Conference Agenda

This project was carried out at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) over two academic years, 2024/25 and 2025/26, embedded in four core curriculum subjects. In 2024, 46,843 migrants reached the coasts of the Canary Islands (an EU outermost region and a gateway to continental Europe) travelling in small, open boats from the African continent; another estimated 9,757 people lost their lives in the attempted crossing which can take anything between four days and two weeks. In 2025, arrivals dropped by around 60% to 17,788, with 1,906 deaths at sea, a downward trend that has continued into 2026, although the risks and outcomes for those attempting the journey remain unchanged.

As in the rest of Europe, populist discourse finds an easy target in the migratory phenomenon, especially on social media platforms where facts are sparse and anonymous opinion is free. In response, this project was inspired by a desire to promote values of human dignity, reasoning and critical thinking, ethical responsibility, empathy, and global awareness, values, skills and attitudes that are aligned with the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture.

The objective of the project was to facilitate students’ acquisition of these competences by creating a space for exchange between undergraduate students at the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting and members of the migrant community from local reception centres. Through this interaction, the project encouraged students to reflect on the causes of migration while fostering collaboration between all participants to build a more inclusive social environment. It also set out to strengthen the development of academic and professional competences essential to future translators and interpreters, for both students and migrants, by providing a real life experience of the emotional dependency and creation of trust involved in message transmission in humanitarian interpreting.

The presentation will describe the details of the project and present results relevant to the acquisition of competences for democratic culture.

This study explores a university Service-Learning (SL) intervention that integrates physical activity teaching with community engagement involving recently arrived migrants in Granada. As the document states, the project sought “to reduce social barriers, prevent discrimination and foster a critical understanding of diversity” while strengthening prosocial and civic competencies in future Physical Education teachers (Chiva-Bartoll et al., 2021).

Thematically, the study aligns with contemporary debates on innovative teaching and learning arrangements that use SL to cultivate democratic competences, critical thinking, and civic responsibility. The document highlights that SL is conceptualized as a pedagogical space where “the community experience and ethical deliberation operate as complementary forms of education for citizenship.” Through structured reflection, real-world interaction, and shared responsibility, the intervention aimed to foster a democratic mindset by engaging students in ethical decision-making, intercultural encounters, and collaborative problem-solving—key mechanisms identified in the literature for nurturing civic agency and social justice orientations.

Methodologically, the research employed a quasi-experimental design with 120 first-year university students, divided into an SL group (n=55) and a traditional methodology group (n=65). Both groups covered identical curricular content, but only the SL group engaged with the migrant community. The intervention lasted eight weeks, with 55‑minute weekly sessions following a structured sequence of preparation, action, and guided reflection. Validated instruments were administered pre‑ and post‑intervention, including the Prosocial and Civic Competence Questionnaire and the Attitudes toward Cultural Diversity Scale. Non-parametric analyses (Wilcoxon tests) and regression models were used to examine intra‑ and inter‑group changes, with adjustments for age and gender.

The most notable findings indicate that only the SL group showed significant increases in prosocial leadership and social responsibility, suggesting that authentic community engagement and active teaching roles can strengthen civic and prosocial dispositions. As the document reports, “significant increases in prosocial leadership and social responsibility [were observed] only in the Service-Learning group (p < .05).” In contrast, changes in attitudes toward cultural diversity were limited and sometimes non-linear, including decreases in positive beliefs and perceived capacity to support migrants.

In conclusion, the study demonstrates that SL mediated by physical activity can meaningfully enhance prosocial competencies in initial teacher education, while its effects on intercultural attitudes are more nuanced and context-dependent. The findings underscore the importance of intentional pedagogical design, structured reflection, and authentic community partnerships for fostering democratic competences and civic-mindedness in higher education (Sze-Yeung Lai et al., 2021).

This practice-based paper presents the “Grass and Roots” Intercultural Mediation Syllabus developed within the European project MILAGRO (Migrants and Local Communities Actively Growing Together for Inclusive Societies) in Siena, Italy. The contribution is particularly linked to Track A, as it explores how service-learning can foster democratic competences, empathy, civic agency, and refugee empowerment through community engagement.

The syllabus emerged from the experience of “Grass and Roots,” a refugee-led volunteer group initially created by Pakistani refugees to support newly arrived asylum seekers in Siena. Within the framework of MILAGRO, this spontaneous community initiative progressively evolved into a structured intercultural mediation training coordinated by Nuova Associazione Culturale Ulisse (NACU) and SIS Intercultural Study Abroad. Over time, this pathway of service, reflection, and community participation also contributed to broader forms of social and civic empowerment, eventually supporting the creation of the intercultural social cooperative “Lux e Nur,” established through the collaboration between refugees and local citizens.

Grounded in the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC) and inspired by the EUFICCS pedagogical approach (European Use of Full-Immersion, Culture, Content, and Service), the project re-elaborates service-learning within the context of forced migration. Refugees were not positioned as passive recipients of support, but as active social actors progressively developing mediation competences through service, peer support, guided reflection, and civic participation.

The paper reflects on the pedagogical role of both the “service” and the “learning” dimensions in the development of democratic competences and forms of active citizenship. Weekly volunteer activities supporting newcomers were combined with practices focused on intercultural encounters, empathy, civic responsibility, cultural diversity, and social belonging. Reflection was intentionally designed in flexible forms — including dialogue, drawing, storytelling, and oral sharing — in order to respond to participants’ heterogeneous linguistic, educational, and literacy backgrounds.

Particular attention is devoted to the concept of “social acting,” understood as the transition from being assisted to becoming active contributors, mediators, and bridge-builders within the host society. Through situated service-learning experiences, participants progressively developed competences connected to empathy, cooperation, openness to cultural otherness, civic-mindedness, and community leadership, in line with the RFCDC framework.

The MILAGRO experience suggests that service-learning can provide an effective and transferable pedagogical model for fostering democratic culture, refugee empowerment, and intercultural mediation competences while simultaneously strengthening inclusive civic engagement and community-based social innovation.