Implementing service learning in a general education course: What have we learned from our experiences?

A service learning general education course titled, “Global Food Security Crisis and Health”, was implemented from Jan 2011 to May 2011. A group of 20 students from various undergraduate programmes of the Hong Kong Institute of Education have participated in the course. Through coursework, participants have acquired an understanding of the popular discourses regarding social and ecological sustainability in the prevailing food systems and food crisis. Among the various teaching and learning approaches, a service-learning component was integrated to immerse students in practices involved in resolving inequity in food distribution and consumption. Participants expressed that such experience not only allowed them opportunities to apply their knowledge regarding food sustainability to real-life situations, but also gave them experience in addressing food security problems, so that they understand the issues better in a wider context. If this approach is to be implemented for a wider community of students, issues related to human resources will need to be addressed. Copyright © 2013, Infonomics Society.