Chapter 9 Service-learning as a Methodology to Promote Equity and Inclusion: Best Practice Experience in Ecuador

Abstract

Abstract This chapter provides higher education faculty with a model that promotes equity and inclusion by engaging students in developing critical consciousness about their country’s social problems. This model has been developed and refined through research and practice at a private liberal arts university in Quito, Ecuador since 2011. It is a service-learning program where students work directly, for 80 hours, with a vulnerable human group while taking a course where the academic content includes topics, such as poverty, education, health, gender, and discrimination. With this experiential learning model, students have gone through a transformational process that has allowed them to question their mental schemes. This transformation has been documented with qualitative data. The impact of this model has been researched using both quantitative and qualitative measures of students’ civic attitudes and skills using a scale called the Civic Attitudes and Skills Questionnaire, which includes six factors: Civic Action, Interpersonal and Problem-Solving Skills, Political Awareness, Leadership Skills, Social Justice, and Diversity Attitudes. A significant impact of the course on students’ skills has been found on almost all factors in two studies conducted in recent years. This chapter describes the service-learning program in detail mentioning the research done.