Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement

The Key Is in the Other: Analyzing Global Interconnection in a Service-Learning Project

2025-01-29T15:49:54-05:00

This article explores the characteristics of the BEA Project, an international service-learning (ISL) initiative promoting interaction and exchange between Italy and Brazil. Through a descriptive analysis, this article examines multiple dimensions promoted by our proposal within a glocal framework, analyzing participants’ involvement in key global partnerships through such partners as universities, affiliated community-based centers, and communities. Best practices examples highlight the importance of reflective practices in fostering cultural competence and bottom-up strategies to approach communities. Finally, the article proposes a monitoring and evaluation strategy to address the project’s limitations and enhance its impact, integrating quantitative and qualitative instruments. This research contributes to the ISL literature by offering insights into best practices for sustainable international collaborations.

Community-Engaged Learning in a European Universities Alliance: Reflections on Equality and Reciprocity Across Europe and Africa

2024-11-27T11:45:16-05:00

Although local community-engaged learning (CEL) is increasingly common in higher education, international CEL (ICEL) remains much less common. Through an autoethnographic study, we reflect on the challenges and prospects of collaborating across Europe and Africa, particularly emphasizing equality and reciprocity. Our focus is the Capstone, an ICEL thesis project in the Master’s in Global Challenges for Sustainability, a joint degree of the European Universities alliance CHARM-EU. We argue that achieving equality and reciprocity in ICEL requires (gradual) institutional and collaborative transformations that go beyond an individual ICEL exercise. Full equality may not be achievable; however, reciprocity can be fostered through exchanges between incentives, funding and resources, and decision-making. A balance is needed between regulatory freedom to experiment versus transparency and certainty of rules and regulations. We end with recommendations on how to achieve equality and reciprocity in ICEL, particularly within European Universities alliances.

Iruntrarik Kakarmaitji: “United We Are Stronger”: Reflections on Over a Decade of Transformative Community-Engaged Learning and Research With Indigenous Shuar Communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon

2024-10-14T09:34:28-04:00

In this reflective essay, we (community and university partners) recount a course-based ongoing cross-cultural 10-year+ Global South–Global North partnership (before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic) between four Indigenous Shuar communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon and a U.S.-based institution of higher education. We report on developing, maintaining, adapting, sustaining, and enriching that relationship. The experience is founded on a changing decolonizing conceptual framework that integrates participatory action research with Indigenous epistemologies and methods. As we collectively reflect on a decade of collaboration, we explore the transformative potential of Minga (collective action and cooperation) and Iruntrarik Kakarmaitji (strength in unity) as Indigenous Shuar models for shaping community-driven learning and research. This ongoing partnership underscores the significance of trust, accountability, reciprocity, equity, and humility, cultivated through over a decade of solidarity with shared goals and outcomes, ultimately contributing to a more inclusive and equitable form of international community-engaged learning.

Embedding Community Engagement Within Indian Higher Education Institutions’ Functions: Insights on Community-Engaged Learning

2024-11-14T09:51:26-05:00

Despite the growing volume of global research on community engagement and its outcomes, studies emerging from the Global South, particularly India, are sparse. This article makes a valuable contribution toward enhancing a scholarly understanding of engagement in India by highlighting the findings made through a qualitative study at eight Indian higher education institutions (HEIs). This inquiry explored the diverse modalities of the embedment of community engagement (CE) within HEI functions (teaching, research, and service), transforming these functions into engaged scholarship and thus creating community-engaged learning (CEL) opportunities through the introduction of socially relevant courses, immersive pedagogies, coconstruction of new knowledge for community welfare, and social outreach interventions. The article draws on these insights to propose a conceptual model to guide global HEIs toward transforming conventional scholarship into engaged scholarship, thereby yielding key CEL outcomes and thus contributing to a simple but pragmatic understanding of international CEL.

New Forms of International Community-Engaged Learning: Unveiling the Benefits and Limitations of a Digital Open-Source Global Justice Investigations Lab

2024-11-16T11:06:56-05:00

Globalization and digital technology have transformed how knowledge is shared, but they have also amplified the spread of misinformation— challenges now intensified by advances in artificial intelligence. To navigate this landscape, students must develop digital literacy and learn to critically assess open-source materials. One key area is digital open-source investigation (OSI), which teaches students to identify, collect, verify, and analyze materials like news reports, social media posts, and satellite imagery. These skills are essential for addressing contemporary global issues. This article explores the benefits and limitations of Utrecht University’s 2023–2024 digital OSI Lab, developed within the framework of international community-engaged learning (ICEL). Using qualitative analysis, including student surveys and reflections, we found that students of this lab not only gained a deeper understanding of global justice but also developed greater awareness of their own positionality within complex global contexts—an outcome fostered through structured reflection and experiential learning.

International Service-Learning, Volunteering Networks, and Social Justice Through the European Interuniversity FLY Program

2024-10-26T11:07:54-04:00

Service-learning (SL) is pivotal for institutionalizing university– community engagement and achieving teaching and learning goals by addressing identified needs (Compare et al., 2023). This goal aligns with the European Commission’s (2017) Agenda for Higher Education, prioritizing community engagement. SL in international collaboration offers advantages: fostering intercultural growth, providing a “glocal” perspective, facilitating knowledge exchange, and promoting innovative SL pathways. This synergy addresses global challenges comprehensively (International Commission on the Futures of Education, 2021). This article introduces the European interuniversity volunteering and service-learning program FLY, coordinated by eight universities. FLY encourages students to experience global realities during summer breaks, fostering critical thinking about power dynamics and inequality. The program emphasizes reciprocity, diversity, and social justice. Our study, examining early impacts on students and community partners, promotes equality and reciprocity between universities, community partners, and students. It analyzes the benefits for participants and community partners in the FLY Program.

The Impact of International Service-Learning on Students’ Development in Intercultural Sensitivity

2025-01-10T12:48:02-05:00

We examined the impact of international service-learning (ISL) on students’ development of intercultural sensitivity. Participants were undergraduate students of a Hong Kong university (N = 132) who enrolled in a credit-bearing ISL course with service projects in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Mainland China. The research is primarily qualitative but also employs quantitative methods. Students were asked to write their views about the host country both before and after their service trip. Through thematic analysis of the responses, we developed a framework for intercultural sensitivity with four levels. Categories adopted from literature about intercultural competence or development were used to code the data set. Results revealed statistically significant differences in levels of intercultural sensitivity before and after ISL experience. Postexperience data further showed higher levels of intercultural sensitivity in the Southeast Asia and Africa groups than in the Mainland China group. Potential factors and implications are discussed.

Advancing Societally Engaged and International Planetary Health Education: Innovations, Lessons, and Recommendations for Educators

2024-12-10T14:30:04-05:00

The delivery of planetary health education continues to grow across many disciplines, institutions, and geographical regions. To equip students with the transformative competencies needed to become agents of change in the planetary health field, educators must adopt innovative educational approaches. The course Planetary Health and Climate Resilient Health Systems aimed to pioneer this effort by integrating challenge-based learning, community-engaged learning, and Collaborative Online International Learning within a collaboration between multiple universities in the Netherlands and one in the Philippines. The challenges encountered during its development revealed a significant gap between the recommendations and practices conceptualized and promoted in higher education, and the supportive structures available for implementing these innovations. This commentary outlines three key lessons learned from developing and delivering the course. It offers practical insights for educators worldwide to design and provide innovative, international, and societally engaged education to meet current and future planetary health challenges.

Heritage in Practice: Cultivating Critical Reflection and Intercultural Communication in Bonaire

2024-10-14T09:35:43-04:00

A critical turn in heritage studies that integrates nonexpert (including colonial) voices presents significant didactic and educational challenges. How do we teach heritage practices in an intercultural, and previously colonial, context? The project Making Bonairean Heritage Together was designed as a showcase to equip students with essential skills for engaging in collaborative, intercultural heritage practices, particularly through cocreation and collaboration with external partners and communities in an international context. These skills are crucial in an increasingly decolonizing field of practice. This article outlines the students’ intercultural experiences and the project’s structure, objectives, and lessons learned. By analyzing students’ voices in developing intercultural competencies, cultural reflexivity, and awareness of intercultural heritage practices, we seek to contribute to research on heritage education in an intercultural and decolonial context.

Introduction to the Special Issue on International Community-Engaged Learning (ICEL)

2025-06-30T09:46:15-04:00

Introduction to the Special Issue

29(2) Entire Issue

2025-07-02T18:28:02-04:00

29(2) Entire Issue

29(2) Editorial Board

2025-07-02T18:30:15-04:00

29(2) Editorial Board

29(2) Table of Contents

2025-07-02T18:32:15-04:00

29(2) Table of Contents