SERVICE-LEARNING. LINKING SCHOOL AND LOCAL COMMUNITY AS A PROPOSAL FOR CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION

Abstract

There is a growing understanding that education systems in the West suffer from grave limitations when they come to training future citizens who are not only academically qualified but are also responsible of caring people. This has fuelled the debate among experts over the direction that education reforms should take. In the institutions of the European Union there is a firm belief that increasing active citizen participation depends in large measure on the way education is structured in each country. The present study analyses SL’s potential as an innovative teaching methodology that reinforces the links between local communities and their educational institutions. We now await for its incorporation into the Spanish education system —a challenge that people have been working on hard since 2002—.