Teaching Social Innovation Through Place-based Learning: Facilitating Perspective Sharing in Co-creating Social Value

Social innovation education has become an increasingly prominent means through which higher education institutions seek to create positive societal impact. One approach is through place-based learning, in which students are enabled to achieve learning outcomes through experiential work in the community. Although addressing real-world problems is widely regarded as beneficial for participant organizations, communities, and learners, less is understood about how such engagement is transformed into shared social value. Our research explored how place-based learning in social innovation education creates shared social value. Drawing on an analysis of 82 projects conducted across six annual cycles of place-based learning, we develop a model of social value co-creation that illustrates how educators’ facilitation of collaboration between key stakeholders (practitioners, educators, and students) lies at the heart of successful social innovation education. The model captures a contextualized understanding of the different perspectives involved in place-based learning, thereby advancing understanding of the co-creation of social value and its significance for both researchers and educators in social innovation education.