What is it?
Throughout the previous challenges, we’ve discussed how everyone (educators and learners alike) has their own unique lived experiences and is part of various communities. Our individual lived experiences always overlap with and move in and out of physical and digital spaces. As a result, each of us exists in the intersectionality of various communities (e.g., immigrant, international student, LGBTQ2S+, cultural or linguistic backgrounds).
The Community-Based Learning competency involves creating intentional opportunities for learners to participate in and offer their lived experiences and/or prior knowledge as valuable lessons. It’s a way of learning that combines classroom education with meaningful work in local communities which bridges theory with practice. It allows students to take what they learn in class and use it to tackle real-world problems, benefiting both the students and the communities they work with. This can include activities like volunteering, researching community issues, or working on local projects (North Island College, n.d.). It also means being able to effectively adapt digital tools to build and maintain relationships between students and community partners.
Why is it important?
In this challenge, we are circling back to the cultural affirmation element that was introduced in the Communication and Collaboration challenge. There is tremendous value in culturally relevant teaching and student-centred teaching. As educators who are creating community-based learning spaces, validating all learners’ lived experiences helps to fulfill the diverse needs of our learners.
The hands-on style of community-based learning not only helps students better understand their studies but also improves their critical thinking and sense of responsibility to their communities. When done thoughtfully, community-based learning can boost student engagement, create stronger connections between schools and communities, and provide meaningful outcomes for everyone involved. However, it’s essential to plan carefully, build fair partnerships, and encourage reflection to ensure the work truly benefits the community and avoids unintended harm (North Island College, n.d.).
Learn it:
What is your understanding of community-based learning? Complete the following quiz that features community-based scenarios to help assess your understanding.
This activity is adapted from the Community-Based Learning Lesson Plan from the B.C. Digital Literacy Hub.
Learn it:
At this point, you might be wondering how to prepare students to equip them with the knowledge, skills, and ethical awareness needed to engage effectively and meaningfully with communities. Click the headings below to explore the key strategies for guiding students through this process:
The content for this activity is from Community-Based Learning by North Island College which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Practice it:
Begin thinking about a small community-based learning activity that might work for an upcoming class of yours by reflecting on the process and prompts below:
- Outline the goal of your activity
- What community-based learning element will you incorporate? Examples:
- Student lived experiences
- Community partnership and engagement
- Local/cultural knowledge integration via guest lecture
- What community-based learning element will you incorporate? Examples:
- Define the plan for implementation
- How will you introduce the activity to students and clarify expectations?
- How will you help students develop cultural competency and ethical engagement?
- How will you help students build the necessary skills and provide ongoing support for them?
- Consider what digital tools might be needed
- What technology could support this activity? Examples:
- Collaborative document or board (Google Doc, Microsoft Word Document, Padlet)
- Video conferencing (Teams, Zoom, BigBlueButton)
- Website (WordPress/TRUBOX)
- What technology could support this activity? Examples:
- Encourage reflection from both students and yourself
- How will students reflect on the community connections?
- How will you evaluate the effectiveness of this activity?
How could this competency be applied in the classroom?
Mr. Hoffmann teaches history and wanted his students to help create a digital archive of local community stories. Instead of designing the project independently, he:
- Began with Relationships: He met with community elders and leaders before proposing any specific ideas, technology, or approaches
- Centered Community Decision-Making: He formed a working group with strong community representation to help guide key aspects of the project
- Considered Access to Participation: The class provided multiple ways to participate such as both in-person and online recording sessions
- Respected Data Sovereignty: He collaboratively developed clear agreements about data ownership, storage, and access rights that prioritized community needs
- Selected Appropriate Technology: The class selected digital tools based on community preferences and needs rather than imposing the latest technology
These efforts resulted in a wonderful digital archive owned by the community with support from the University. Students gained hands-on skills and knowledge and built relationships with community members.
Ideas for next steps
- Find a local community expert to connect your students with or ask students to connect with leaders in their own community.
- Look into existing community-based learning programs and opportunities at TRU, such as Career and Experiential Learning.
- For inspiration, browse a few examples of community-based website projects using TRU’s installation of WordPress, TRUBOX.
- Need ideas? Check out The Handbook of Experiential Pedagogies, a collaborative resource developed by the students and instructor of an experiential pedagogies course at UBC in 2023.
Share what you learned!
In the comments below, share your key takeaway from this challenge (i.e. one new thing you learned, something that resonated with you, how the challenge “practice it” activity went for you, etc.)
One of the main takeaways from this challenge is how powerful community-based learning can be, not just for students, but also for educators and the communities we work with. I often encourage students to draw on their own life experiences to grasp concepts, as this approach helps make the learning process more meaningful and relatable. Building on that, now I also see how important it is to build strong, ethical partnerships with communities, make learning accessible, and encourage reflection to create meaningful, real-world learning.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful takeaway. There is so much potential in engaging the community to help our students develop real-world connections and experience!