The SEA-EU Society Hub is a platform for the exchange of ideas and best practices around novel teaching and learning experiences that span the gap between academia and society. Within the framework of the Society Hub, Frauke Godat, expert for so-called Service Learning at Kiel University, collaborates with colleagues across the Alliance to create a wealth of resources and knowledge, and to encourage students and staff alike to step outside their comfort zones for the benefit of themselves and their communities.
Hello Frauke, what is meant by the term “service learning”?
According to the European Observatory of Service-Learning in Higher Education “Service-learning in higher education is an experiential educational pedagogy in which students engage in community service, reflect critically on this experience, and learn from it personally, socially and academically”.
What is your role at Kiel University?
Since 2012, service learning has been part of the teaching development strategy at Kiel University, whereby the goal is to implement it as an innovative and participatory learning format across the University. In 2012, I was hired to prototype and co-teach service learning seminars and workshops. I also advise CAU teaching staff and students on how to implement service-learning elements into their curriculum and personal development.
Within SEA-EU, Service Learning experts collaborate within the framework of the Society Hub. What does the Society Hub do?
The Society Hub presents a transnational support for all SEA-EU teachers and researchers, administrative staff, students, and external stakeholders who want to develop society-oriented activities. Society Hub is a place that creates education, shares knowledge and know-how, and encourages transdisciplinary and challenge-based models of teaching at the highest level of internationalization.
What were some of the highlights in 2024?
In 2024, we piloted two seminars together with others from SEA-EU. The first seminar was a service-learning seminar engaging students from CAU, Split and Gdansk. Within this course, students learnt how to work towards achieving a certain social goal. For example, Josipa and Klaudia from Split combined their love for music and dance with visual arts to compliment the educational dimension of their workshop with an aim to raise participants’ awareness of sustainable development goals. Two students, Ann-Marie Schupp from Kiel and Stipo Margic from Split even continued with our mentoring after the service learning seminar and applied successfully for the Student-led Project Fund in 2024.
In April 2024, the Society Hub hosted a service learning staff week and conference at the University of Cadiz in Spain. Dr. Inken Reimer presented her research-based teaching project on Community Wealth Building. Participants at the conference were particularly enthusiastic about how students and actors from civil society in the Kiel region learned together in an open-ended research process with various public event formats in the module. In her presentation, student Ann-Marie Schupp from Kiel reported on her experiences in designing and implementing a service learning project in the first Society Hub digital service learning seminar. The aim of her project is to promote introspection among those affected by discrimination, which is necessary in order to free themselves from internalized oppression. As a student at an academic conference, she really appreciated been given the space to shape the presentation according to her own ideas.
How does Kiel University benefit from the Society Hub?
The digital seminars offered within the Society Hub have encouraged students in Kiel to engage with local societal challenges while being connected to, and engaging with international perspectives. In the summer semester 2024, two ERASMUS students at Kiel University from Gdansk in Poland were empowered through another CAU service learning seminar to engage with the local association kulturgrenzenlos volunteering in a community of Germans and young people with a refugee experience. Both Polish students reflected on t
his extended cultural experience also in our Society Hub seminar. Thus, their cultural study experience in Kiel had been enriched by reflecting on their stereotypes and limiting beliefs on a social issue but also on their leadership practice while taking responsibility for a global issue on a local level.
