Learning about Learning – Together

Whether we are nudging the world toward cleaner water, widespread food security, enhanced intercultural understanding, or any other envisioned future, the work of “building a better world” (Hartman, Kiely, friedrichs, & Boettcher, in press) that is at the heart of democratic civic engagement (DCE) is a matter of questioning and learning and acting. We believe the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) – i.e., inquiry into learning – has the potential to further deepen our ability to question, learn, and act together – especially when it is understood and enacted through the values and practices of DCE. By that, we mean when it (a) positions all involved as coteachers, colearners, and cogenerators of knowledge and practice, and (b) takes as a goal the development of civic capacities in those doing the inquiry. This challenges traditional roles and relationships in teaching and learning and the way we study them that too often frame students, community members, and staff merely as objects of study by expert faculty. We believe that SoTL can and should be enacted democratically, with everyone involved cocreating the questions and the processes that help us learn about learning; and we invite everyone involved in servicelearning, civic engagement, and SoTL to move in this direction. What might such SoTL look like? Patti describes a glimpse: