Sebastián Zulueta “Service Learning and the Development of Volunteerism in Chile” January 24, 2005

Sebastián Zulueta speaks on campus on January 24.

Theory and Development of Service-Learning in Chile
By Kathryn Moeller and Rebecca Alexander

Chile’s recent democratic transformation has opened up pathways not only for economic growth but also for expansion of the educational and social service sectors. Some educators in Chile have seized this opportunity and are now thinking in new ways about the role of education in society. In his CLAS presentation, Sebastián Zulueta, of the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Santiago, Chile, argued that aprendizaje-servicio (service-learning), a new pedagogical approach which integrates higher education with the concept of public service, represents an opportunity to revolutionize Chilean education.

Service-Learning

Service-learning developed in the United States during the 1980s. It seeks to blend community service with academic work in a way that helps students better understand core academic content while providing vital services to the community. It has three central components: intentional learning, activities that meet a genuine community need and reflection, integrating these first two elements. As a philosophy, service-learning attempts to create a relationship of mutual benefit between student service providers and recipients of services in the community. Service-learning provides a connection between the academic and public service missions of educational institutions.

The Context of Service-Learning in Chile

While the ideas of service and volunteerism have long been present in Chilean universities, the specific adoption of “service-learning” as an area of academic development has only occurred within the last few years. The Chilean experience follows that of other Latin American countries, such as Argentina, which have sought to incorporate national traditions of solidarity into rapidly expanding modern educational systems.

According to Chile’s Ministry of Education, university enrollment has risen 93 percent in Chile since the end of Pinochet’s military government in 1990. During this same period the World Bank reports that Chile’s gross national product has grown from $2,300 to $5,460 per capita and the number of people living in poverty has dropped from 39 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2000. Yet rates of economic inequality in Chile are among the highest in Latin America, and the country still faces serious economic and social challenges. Zulueta said: “Chile has concluded the easy part of overcoming poverty and now must start looking for new strategies that go beyond the economy.” As Zulueta explained, this transformation is dependent upon the development of a system of social solidarity which reaches out to society’s least privileged sectors.

Zulueta’s Theory and Practice

Zulueta’s first introduction to the powerful impact of service-learning occurred during a business administration course in which students were required to design an enterprise as a part of their coursework. Traditionally, students used this opportunity to start “for-profit” businesses. However, in 1991, a group of students that included Zulueta’s twin brother initiated Corporación Nuestra Casa, an organization to serve the homeless. In his work, first as a volunteer for, and later as executive director of Corporación Nuestra Casa, Zulueta was impressed by how the university was able to serve as a platform for launching a rapidly growing service organization.

It was experiences such as this that led Zulueta to initiate a course titled “The Theory and Practice of Volunteering.” His experience with Corporación Nuestra Casa and his continued focus on volunteering made him a natural candidate for Director of Service-Learning at the Pontificia Universidad Católica where he is now charged with developing a system of service-learning. His duties have now expanded beyond the university to the building of a service-learning network entitled Universidad Construye País (University Constructs the Country). This network will link all universities in Chile engaged in the development of service-learning. The network will also provide a forum for connecting with other countries engaged in similar projects.

Drawing on systems theory, Zulueta’s vision is of an independent service system that differentiates itself from the political and economic spheres. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining a distinction between service and other systems while working to generate a structural-coupling between them. “Chile and the Latin American countries,” he argues “should move away from those forms of populism, clientelism and patronage that generally corrupt solidarity in our countries.” An effective service-learning program that subsumes neither service to learning nor learning to service, according to Zulueta, has the potential to develop both sectors without compromising either.

Zulueta’s contagious optimism is linked to a concern that student learning in his country has become disconnected from social realities. For this reason, he seeks not to institutionalize service for its own end, but for “the transformation of the university culture into one which is educational, national and worldwide, always considering the disadvantaged countries.” It is a commitment to humanity, solidarity, the environment and peace that he believes links service-learning initiatives in Chile with those in the United States. Based on his own experiences and his contact with international actors engaged in service-learning, Zulueta is convinced that service-learning “appears as a legitimate space of social transformation, a space to form new values, a space of transition to a society that treats every person with dignity.”

Sebastián Zulueta, Director of Service Learning at the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Santiago, Chile, gave his presentation on the Theory and Development of Service-Learning in Chile at CLAS on January 24, 2005.

Kathryn Moeller and Rebecca Alexander are graduate students in the Social and Cultural Studies Program in the Graduate School of Education.

-Powerpoint presentation "Evolución del Voluntariado en Chile"

Co-sponsored with the Service-Learning Research and Development Center and International and Area Studies.

Professor Zulueta talks about the integration of service learning into the Chilean educational system.