Education moves in territory. Service-learning local strategies

Abstract

This article aims to provide an account of the efforts made by the Barcelona Provincial Council, over the past decade, to implement a policy supporting and disseminating service-learning. The Council combined different initiatives and formulations that crystallised in the adoption and implementation of a line of support to local entities for the formulation and application of local service-learning strategies. In this article, we place this policy in context and we discuss how the various measures and actions that have been undertaken have evolved, starting from the initial phase, when service-learning methodology was first promoted in alliance with key educational agents, up to the present time, when service-learning is being integrated into a broader context, that of local public policy. We also discuss how we took advantage of certain windows of opportunity offered by the current curricular structure in Spain and how partnerships were developed with various agents, both inside and outside our organisation. The paper concludes with the conviction that the municipality has a particularly important role to play in the development of service-learning projects, contributing to ensuring quality based on the knowledge of the territory's reality. The paper also evidences that service-learning promotes the mobilisation of the environment in its work to support educational success.