Community Engaged Learning in Higher Education: A Decolonial Approach to Experiential Learning

This accessible resource provides comparative insights on experiential and exploratory learning in community-based settings in Higher Education.

Eight cutting-edge case studies of novel pedagogic approaches in India and the UK show how learners have stepped out of the shadows of the institution to engage with stakeholders beyond the campus as part of their formal studies. The case studies present approaches that emphasise situated experiential learning which enables undergraduate or postgraduate students to develop positive, mutually beneficial relationships with local communities and organisations as well as develop nuanced sensitivity to context. Issues including scale, assessment, partnership building, colonialism, sustainability, and social justice are discussed, alongside identifying the critical components of successful community engaged pedagogies.

This text will be ideal reading for those in leadership positions; those with learning and teaching responsibilities for departments, schools, and colleges; and for individual academics seeking pedagogical approaches which reflect their own values and the institutions that they represent.

Andy Pitchford is Head of the Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation (CETI) at the University of Westminster, UK.

Pooja Thomas is Associate Professor and Chair of the Centre for Learning and Innovative Pedagogy at MICA, Ahmedabad, India.

Sonal Purohit is Associate Professor at the Symbiosis Institute of Business Management-Nagpur, Symbiosis International University, India.