Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 6, Number 1 49 Mutual Transformation Through Arts-Based Service Learning With Australian Aboriginal Communities: An Australian Case Study Anne Power University of Western Sydney Dawn Bennett Curtin University Brydie-Leigh Bartleet Griffith University ABSTRACT This paper reports from a national arts-based service-learning project in Australia. Working with pre-service teachers, the paper employs the theoretical framework of sentipensante (sensing/thinking), which has been successfully used in disciplines such as policy, leadership, and communication. Participant stories reveal a network of relations that create understanding of shared existence, and these learning experiences emerge as variously threshold, transformative, and/or troublesome. Findings lend support to the value of flexible, critical service learning approaches, particularly in diverse cultural contexts. At the heart of service learning in post- secondary education are partnerships between higher education institutions and communities, as co-generators of knowledge. Programs in the arts are well suited to service-learning projects, engaging what Rendon (2009) calls sentipensante pedagogy (from sentir - sensing or feeling, and pensar - intellect or thinking) in which critical examinations of worldviews and relational contemplative practices sit alongside one another. The sentipensante framework is an established approach for research in education policy and practice, with a special emphasis on socially and culturally diverse settings (Kanagala & Rendon, 2013). Adoption of the framework has, for example, been shown to increase retention among African American and Latino university students (Case, 2011). Prior to this, an early version of the approach was successfully adopted with students in leadership classes, intergroup relations classes, and learning communities in the discipline of engineering (Burgis & Rendon, 2006). Sentipensante pedagogy has important goals. The first is to disrupt entrenched belief systems that divide knowing, thinking and feeling, and act against wholeness. This can expose experiences that are threshold, transformative, and/or troublesome. Another goal is “to instill in learners a commitment to sustain life, maintain the rights of all people, and preserve nature and the harmony of our world” (Rendon, 2009, p. 135-6). To achieve these aims, Rendon advocates a method through which learners approach what is being learned on a deeper level through the use of reflective practices such as community service work, so that what is generated is not just knowledge, but wisdom. The research reported here drew inspiration from the sentipensante pedagogical framework and used its associated concepts to