Sub-project: Service-learning on campus
Universities also have a responsibility to tackle the climate crisis, eradicate poverty, hunger and inequality in the world and fulfil the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They can research solutions and empower young people to shape a more sustainable future. In order for universities to fulfil these requirements, new approaches and transformation paths are needed that overcome the supposed boundaries between science and society and contribute to the mutual transfer of experience and knowledge between science and social practice. In the spirit of transformative science, it is also necessary to develop solutions within the university to overcome the boundaries between research and teaching, different status groups and individual disciplines and administrative areas by trialling and implementing integrative approaches.
The “Senatra – Service Learning and Sustainable Transformation at Universities” project, which has been investigating this question at the KU over a three-year period since October 2022, is looking at how universities can fulfil these requirements. Prof Dr Anne-Kathrin Lindau (former holder of the Chair of Geography Education and Education for Sustainable Development, now at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg) and project team member Dr Ann-Kathrin Bremer are working on service learning on campus in the project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Service learning (SL), or “learning through engagement”, involves students in active, socially relevant and collaborative learning processes and is characterised by support (service) and simultaneous learning (learning). The focus is on students learning from each other and those who receive support. In sustainability-orientated SL projects, students develop a concept or carry out a project with practical partnerships. In doing so, they initiate organisational changes towards sustainability and acquire knowledge and skills in a theory- and experience-based learning process. This makes it possible to directly experience and scrutinise areas of tension in sustainable development on the basis of theory-led action. These can then be critically reflected upon and analysed in order to recognise the possibilities and limits of practical sustainability action and to develop innovative transfer solutions based on science. A key feature of SL is the combination of formal learning in the seminar context and informal learning during project work with a partner organisation. These different learning processes are related to each other through reflection.
Aim of the project
Senatra is a joint project between the KU, the University of Vechta, the University of Bremen, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg and netzwerk n. Together, they are working on the research question: “To what extent can the use of SL in university teaching contribute to an overall institutional sustainable transformation of universities?”. At the KU, SL formats are to be implemented on campus in the context of courses in line with the Whole Institution Approach, thus supporting its sustainable transformation in all areas of university activity. In this way, the KU itself becomes a real-world laboratory for sustainable development. To this end, students come into contact with sustainable development stakeholder groups from the six fields of action of governance, research, teaching, campus management/operations, student initiatives and engagement and transfer as part of courses in SL formats. As part of the SL, sustainability measures that serve to implement the overall sustainability concept, for example, are selected, planned and implemented together with members of all status groups, taking particular account of the student perspective. The aim is to enable students to use their theory-based practical experience to act as multipliers in the university’s fields of action and to reflect on these. The project will be scientifically monitored and evaluated as part of a multiple transdisciplinary case study with a mixed methods design (surveys, interviews, focus groups).
