On 17 November we are hosting a lunch session for everyone interested in CSL at VU: "CSL presents: A Broader Mind in Practice - Interdisciplinary Community Service Learning."
Interdisciplinary CSL asks something fundamentally different of both educators and students. The challenge does not start in the curriculum. It starts in society. A neighbourhood identifies a need, a district signals a challenge, and the university responds by bringing together students from different disciplines to work on that question together.
A well-designed CSL course is more than a collaborative assignment. It is a transformative learning experience. When students work on real, complex societal challenges, they encounter perspectives and situations that challenge their existing assumptions. That confrontation, the moment when taken-for-granted knowledge or identity is called into question, is not a side effect of CSL. It is the point. CSL activities are designed to create that kind of meaningful dissonance, so that students do not just apply knowledge but also learn who they are in relation to society.
During this session we use iCSL as a central example to make this concrete. We look at how interdisciplinary collaboration works in practice: how student teams are formed, how partners are involved, and what this means for course design. We also reflect on the conditions that make this approach feasible, and the questions it raises for educators who want to explore it in their own context.
Speakers will be announced shortly.
This page will be updated in the coming weeks with more information about the speakers, location, and content.
