Community-Based Learning: Linking Living and Learning

Ubuntu (I am because we are) is an ancient African philosophy that captures the deeply held belief that the community as a whole is responsible for guiding the next generation and that we are fundamentally interconnected and shaped by the communities around us. 

From this worldview comes the familiar phrase, "It takes a village to raise a child" – a concept that is reflected in many cultures around the world. The Māori whānau in New Zealand, the Latin American compadrazgo system, Indigenous North American tiospaye, the Arab halaqah circles, and countless other traditions and cultural practices share a common understanding: education happens when community, culture, and connection turn everyday life into a classroom.

Community-based learning transforms this ancient wisdom into a modern educational framework and practice. It's a structured approach to learning and teaching that connects meaningful community experiences with intellectual development and personal growth. Rather than treating education as something that happens only within classroom walls, community-based learning recognizes the entire community as a living classroom.

What is Community-Based Learning?

At its core, community-based learning has three defining characteristics:

Local focus: Learning addresses real needs, challenges, or opportunities in students' own communities. Instead of abstract problems from textbooks, students tackle issues they can see, touch, and influence.

Two-way benefit: Both students and communities gain something valuable from working together. Students develop skills and knowledge while communities receive genuine support and fresh perspectives on their challenges.

Building relationships: Students form meaningful connections with community members, organizations, and local experts in safe, supportive contexts. These relationships provide mentorship, expose students to diverse perspectives, and create networks that extend far beyond a single project.

Our own case study: Bon Discovery League – exploring careers through community

When designing youth development programs, incorporating community-based learning ensures that young people engage directly with their surroundings, culture, and community members. This is an approach that we at Bon Education use across our programs, but in particular in our Bon Discovery League program.

An example of this is a recent workshop where students explored careers in Cultural Studies through a hands-on challenge to create mini cultural exhibitions about their neighborhoods. The goal was to help them see how culture lives in everyday spaces. Students investigated sites that hold meaning for their communities, such as a local children's library and a popular neighborhood shawarma shop. Students ventured into their communities to conduct interviews and uncover stories of history and shared traditions.

They presented their findings through creative formats like videos and digital presentations, capturing the sights, sounds, and emotions that make each place special. Along the way, they practiced research, storytelling, and cultural observation skills – key abilities for anyone interested in a future in Cultural Studies.

This approach exemplifies how community-based learning works in practice: students actively investigate their own communities, connect with local experts, and create authentic products that showcase real cultural knowledge. The learning becomes personally meaningful, because it's rooted in their own lived experience and celebrates the knowledge holders in their immediate environment.

Global case studies: Community-based learning in practice

Although community-based learning has existed for hundreds of years, it has formally been studied as an educational theory since the 1960s and 1970s. The case studies below are examples of programs that originated around that period. 

Case study 1: In Colombia, an innovative approach called Escuela Nueva ("New School") revolutionized rural education.

Developed in 1975, Escuela Nueva places students at the center of their own learning within their rural communities. The method encourages students to work in collaborative groups, learn at their own pace, and apply their education to local challenges.

The impact has been extraordinary. Research conducted in the late 1980s, including studies referenced by UNESCO, found that rural students in Escuela Nueva schools outperformed their peers in traditional urban schools on standardized tests (Aldawasari & Mari, 2018) .The program now reaches 700,000 children across 20,000 schools in Colombia and has expanded internationally to 16 countries, including Brazil and the Philippines.

This video offers a brief overview of the Escuela Nueva model, highlighting how students, teachers, and families turn their local environments into vibrant spaces for education and collaboration.

Case study 2: The Barefoot College in Tilonia, India, is a pioneering example of community-based education that empowers rural people to learn by doing. The college trains villagers – many of them women with little formal schooling – to become solar engineers, teachers, artisans, and health workers, using local knowledge and practical experience as the foundation for learning.

Founded in 1972, this bottom-up model treats education as a tool for community self-reliance and sustainability, emphasizing peer learning and the exchange of indigenous knowledge. UNESCO and the World Bank have recognized Barefoot College as an innovative approach to lifelong and community-driven education. The solar engineering program has been particularly impactful: women from rural communities across Africa, Asia, and other regions come to India for six-month training programs, then return to bring solar electrification to their villages. Through this model, Barefoot College has trained solar engineers from communities in over 90 countries, contributing to sustainable development in some of the world's most remote areas.

This Barefoot College video powerfully illustrates community-based learning in action, as local experts empower women to learn practical skills and work together to solve their community’s electricity challenges.

Why Community-Based Learning Works

Community-based learning bridges global awareness with local action, preparing young people for an interconnected world while keeping them rooted in their own community, culture, and identity. This approach matters everywhere, but especially in rapidly developing regions like the UAE, where global innovation coexists with the preservation of Emirati heritage and values. Recent research in the UAE demonstrates the power of this approach:

• Students who participate in community projects develop teamwork, self-confidence, civic awareness, and critical thinking about societal challenges, while gaining a desire and ability to contribute positively to their communities (Thabet, 2022).
• When projects focus on local culture and community, students become more creative, independent, and curious, while strengthening their connection to their community and sense of citizenship (Mohammed, 2017).
• Engaging with real-world problems motivates students, improves academic performance, and builds essential life skills, while fostering a deeper understanding of both local and global issues (Taha & Thebian, 2021).

Together, these findings show that grounding education in local contexts not only enhances academic and personal growth but also aligns with national priorities for innovation, inclusion, and lifelong learning.

How to Design Community-Based Learning Projects

At Bon Education, our goal is to see students collaborate with local organisations, companies, and universities to solve meaningful problems, apply critical thinking, and build confidence through experience. Below is a high-level summary of our approach to designing community-based learning projects.

Step 1: Define Your Objectives

Identify the purpose of your youth program. Ask: What do we want young people to gain? Is it career awareness, innovation skills, leadership, or exposure to specific industries?

Step 2: Understand Your Learners

Consider the age, background, and interests of your participants. Programs for high school students will differ from those for university students or young professionals.

Step 3: Connect with Real-World Problems

Select authentic, community-based challenges that align with your objectives and resonate with the students’ context. These should be meaningful issues that help youth apply what they learn in real settings.

Step 4: Identify Partners

Engage companies, universities, or community organisations whose goals connect to your project theme. Partnerships can be driven by CSR goals, research interests, or employee volunteer opportunities.

Step 5: Co-Design the Project Scope

Work with partners to define manageable, purposeful projects. Balance company needs with students’ learning outcomes, time limits, and available resources.

Step 6: Build Scaffolding and Support 

Design a curriculum or mentoring structure that guides students step-by-step. Include training, coaching, and checkpoints so they don’t get “thrown into the deep end”.

Step 7: Safeguard and Monitor

Ensure student safety and wellbeing throughout the program through appropriate safeguarding policies and protocols. Put in place mentoring, communication protocols, and progress reviews to measure what’s working.

Step 8: Showcase and Reflect

Allow students to present their projects to company or community partners. Celebrate student learning and efforts, gather feedback, and identify what both youth and partners gained.

Step 9: Evaluate and Sustain

Assess the program’s impact on learning, community engagement, and partner satisfaction. Use insights to improve and repeat the program in future cycles.

Moving Forward

Community-based learning reminds us that young people are active participants in the present, with insights and energy that can strengthen communities today. Through community-based learning, students become not just educated individuals, but empowered citizens ready to build the communities they envision.

If you'd like to learn more about our work or explore ways to collaborate, we'd love to hear from you. Visit www.boneducation.com or subscribe to our newsletter.