Reciprocal Empowerment Through Remote Service Learning: How to Create Learning Opportunities That Embrace Difference and Foster Social Justice

Birgit Phillips

Source Title: Cases on Active Blended Learning in Higher Education

ISBN13: 9781799878568|ISBN10: 1799878562|ISBN13 Softcover: 9781799878575|EISBN13: 9781799878582

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-7856-8.ch004

MLA

Phillips, Birgit. "Reciprocal Empowerment Through Remote Service Learning: How to Create Learning Opportunities That Embrace Difference and Foster Social Justice." Cases on Active Blended Learning in Higher Education, edited by Brenda Cecilia Padilla Rodriguez and Alejandro Armellini, IGI Global, 2021, pp. 65-85. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-7856-8.ch004

APA

Phillips, B. (2021). Reciprocal Empowerment Through Remote Service Learning: How to Create Learning Opportunities That Embrace Difference and Foster Social Justice. In B. Padilla Rodriguez & A. Armellini (Eds.), Cases on Active Blended Learning in Higher Education (pp. 65-85). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-7856-8.ch004

Chicago

Phillips, Birgit. "Reciprocal Empowerment Through Remote Service Learning: How to Create Learning Opportunities That Embrace Difference and Foster Social Justice." In Cases on Active Blended Learning in Higher Education, edited by Brenda Cecilia Padilla Rodriguez and Alejandro Armellini, 65-85. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-7856-8.ch004

Export Reference

Favorite

View Full Text HTML

View Full Text PDF

Abstract

This chapter presents a novel pedagogical approach of “remote service learning” (RSL), which was applied in an undergraduate health degree program at an Austrian university. Remote service learning is a form of active blended learning that combines academic learning with practical experience and social commitment, using a range of tools and methods from online didactics. Drawing on emancipatory pedagogies such as transformative learning, an RSL-focused course pursues the ambitious goal of promoting reciprocal empowerment, that is, the promotion of mutual educational processes. “Reciprocal” refers to all stakeholders involved in the course, directly or indirectly: university students, the local community, the Austrian NGO, and the educator. Survey and qualitative data results have shown that the fundamental triad of learning, acting, and reflecting in remote service learning not only leads to a deeper understanding of the course content and discipline but also increased self-awareness, empathy, and a heightened sense of the highly complex social realities in different parts of the world.