ABSTRACT
Service learning has long been established as high impact pedagogy in various contexts, however, regular, theoretically well-founded implementation in foreign language education still remains a desideratum. Intercultural service learning (ISL), a special type of SL which integrates curricular learning, intercultural encounters and civic engagement, encourages students to use the foreign language to solve problems in the local and global community. Students exercise active citizenship while engaging in meaningful dialogue with international partners. ISL aims to be transformative and empower learners to contribute to a peaceful and sustainable world. Thus, it is a pedagogy that highly corresponds with the goals of global citizenship education.
This chapter first tries to bridge a theoretical gap. It presents a comprehensive model of intercultural service learning that serves researchers and practitioners as a guideline to design and implement ISL projects. It includes core components of ISL, raises awareness of their interconnectedness and shows how ISL can be enhanced by other disciplines and documents. An example, the Global Peace Path project, will then illustrate how the model can be applied in practice and used to foster goals related to global citizenship. The project was carried out at the University of Munich and continued at other educational institutions in Germany and worldwide. It involves students creating poetry and displaying it publicly to promote peace. Evaluation of data revealed that participating in this global peace campaign fostered the students’ intercultural and democratic competences.
