describe an educational experience through Service-Learning (S-L) carried out at SAFA education centre in Úbeda (Jaén). This experience has involved teachers and students at Secondary Education. The main topic that emerges from the project is closely related to the migratory processes that we find today in our society.

In fact, according to Rubio & Luccheti (n.d), Service-Learning is an educational proposal that combines the processes of learning and serving the community, where participants are trained by means of working on the environment real needs trying to improve it. In the same way, Andrea & Moliner (2010) define Service-Learning as an educational process that develops critical thinking and aims at academic learning from social and civic competence. According to Battle (2013), beyond being a learning methodology, it encompasses the cognitive and ethical dimensions of the person, providing them with the educational capacity of including everybody into the social development of communities.

The title of this Service-Learning Project is “The world is our home”. Actually, it was born to give response to a previous motivation of students about the migratory processes towards Spain and the social, cultural and economic context that surrounds them. Under this scenario an interdisciplinary educational proposal emerges framed in an S-L project, where performing arts, music and drama, together with audio-visual elements, come to life for the creation of an awareness campaign that pursues a double target.

The first one has to do with sensitizing and critically reflecting on migratory issues by the educational community on the one hand, and, by the society around the educational centre. Moreover, there was a special interest on looking into the different causes, consequences, difficulties, human values, procedures, and ethics; as well as, awakening the interest for collective action and citizen training in democratic and plural societies.

In the second place, our aim was to carry out educational practices that provide to be useful tools to make people aware of the social reality that surrounds us, trying to sympathise with other realities and putting ourselves in the others’ shoes. The idea was to make learners competent to create the necessary actions to provoke a social change. All of this was made around the curriculum contents and areas by following them strictly.

In addition, the use of the S-L system, with the different integrated tasks constituting it and by means of active methodologies, gives students the opportunity to experience in first person the reality that surrounds them and to act against it under a memorable and meaningful learning process. Alongside the whole experience, teachers guide and accompany students throughout the process by means of methodological resources and helps.

Besides, this projects has helped the centre to be opened to other educational such as: City Hall, families, NGOs, administrations, a University Teaching Centre and the rest of staff of center in charge of kitchen, administration, maintenance, etc.

Keywords:

Service-learning, experience, secondary education, migrations, community.