Community engagement can take on different forms and shapes within the context of higher education. It may include distance education, community-based research, participatory action research, professional community service and service learning. In
its fullest sense, community engagement is the combination and integration of service with teaching and research, applied to identify community development priorities (Lazarus et al. 2008).
It is possible to differentiate between various community engagement activities. Furco (1996) provides a widely used typology which is built on the idea of reciprocal learning and the balance between different foci. The two key principles identified by Furco are
intended beneficiaries and primary intended purpose or focus of the activity. The
intended beneficiary can range from the community to the student, and the purpose or focus of the activity can range from service to learning. For the South African context, Furco's theory has been adjusted slightly to incorporate the most widely used local terms and definitions (Furco 1996; HEQC 2006a) (see Figure 2.2).
Figure 2.2: Distinctions among community engaged learning Source: Adapted from Furco (1996).
2.4.1 Volunteerism
Volunteerism is on the one extreme of the service learning continuum. Cress (2005:7) defines volunteerism as students who are engaged in activities aimed at service for the sake of the beneficiary or recipient (client, partner). The HEQC (2006b:22) agrees that, with volunteerism, the primary beneficiary is the recipient (community) and the primary goal is to provide a service. These programmes are essentially altruistic as they have been designed to benefit the service recipient. Although the students may learn from these programmes, they are generally not related to, or integrated into, the student's
VOLUNTEERISM COMMUNITY OUTREACH INTERNSHIP CO-OPERATIVE EDUCATION Community Service BENEFICIARY GOAL Student Learning SERVICE-LEARNING
field of study. They usually fall under extra-curricular activities, which take place during school holidays and outside tuition time. In general, students do not receive any academic credit for their volunteer work, and volunteer programmes are funded by external donors and student fundraising efforts. Volunteer programmes are commonly small in scale and have a loose relationship with HEIs.
Briere and Foulkrod (2011:146-147) state that the traditional concept of volunteerism is rather unappealing in higher education, but volunteerism can still be a useful and important avenue for universities to pursue. For the most part, volunteerism does not include a reflection on one's experiences.
2.4.2 Internship
Internships are on the other extreme of the service learning continuum. With internships, students engage in activities to enhance their own vocational or career development. The primary beneficiary is the student and the primary goal is to provide students with hands-on experience that enhances their learning and understanding of issues relevant to their field of study. Internships are fully integrated into the curriculum of the student and assist students to achieve their learning outcomes. Internships are used in professional programmes such as social work, medicine, education and psychology (HEQC 2006a:52). Colburn and Newmark (2007:17) comment that internships provide students with the opportunity to experience what will become for them, a significant part of life - work - while they are still in a position to reflect critically on issues they are currently dealing with. Colburn (2007:58) observes that internships are often excluded from the category of service learning owing to their association with work and the workplace. The latter furthermore argues that in internships, or experiential education programmes, students are more likely to be placed in positions where they carry out activities with the expectation that they will acquire specific skills or training that will enable them to undertake a particular type of work after completion of the programme. Therefore, any definition of experiential learning that excludes internships from the opportunity for theoretical reflection and life engagement accorded to service learning appears rooted in mistaken assumptions.
2.4.3 Community outreach
The goal of community outreach, as with volunteerism, is to provide a service (primary focus) to the recipient or community (primary beneficiary). The engagement of students in such activities is more structured and it requires more commitment from the students. Community outreach programmes are usually initiated from within the HEI by a department or academic staff or even the institution itself. Recognition can be given by means of academic credit or in the form of research publications. As the service becomes more integrated with the academic module and the students begin to engage in formal intellectual dialogue about service issues, the programme moves closer to the centre of the continuum to become more like service learning (SL). A main feature that distinguishes academically based community outreach programmes from service learning is that the former tend to be an activity and initiative of the HEI where SL is fully integrated into the curriculum. Therefore, SL is not seen as an "outreach" activity but as an integral part of the curriculum (HEQC 2006a:22-23).
2.4.4 Cooperative education
In cooperative education, as with internships, the primary goal is learning (primary focus) on the part of the student (primary beneficiary). The programme provides students with co-curricular opportunities that are related to, but not always fully integrated with, the students' curricula. The primary purpose of cooperative education is to enhance the students' understanding of their areas of study. Many examples of the use of cooperative education can be found at universities of technology. Cooperative education differs from SL in terms of student placements. Cooperative education mostly provides pre-professional opportunities in industry, whereas SL placements are mostly in service agencies or directly in the community. Although both cooperative education and SL are aimed at enhancing student learning and understanding, SL has the additional aim of providing a service to the community (HEQC 2006a:22-23).
2.4.5 Service learning (SL)
In the middle of the typology, representing the balance between the different goals and beneficiaries, is service learning. Service learning provides opportunities where both the community and the student are the primary beneficiaries and where service learning and student learning receive equal attention. Reciprocity is a central
characteristic of service learning. The intentional focus is the integration of community service with scholarly activity such as student learning, teaching and research, and the enhancement of scholarly activity, particularly student learning, through service to the community. Service learning is also ingrained in a discourse that proposes the development and transformation of higher education in relation to community needs (HEQC 2006a:23).
Stanton, Giles and Cruz (1999) in Nduna (2006:490) make a clear distinction between community service as a philanthropic activity and community service as a scholarly activity. A philanthropic view of community service regards students' service as charity and students volunteering to help communities. When community service is seen as a scholarly activity, it is integrated into mainstream academic programmes and research, and it is called service learning. Service learning is aimed at community development by providing students with opportunities to render meaningful service to the benefit of such communities. Service learning is also aimed student development by providing students with opportunities to meet both the learning outcomes of the course and th e critical cross-field outcomes as required by the South African education system. In addition, service learning is aimed at the development of academic staff by creating opportunities for experiential learning to improve classroom teaching.
Krause (2007:279) comments that service learning programmes must include a strong reflective component where students utilise higher-order thinking skills to make sense of the service experience and to extend their formal learning. Bender (2007, 2008) emphasises that currently only service learning meets participants' criteria for community-engaged teaching and learning at universities in South Africa. Service learning as a form of community engagement will be discussed in Section 2.9.
In the discussion of the different forms of community engagement it became apparent that within the curriculum framework to be developed through this study it is essential to determine what form of community engagement will be utilised in the postgraduate programme of the CCYFS.