Conference Agenda

In the context of increasing societal polarization, higher education is called upon to strengthen students' democratic competencies. Service-Learning (SL) offers a promising pedagogical approach to connect academic learning with civic engagement, promoting reflection, participation, and social responsibility (Ash & Clayton, 2004; Otten et al., 2022; Laven & Paudel, 2025). This study examines how interdisciplinary SL enables not only participation and reflection but also furthers the critical gap between expressing ideas and influencing decisions. This gap, conceptualized as the divide between participation and agency, is central to understanding SL’s democratic efficacy.

This study considers how SL fosters democratic competences through reflective practice and collaborative engagement, contributing to understanding how higher education can support active citizenship, dialogical learning, and equitable participation.

Building on the analysis of students’ individual reflections, this contribution reframes participation, voice, belonging, and civic awareness as indicators of democratic engagement in SL contexts. The study is based on four editions of the interdisciplinary elective course Z-Tec – Preparing Generation Z (Gen Z) Beyond Technology, involving 137 students from engineering and non-engineering backgrounds and different academic levels. Data were collected through individual reflections structured according to the articulated learning framework developed by Ash and Clayton (2004).

A qualitative analysis was conducted using a coding framework focusing on participation, voice, belonging, and civic engagement. These dimensions were reframed as indicators of democratic competences, enabling the examination of how students experience and enact participation within team-based SL projects.

The findings show that student participation in team processes is active, yet a persistent gap between expressing ideas and influencing decisions remains central. This critical finding emphasizes that participation alone is insufficient for true agency, highlighting a known challenge in achieving equitable participation and voice in SL contexts (Natarajarathinam et al., 2021). The study also reveals that reflections foster greater civic awareness of social issues, responsibility toward community partners, and the development of team-oriented skills (Laven & Paudel, 2025).

The study highlights that interdisciplinary SL environments support democratic engagement not only by fostering participation but also by creating opportunities for reflection, inclusion, and civic responsibility. However, achieving an equitable voice remains a challenge, often influenced by team dynamics and role distribution.

These findings underscore our main argument: to reinforce higher education’s democratic role, SL experiences must be intentionally designed to advance not just participation but meaningful agency. Addressing this challenge helps position higher education as a transformative space for democratic learning and civic development (Resch & Schrittesser, 2023).