Community Engagement and Higher Education’s Third Mission

Abstract

We explore here differences between community service and service learning and suggest that student learning in the context of higher education for sustainability may significantly benefit from some forms of community engagement . We discuss the anti-foundational aspects of service learning and how service learning may promote critical reflection . This chapter draws on some research that identified diverse conceptualisations of community engagement in and around higher education nowadays, problems in getting community engagement into higher education curricula and ways to overcome these problems and the value that higher education institutions places on community engagement .