Service learning, a strategy to promote participation and improve school coexistence

Abstract

The essential condition for promoting a Service-learning Project is the community members’ commitment which is a challenge under the prevailing pedagogical practices in the educational institutions. On this basis, Service-learning projects were launched with 117 students in three public secondary education schools in Queretaro, Mexico, to analyze the impact on improvement of this methodology in school climate. The projects were developed for six months, and were used a participation questionnaire as well as a school climate scale to collect information. In this paper are presented the results from this experience of intervention. The outcomes show an improvement in the school environment, also a modification of some pedagogical practices, likewise the student body positioning as a protagonist all through the process of the project´s implementation. It can be asserted that improvement of school climate cannot be achieved by enactment of laws and regulations neither to the incorporation of subjects related to topic, but it is necessary to drive methods for scholar practices and management policies transformation.