Learning to Live Together: Achieving the Spirit of Fratelli Tutti through Service Learning
Abstract
In what is known as the “Delors Document of 1996,” UNESCO proposed four pillars of education in the 21st Century: Learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live together. The aim of this chapter is to examine the similarity between the UNESCO document’s pillar of “learning to live together” and the spirit of Fratelli Tutti in building fraternity and social friendship among young people. Further, the chapter proposes “Service Learning” as a methodology of achieving the aims of UNESCO and Fratelli Tutti in the context of formal education.
The aim of the chapter is realised in three major sections and a strong conclusion. The three sections follow an adapted model of the pastoral cycle of Phenomenon, Principle, and Practice.The Phenomenon section of the chapter enumerates the project entitled, “LiFE Frontier Engagement Programme,” which is being run in Lady Doak College in Madurai, India. It captures how the project is being implemented at the college and what has been the experience of the students of learning and social commitment emerging from the LiFE Frontier Engagement.
This story provides the background to the second section of the chapter that reflects on Fratelli Tutti of Pope Francis that provides the Principle for education to fraternity and social friendship. It summarises those sections of the encyclical that refer to the education and formation of young people. In order to achieve these goals of education as envisaged by FT, the Practice section of the chapter proposes service learning as an evidence-based methodology. It also presents two models that could provide the theoretical framework for the process of service learning: Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle and the Pastoral Cycle itself. In the conclusion, the chapter develops the concept of “gratuitousness” that Pope Francis proposed in FT, and argues that service learning has the potential to develop the spirit of gratuitousness through the circularity of spirituality, solidarity, and intrinsic motivation.
Full citation:
Selvam, S.G. (2021). Learning to Live Together: Achieving the Spirit of Fratelli Tutti through Service Learning. In J. P. Doss, S. Fernando, & M.C. Antonysamy (eds.), Pathways to Fraternity Educating the Young in the Light of ‘Fratelli Tutti’ (pp.167-179). New Delhi: All India Don Bosco Education Society.