The service-learning and the humanisation of the academic curriculum in economics

The teaching-learning methodologies based on service learning are examples of social and curricular innovation to improve well-being, integration and social cohesion. An academic curriculum based on service-learning rests upon a structured interdisciplinary. It produces creative plasticity, which enhances the production of creative personal, social, emotional, cognitive and spiritual knowledge. However, the curricula available within the Undergraduate Degree Programmes in Economics are still based on dominant economic models that favour quantitative approaches. We focus on the introduction of Service Learning into the academic curriculum, as an instrument of humanisation of the teaching of economics. The study uses qualitative methods of data collection and analysis, whilst resorting to group interviews with content analysis. All participants are faculty and researchers of Economics of the University of Minho. The results underline the importance of the humanisation concept of the economy. They underline the need for the establishment of interactions between the university, the students and the community, whose effects are spreading to the increase in social responsibility, leadership and economic sustainability. Nevertheless, it still prevails some apprehension on the part of teachers about their operationalisation and success.