Learning to Serve, Serving to Learn - Interview with Patrick Mwania

28 july 2026

What if universities were judged not only by the knowledge they produce, but also by the lives they help transform? In Service Learning in Africa, Patrick Mwania invites us to rethink higher education through the lens of community engagement, African philosophy, and Catholic educational thought. In this interview, he explains why service learning is far more than an educational method—it is a vision of education rooted in responsibility, dignity, and hope.

Your book argues that universities should become agents of social transformation. Why is this particularly important in Africa today?

Africa is a continent of extraordinary potential, but also one facing profound social, economic, and environmental challenges. Universities cannot remain isolated from these realities. They educate the next generation of leaders, professionals, teachers, engineers, healthcare workers, and theologians. If higher education limits itself to transmitting theoretical knowledge, it misses a crucial part of its mission. Universities should help students understand society from within and prepare them to contribute actively to its development.

Many readers associate service learning with volunteering. What is the difference?

That is probably the most common misunderstanding. Volunteering is valuable, but service learning is something different. It is an academic approach in which community engagement is fully integrated into the curriculum. Students do not simply perform acts of service; they connect those experiences with their discipline through structured reflection. The community is not a beneficiary but a genuine educational partner, and both students and communities learn from one another.

One of the distinctive aspects of your work is its African perspective. Why was this essential?

Too often, educational models are imported without considering local intellectual traditions. I wanted to show that Africa already possesses rich educational philosophies that resonate deeply with the principles of service learning. Ubuntu, for example, reminds us that our humanity is realised through our relationships with others. Similar traditions exist across the continent. Rather than importing an external model, I believe service learning should be understood as a contemporary expression of values that have long been part of African societies.

You also speak about decolonising higher education. How does service learning contribute to that process?

Decolonisation is not only about changing reading lists or institutional structures. It is also about changing relationships. Traditional academic models often place universities in the position of experts and communities in the position of passive recipients. Service learning challenges that hierarchy by recognising communities as co-creators of knowledge. Local experience, indigenous wisdom, and cultural traditions become legitimate sources of learning. This changes both the educational process and the way knowledge itself is produced.

Reflection occupies a central place throughout the book. Why is it so important?

Experience alone does not automatically produce learning. Students may participate in remarkable projects without fully understanding what they have encountered. Reflection allows them to connect experience with theory, to question their assumptions, and to recognise broader social realities. It is through reflection that technical competence gradually becomes ethical responsibility and, often, personal transformation.

Your book gives significant attention to Catholic higher education. What can Catholic universities contribute to this vision?

Catholic universities possess a particularly strong foundation for service learning because Catholic Social Teaching already emphasises human dignity, solidarity, the common good, subsidiarity, and care for creation. Service learning provides a practical way of living these principles. Students do not simply study social justice; they encounter it directly. Academic formation, spiritual growth, and community engagement become mutually enriching rather than separate dimensions of university life.

As Vice Chancellor of Tangaza University, have your own experiences influenced this book?

Absolutely. Writing this book was never purely theoretical. Years of university leadership have shown me both the opportunities and the practical difficulties of implementing community-engaged education. I have seen inspiring initiatives succeed, but I have also witnessed the institutional challenges they face. Those experiences convinced me that service learning requires commitment at every level—from faculty preparation to curriculum design, governance, and long-term partnerships with communities.

You also discuss technology and artificial intelligence. How do you see their role in service learning?

Technology offers remarkable opportunities, especially in expanding collaboration across distances and supporting reflection through digital platforms. Artificial intelligence may also contribute to learning and research. But technology must never replace human encounter. Service learning is fundamentally relational. Digital tools should strengthen dialogue and participation, not reduce education to technical efficiency. Human dignity and ethical responsibility must always remain at the centre.

Who did you have in mind while writing this book?

The primary audience includes university leaders, lecturers, researchers, and graduate students, but I also hope policymakers, Church institutions, and development practitioners will find it useful. Service learning is not confined to one discipline. Whether someone works in education, theology, engineering, health sciences, or the social sciences, the central question remains the same: how can knowledge genuinely serve society?

If readers remember only one message after closing the book, what would you like it to be?

I would like them to remember that education reaches its fullest meaning when it transforms both the learner and the community. Universities should certainly pursue academic excellence, but excellence is incomplete if it is disconnected from human realities. Knowledge becomes truly meaningful when it generates responsibility, solidarity, and hope. That, ultimately, is the vision of Service Learning in Africa: education that serves society while allowing society itself to become a place of learning.

This book is available in English.

→ Discover and purchase the book in digital or print format.