Education for Transformation. Service Learning and the 3C’s: Character, Competence, and Contribution

Abstract

It is increasingly recognized that education need not aim at knowledge production for its own sake, but rather at an applied learning that seeks transformation and the promotion of overall societal well-being. Furthermore, within this broad vision of education for transformation, service learning is recognized as a key method in advancing these educational aspirations. But here the agreement comes to a halt. What are the transformations or outcomes that we can reasonably expect from this pedagogy? Is it skills development? Is it primarily dispositions? Is it social change? This article demonstrates that there is a minimal complexity of interdependent outcomes involved in the practice of SL, and these can be easily grasped as a theory of outcomes understood as the 3C’s: Character, Competence, and Contribution. Each of these will be examined on their own as intrinsically desirable dimensions of transformation, as well as how they are instrumental to the others. This article will also show how the V in the KVA (Knowledge, Values, Abilities) of competency can be interpreted so as to avoid a morally sterile, technocratic understanding of competency development; and how SL can operationalize a robust notion of competency.