The institutionalization of Service-Learning as a path for a socially responsible University

Abstract

The University’s Social Responsibility and Service-Learning seem intimately linked so much so that reinforce the sense of the university as a character within the latin american social structure. This article explores in what extent the institutionalization of the ApS in higher education contributes to the success of socially responsible universities from a theorical analysis of the RSU models proposed the higher education networks AUSJAL and ÚRSULA, as well as by the OAS, all of them based on the impact approach. Furthermore, the rubric developed by Furco (2011) is analyzed to evaluate the degree of institutionalization of the ApS at the university, instrument widely disseminated in the promotion programs at a regional level.

In conclusion, Service-Learning is a pedagogical manifestation of the universities committed to increasing positive impacts on a social, educational, and cognitive level generated by them and therefore its institutionalization leads them towards the acquisition of socially responsible behaviors.