Service learning with a gender perspective: reconnecting service learning with feminist research and pedagogy in sociology

Abstract

Service learning (SL) is growing in our universities and in Spain. However, still much action and research are needed with a gender perspective. This article aims to evaluate an SL project that consisted of workshops in schools on gender and technology. We evaluated the experience with a mixed-methods approach and a gender perspective. This includes qualitative self-reports of 19 university students of sociology of gender as well as quantitative surveys completed by the 284 school students and 13 of their teachers. Our results indicate a great satisfaction among university students as well as the schools. This SL experience helped our university students to acquire specific knowledge regarding gender and social issues as well as several skills, especially communication, organization, empathy, critical thinking, and social and gender awareness and responsibility. Therefore, we conclude that such experiences show a great potential for learning as well as for social and gender transformations.