Higher education student learning beyond the classroom: findings from a community music service learning project in rural South Africa

Relational Student Engagement in Co-curricular Spaces: Evidence from a South African University

“…Moreover, they cited societal problems, such as the racial segregation and poverty in townships and environmental degradation, as motivations for becoming involved in community engagement. Furthermore, this finding linked to motivations supports previous literature that explored the value of co-curricular involvement in developing a commitment to social change (Harrop-Allin, 2017;Garton & Wawrzynski, 2021).…”

“…Other programmatic elements of the co-curriculum also centre social learning spaces. Peer tutoring, community service or outreach, and residential events are examples of particularly high-impact practices built on social learning spaces (Agherdien & Petersen, 2016;Faroa, 2017;Harrop-Allin, 2017).…”

Reflections on the Pedagogical Experience of Social Responsibility Practised in a University in Taiwan

“…This, in turn, provides the students themselves with the social benefits of empathic communication and mutual interaction, enabling them to construct their trust and respect with others [8]. With cross-cultural understanding and the development of civic engagement, students can experience another way of social living and reflect on social differences, acquiring empathy for diversity and growing aware of inequality and injustice in the local community [9]. In the process of undertaking a university project on social responsibility, students can express their beliefs, emotions and behaviors related to cross-professional teamwork, and developed interdisciplinary and partnership relationships in the process of the project about university social responsibility [10].…”

Global mobility in music higher education: Reflections on how intercultural music-making can enhance students’ musical practices and identities

“…Mobility programmes – those where students travel domestically or internationally for an immersive learning experience – offer students an opportunity for learning through lived experience, in contrast to ‘imagined’ engagement with ‘others’ (Bartleet & Carfoot, 2013). Established benefits of such programmes in music and the arts include relationship building and intercultural reconciliation (Bartleet et al, 2016); encouraging reflection on self and society (King, 2004); fostering intercultural humility in students, for example, through self-reflection (Bartleet et al, 2016); promoting artistic citizenship (Bartleet & Carfoot, 2016); helping to meet community needs (Harrop-Allin, 2016); and developing a sense of global citizenship in students (Grant, 2018). Research on mobility programmes in music indicate that music can be ‘a particularly democratic medium’ for learning, and that music-making has the ability to ‘transcend other communication methods and involve a wordless knowing of others that [become] a basis for relations and interactions’ (Adkins et al, 2012, p. 203).…”

“…A growing body of literature underscores the potential lifelong personal, professional and societal benefits of a socially and culturally engaged tertiary music education (Baxter, 2007; Elliott, 2012; Vaugeois, 2009). In this regard, some scholars point to the particular value of intercultural music learning, which among other things can assist students to rethink and expand their beliefs about what it means to be a musician and to make music (Bartleet & Carfoot, 2016; Grant, 2018; Harrop-Allin, 2016). Furthermore, it seems important that music educators understand the interrelationships between the intercultural learning experiences they offer and their students’ beliefs, values and practices relating to music, since these interrelationships have curricular and pedagogical implications, as well as broader implications for students’ lives and careers (Westerlund, 2019).…”