Experiential learning programs are ubiquitous in post-secondary education. Formalized in the mid-20th century, experiential learning is defined by the Association for Experiential Education as a teaching philosophy that engages learners in direct experience and focused reflection.
My research has looked at the changing ways that universities and others have spoken about the purposes of experiential learning in Canada. I have noted that, over the past decade or so, there has been a movement from community service-learning, and community-based research, to a newer and overarching term of “work-integrated learning.” This suggests the purposes of experiential learning have been reconfigured. The shift in the language from “community” to “work” has not been accidental.
Through this research, and as a director of a community service-learning program in a faculty of arts in a research-intensive university, I am concerned that across higher education, experiential learning is often being reduced to align with short-term labour market outcomes.
In doing so, policymakers and higher education institutions risk reducing the quality of our students’ education.
Job training has been shifted onto education
Canada boasts a highly accessible system where nearly two-thirds of adults hold a post-secondary credential.
The expansion of experiential learning responds to this reality. Researchers still point to a “graduate premium” in lifetime earnings for people who completed post-secondary education, particularly a university education. Yet some have noted that this premium is diminishing. Post-secondary education has become a basic criterion for future work rather than a lucrative advantage.
Governments and families tend to view experiential learning as a way to align qualifications with employers’ needs through internships and co-ops. Simultaneously, corporate Canada has shifted the responsibility and costs of on-the-job training onto post-secondary institutions and students.
Read more: Does a university undergraduate degree lead to a ‘good job?’ It depends what you mean
Government funding per student has declined, while tuition has risen, especially in the most competitive programs.
Students rightly worry about whether their investments will pay off. This is especially the case amid high youth unemployment and market volatility.
A philosophy of teaching and learning
But should experiential learning be designed primarily for labour market outcomes?
Goals for experiential learning programs have been diverse, and have included increasing knowledge, developing skills like critical reasoning, clarifying values and building the capacity to contribute to communities.
Experiential learning has undeniably assisted students’ transition into careers. Yet as it has emerged in the humanities and social sciences, experiential learning is a philosophy of teaching and learning that builds human capabilities beyond a narrow focus on labour market skills.
Experiential learning theories have been informed by insights about how knowledge arises, the social-justice-oriented education movement of the 1970s and beyond, and psychological learning theory.
In my own context, experiential learning encompasses community service-learning, studying abroad, creative innovation, performative practice and undergraduate research as well as work experience.
Connected to purpose of higher education
Rather than a corrective to the academic mission, experiential learning is a means of its accomplishment. So what is the point of university education?
I ponder this question from the perspective of a human capabilities approach within the humanities and social sciences — concerned with, as higher education scholar Melanie Walker elaborates, developing student agency and well-being in concert with broader social change towards greater justice.
For Walker, there are both intrinsic and external purposes and student motivations to participate in university education:
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It cultivates personal development and fulfilment as students devote themselves to a quest for knowledge and understanding of the world;
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It prepares students for meaningful careers and economic opportunities;
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It also (at least within the European tradition) seeks to contribute to the student’s capacity for civic engagement and for critically informed, democratic participation in the public and political spheres of their society.
Read more: Why should humanities education persist in an AI age? Self-development, to start
In settler-colonial societies like Canada, this civic engagement also requires new capabilities for working with Indigenous Peoples in a common quest for human flourishing and shared prosperity (see the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, especially nos. 62-65).
Walker and her interpreters in Canada and elsewhere have also noted the relevance of the “capabilities approach” to all adult education, including the vocational sector.
Students in community colleges and technical training schools also deserve a humanistic education. In addition to acquiring work-related skills, they also need opportunities to build their capacities to contribute to their society’s social and cultural development.
Read more: Ontario’s colleges were founded to serve local and regional needs — have we forgotten that?
Can’t be reduced to individual financial gain
A university education, then, cannot be reduced to an individual’s financial gain. How we talk about the value of higher education matters.
If our political leaders, policymakers or post-secondary institutions fail to articulate the broader socio-cultural and knowledge-based contributions to a society’s well-being, students and their families are more likely to understand the point of education in purely transactional terms.
There is a common good that society receives from the sum of individuals’ higher education opportunities that transcends their narrow financial interests.
Education contributes to knowledge and innovation beyond individual productivity. It results in critical literacy, technological capabilities, social inclusion and political connectedness. Post-secondary institutions contribute to their regions and cities, to our health and to intercultural understanding and tolerance.
Communicating post-secondary purposes
Articulating the social outcomes of a university education is crucial to demonstrate its value to students and their families, governments, businesses and donors. When we communicate these positive impacts, students are less likely to conceive of themselves simply as consumers of an educational product, and instead as active contributors to our society.
If we are unable to communicate these purposes, we contribute to scepticism of whether, in the face of higher student costs, a university education is worth the bother.
When a narrow economic view is used to determine the value of university education, the broader humanistic goals of education and the benefits to the wider public are obscured from view.
Under these conditions, experiential learning risks being reduced to mere job training. Importantly, learning is also severed from the fundamental purposes of education that require critical distance from corporate and government power for our society’s long-term interests.
For experiential learning to remain vital, it must actively engage communities to improve social outcomes. A singular focus on individual economic advancement risks diminishing the value of higher education for everyone.
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