Service Learning within a Spanish Context—From Teaching to Knowledge Transfer

This chapter describes research undertaken at the University of Granada (UGR), aimed at identifying and measuring good practices in service learning among faculty. We decided to focus on this teaching and learning methodology because of its potential benefits for students and faculty to cope with the manifold challenges posed by the creation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). To assess the extent to which service learning is being used as a teaching and learning approach at the University of Granada, we worked with 25 faculty at the UGR through snowball sampling. They were interviewed by the researchers with a survey (α = 0.89) constructed after a process of reviewing seven other service learning surveys developed at other universities and employed internationally. The results reveal that despite the existence of academic and institutional barriers toward the adoption of this methodology, several faculty members do incorporate some service learning elements within their teaching. This group of faculty, whom we could call early adopters, are enabling the university to move from a role that is not based solely on teaching and research to one that more fully incorporates the premises of knowledge transfer and innovation as a fundamental part of the university mission.