A University Without Walls: Connecting the Traditional Classroom to the Community Through Sustainable Service-Learning

Abstract

Many worldwide initiatives demonstrate how education has reoriented to address sustainability, encourage university professors to leave their ivory towers, and connect the traditional classroom to civic development by providing society with services. Significant strides have been made to support and optimize service-learning for several academic disciplines in the humanities. However, the education for sustainable development in literary studies in the English department at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman has remained more a dead letter than a radical shift in education. Since a growing body of research evidence has demonstrated that the pedagogical practices relying on traditional teaching are not always effective in engaging students in active participation in learning, the study promotes a novel educational framework as a learning process whereby the wall between the university and the community is broken down, English literary studies are paired with sustainable service-learning, and knowledge is created through the transformation of students’ experiences. Within this framework, the pairing of service-learning and literary studies is an innovative way to teach course concepts, expand students’ vision of the society, and empower citizens with the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to achieve sustainable development in Oman and set the example for other Gulf countries.