Community-Based Learning: Practices, Challenges, and Reflections - 4th-year Sociology Seminar

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa

Community-based learning is examined through reflections on two fourth-year sociology seminar classes participating in a community-based learning project at York University. Fifty students worked in small teams with five not-for-profit organizations on issues connected to women within the Canadian criminal justice system. The study synthesizes process and outcomes, emphasizing student engagement, access to course and community concerns, and citizenship. It also considers how participation and collaboration between higher education institutions and communities can mobilize knowledge, enrich scholarship, and inform future course design.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Community-Based Learning: Practices, Challenges, and Reflections

Background and rationale

Benefits and institutional alignment

Course design and learning initiative

34 Community-Based Learning: Practices, Challenges, and Reflections Mavis Morton York University This paper will highlight an innovate practice in teaching and learning by reflecting on two fourthyear sociology seminar classes that participated in a community-based learning project at York University. Fifty students collaborated in three to six person teams to work on a problem/issue identified by one of five not-for-profit organizations who work with and/or for women as victims, offenders, and/or professionals in the Canadian criminaljustice system. Reflections on the process and outcome of the experience offer insights into organizing and engaging in a community-based learning experience as well as point to some of the substantive benefits. These include the opportunity for increased student engagement, access to, and awareness of, course and community related issues, and citizenship. The paper also identifies potential opportunities to incorporate the dimensions of participation and collaboration between institutions of higher learning and the community/world to mobilize knowledge and offer unique scholarship opportunities for faculty. Last ycomepaorn, I ientegrated a cinto my socmmologuynity-bcoursaesedcurlrearniculuingm I had heard about this initiative from a colleague in my department who was a leader in broadening her pedagogical insights to increase student engagement and result in a richer, more successful teaching and learning environment for her students and herself. Although the language of ‘community-based learning’ was new to me, the idea of and enthusiasm for‘mobilizing knowledge’ was not. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council defines it as “moving knowledge into active service for the broadest possible common good” (Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, 2008, p. 9) . For twenty years, I worked as an applied sociologist with communities throughout Ontario on social justice issues and engaged in activism and participatory action research. During this time, I organized conferences and events that facilitated dialogue and the sharing of experiences and knowledge between academics and not-for-profit organizations and committees working within their communities on specific practical issues. I have always identified myself as an applied sociologist and although mes- sages from my discipline about the acceptance and value of applied vs.“pure scholarship” are contradictory, to say the least (Langan & Morton, in press), academics within the applied sociology movement have argued that “for sociology to be ‘workable’ and prosper, it must validate its knowledge and theories through practice in the real world” (Boros, 1997 as cited in Joyner, 2003, p. 5) . When I returned to academia four years ago, I felt even more committed to search for teaching and learning strategies to help my students and I make more explicit connections between theories of crime, social and legal policy, and front line work. During the past four years I have identified a number of benefits which come with integrating communitybased learning into our curriculum. These include opportunities to embrace and assist in fulfilling the academic mission of the university and the Ontario Council of Academic Vice Presidents Guidelines for University Undergraduate Degree Level Expectations; student engagement and student-centred learning and evaluation; and scholarship opportunities for faculty. As an example, my personal interest in and commitment to designing learning outcomes which cohere with larger departmental and university curriculum came in part from my work with not-for-profit organizations on organizational planning and their attempts to stay true (vis-à-vis time and activities) to their organizational missions. A review of York University’s mission articulates its objectives and purposes as: the advancement of learning and the dissemination of knowledge; and the intellectual, spiritual, social, moral

FAQs

What project did the two sociology seminar classes participate in at York University?

The classes took part in a community-based learning project with not-for-profit organizations working with and/or for women connected to the Canadian criminal justice system.

How did students work during the community-based learning project?

Fifty students collaborated in three to six person teams to address a problem or issue identified by one of five not-for-profit organizations.

What benefits does the paper highlight from integrating community-based learning into the curriculum?

It emphasizes increased student engagement, awareness of course and community issues, opportunities for student-centered learning and evaluation, and potential scholarship opportunities for faculty through participation and collaboration.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa