Deepening students' understanding of democratic citizenship through arts-based approaches to experiential service learning

Inspired by models of community engagement initiated in North-American universities, the Visual Arts Department of the University of Johannesburg (UJ), together with the community-based organisation Tshulu Trust, developed an experimental service learning course aimed at evolving an approach to community engagement appropriate to the South African context. This article assesses the first iteration of this visual arts-based service learning intervention specifically with regard to the quality and content of student learning achieved. The results suggest that the methods and ethical-political approach of the community engagement movement significantly enhance the quality of student learning across the domains of academic enhancement, civic learning and personal growth. Furthermore, visual tools such as Photovoice, relationship-building tools such as Appreciative Enquiry and guided reflection that aims to describe, examine and articulate learning, could be adapted to enhance and deepen the learning of other student groups that regularly spend time in the same community.