Networking in Service-Learning

Networking in Service-Learning
By Roser Batlle. Appeared on “The Journal of Education”1
, 16 October 2018. Translated
with permission of the author.
Collaborating with other teachers, as well as with organizations outside the school is
one of the most important awards of service-learning.
Three years ago I was working, dining, chatting and laughing with six friends of the
Service-Learning Group of the Comunitat Valenciana who, among other things, were
then weaving the eighth meeting of the Spanish Service-Learning Network which
would take place in December 2015. Previously in this network we had decided to hold
our annual meeting each time in a different territory. Among other things, this was
going to help us distribute efforts, disseminate service-learning better and, rebound,
strengthen the driving group of each territory and its networking. That's how it was.
But setting up an event does not in itself guarantee the cohesion of a group. The
dinner-meeting with the Valencian team revealed to me many of the clues to
networking, one of the aspects which we have learned the most in recent years...
I take a leap in time and place myself just a few months ago, in a conversation with a
Public Authority:
- Tell your secretary to send me the final document.
- I don't have a secretary - I answer smiling.
- Well, I meant the secretary of the Network.
- The Network doesn't have a secretary either. No accountant, no concierge, no stamp,
no telephone...
- How can that be? So... how do you do things?
This conversation, with slight variations, is repeated from time to time. Hardly anyone
understands how the Spanish Service-Learning Network has endured 10 years without
having what is normally understood as a solid organizational structure. We are
organized, of course we are, but from the beginning we wanted to equip ourselves
with a light structure, among other things, to avoid the risk of ending up working to
maintain a heavy structure unintentionally disregarding the purpose of the association.
But, then... if we are already 18 groups; if we all have local and state projects; if
service-learning is spreading at a considerable speed... How the hell do we manage?
Again the key is networking! Networking is the serendipity of service-learning. A
serendipity is an unintended result, like an unexpected gift. And the truth is that the
service-learning extension process is activating an effect that was not, at least, the
main thing being pursued. The surprise has been how in all these years we have been
reinforcing networking. Indeed, if for the majority of service-learning projects, it is
1
http://eldiariodelaeducacion.com/convivenciayeducacionenvalores/2018/10/16/el-trabajo-en-red-en-
el-aprendizaje-
servicio/?fbclid=IwAR2RvURDA1UF5dqFwP4VmdTQWjd9RpuSxB7si1mWUH9GAGqYfNIf4toneOI

necessary to establish alliances between educational centers and social organizations,
alliances are also needed at the time of constituting service-learning in each territory.
In short, alliances are needed throughout.
This need for alliances generates a broad consensus. Everyone accepts that it is
necessary to work in a network and that is fine with them. The problem is that there is
not enough training for this in the educational and social sectors. Therefore, in order
to promote service-learning in a specific territory, in addition to the novelty of
promoting an educational methodology, it is necessary to deal with the novelty and
the effort to move it collaboratively, something very unusual. Networking means
cooperating. And cooperating is not the same as coordinating. Let's say that
coordination is an act of intelligence -because lack of coordination is a threat-, while
cooperation is an act of love because, apart from intelligence, it needs a plus of
affectivity and generosity. To cooperate is to take a second step, it is to set to work
together educational centers and social organizations, foundations, NGOs and town
councils, sharing the same project, although each party assumes what it has to do.
Networking not only improves the effectiveness of each party involved, but also
strengthens the social capital of the population. As José Antonio Marina says, the
social capital of a community is understood as the set of shared values, the way of
solving conflicts, of interacting, of living together, the level of citizen participation in
organizations, the way of caring for common goods. It is important to remember that
the main studies on this subject - those of Coleman, Putnam or Fukuyama - have shown
that social capital is a decisive factor in the effectiveness of a community's educational
system. Since service-learning elevates social capital, it influences the quality of
education in two ways: through the direct effect on students, and through the indirect
effect, through the improvement of social capital.
Those of us who began to promote service-learning in our country knew that we would
learn a lot about this educational methodology, but we never imagined that we would
learn so much about how to promote it collaboratively. We recognize ourselves as
more flexible, more interested in other projects that are not exactly ours, more
cosmopolitan and tolerant.
Perhaps because of this, we can already begin to identify what the clues or tips are in
our networking experience.
Clues or tips:
1. Identify the common purpose and produce something concrete. The
purpose of networks is best made explicit and shared when there is a tangible
objective towards which we can all move to. Beyond the philosophical reason -
absolutely essential- that justifies the existence of the network, we must be
able to set milestones along the way. If there are no concrete objectives, the
trajectory of the network becomes blurred.
2. Sharing the objectives of others. As Josep Maria Puig puts it graphically,
all the members of the network must be able to "take advantage". If we work in
different organizations, each of them must be able to win in some particular
aspect that is relevant to them. Otherwise, the network will lose strength and
end up being demotivating. Therefore, working in a network requires a very

practical exercise of democratic virtues: listening, understanding, repeating,
agreeing, giving in.
3. Distribute and organize the work in an efficient and rational way. It is
neither necessary nor convenient for everyone to do everything. Everyone has
to have their space and their mission clear, based on whether or not it will be
necessary to be willing to assume a large amount of voluntary effort, since not
everything that needs to be done can be remunerated. On the other hand, this
distribution must avoid the creation of meaningless commissions, which cause
a sense of slowness and ineffectiveness.
4. Take advantage of everyone's resources and avoid duplicating
efforts. What do you, a member organization of the network, know how to do?
What are you competent at? If there are universities, they know how to
research, publish, set up congresses; if there are teacher training centers, their
playing field is training... Furthermore, although the network does not have a
professional structure, many of its member organizations perhaps do, and can
contribute to solving what voluntary work alone could not solve: legal,
accounting, administrative aspects...
5. Autonomy and individual responsibility. Networking can never be an
excuse for not disciplining oneself on one's own, without waiting for others to
claim the task entrusted to them. In fact, the opposite is true: the more
individual discipline, the more effective networking becomes.
6. Circulate information. A basic food for a network to work is for members
to feed on meaningful information. It is necessary to oblige oneself to this,
selecting the relevant and discarding what only makes noise, because the rush
of daily life sometimes pushes us to overlook this aspect or even to
communicate only with some people (and almost without realizing it!) outside
the ordinary channels we have endowed ourselves with, with which other
members feel that they are not taken into account.
7. Be open minded. An endogamic network does not have a long way to go.
Be open to weaving alliances with other organizations to promote joint projects
that we cannot assume alone. Although in reality alliances do not only make
sense for practical reasons: they are also a way of multiplying social capital and
humbly acknowledging that in order to face social challenges we are not alone:
there are many different approaches, experiences and initiatives. Feeling part
of larger collectivities increases satisfaction in networking.
8. Seek human quality. People are the ones who create networks. And
although extraordinary people can sometimes build mediocre or inoperative
networks, the truth is that the opposite does not happen. In a network that
works, one is proud to be where one is and motivated to contribute to its
purpose not only by the goodness of this collective purpose but also by the
goodness of the people with whom it is shared.
9. Nurture trust among members. This trust is the basic glue that sustains
networks when there are problems. And, as Anna Ramis says, it is such a basic
element in human relationships that sometimes, of course, we forget it (...).
However, it is an element that does not appear by chance, it needs will and
time. And if we stop practicing it, the mistrust that we all wear as a series
appears.

10. Servant leadership. To sustain and advance, networks need social leaders.
But these social leaders must respond to the description of "servant
leadership" which, as Josep Maria Lozano describes, quoting Robert K,
Greenleaf, is a leadership based on the desire to serve others and a purpose
beyond personal interest. Leadership in a network can and should be rotational,
but in any case it must always be impregnated with this style of leadership.
This has been our serendipity, our unexpected gift: those of us who have long been
promoting service-learning in our country have learned to work in a network. We still
have a long way to go to get an excellent result in this "subject", but without a doubt
we have come a long way since we made the decision to join efforts to multiply
results.

Networking in Service-Learning

More Related Content

Similar to Networking in Service-Learning (20)

More from Roser Batlle Suñer (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Networking in Service-Learning