Unravelling the Rationales, Responses and Roles of practitioners when embedding Service Learning:A reflective practice workshop

Higher education institutes (HEIs) increasingly aim to embed (community) service learning practices (Tijsma et al., 2023). However, the rationales (motivations and behaviour) behind embedding service learning can be divergent – both on the individual practitioner level and on the institutional (policy) level (Compagnucci &amp; Spigarelli, 2020; Lounsbury &amp; Pollack, 2001; Taylor &amp; Kahlke, 2017).<br/><br/>In this interactive session, we take a closer look at the various rationales and make you, as a practitioner, more aware of your own rationales in relation to embedding service learning within your institutional context, by considering questions such as: What rationales drive you as a practitioner, researcher, or policy maker to embed service learning practices? And how does this (dis)align with institutional practices? What potential tensions can arise in relation to your own service learning practice? And how can you best deal with or respond to these tensions? We give meaning to this workshop based on the findings of a recently published paper (Tijsma et al., 2024). In this paper we describe different rationales, responses and roles of individual practitioners in relation to embedding service learning.