IHE | Publications | Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement

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Community Transformation

The Transformative Engagement Process: Foundations and Supports for University-Community Partnerships

(hide abstract) This article describes one university’s approach to transformative engagement: An engagement process based not on transfer of expertise from university to community (technology transfer), but rather on an interactive process in which all partners apply critical thinking skills to complex community problems. Iterative in nature, it is informed by a university-wide model of engagement built on the land-grant tradition and by grounded principles from the literature. University Outreach and Engagement (UOE) provides several modes of connecting for structural support. To be successful, partners must have appropriate and multiple ways of making and sustaining connections to each other and to information that will help them move through transformations. These modalities encompass individual and systemic connections in both face-to-face and electronic venues. The structures are designed to meet the needs of those engaged in partnerships while promoting evidence-based best practices in community agencies.

The Scope of Our Country: Expanding Access to Higher Education through Community Partnerships with Texas Tech University

(hide abstract) The geographical scale of West Texas provides a unique opportunity to demonstrate active engagement between Texas Tech University and the residents of this vast region. The institution responded to community requests and collaborated to develop four new, rural off-campus teaching and research sites and expand the presence of an existing site. These initiatives focused on expanding access to higher education, engaging in outreach research and scholarship, and enhancing early childhood through 12th grade school partnerships. Technology networks and distance-delivered academic resources were leveraged to achieve these goals. State guidelines for the development of new off-campus sites provided limited guidance for rural educational delivery of research partnerships. As a consequence, the institution’s engagement with rural communities yielded increased understanding of these institution-community partnerships, their symbiotic benefits, and the constraints that should guide them.

Fostering Public Engagement in Local Land Use Planning and Zoning Recodification Projects: A Case Study from the University of Wisconsin—Extension, Lincoln County

(hide abstract) This study outlines the processes used by University of Wisconsin—Extension, Lincoln County (UWELC), educators over an eight-year period to facilitate the development of a county land use plan and to guide committees through a review of the new proposed county zoning ordinances based on that plan. As a partner in these projects, UWELC helped create a model of public participation for other counties and municipalities conducting land use planning based on Wisconsin’s comprehensive planning law passed in October 1999. UWELC educators drew on the expertise of University of Wisconsin system faculty based outside Lincoln County to provide information about land use and zoning issues.

Joining Forces: Building Collaborative Learning Communities through Family-School-University-Community Partnerships

(hide abstract) Two College of Education faculty members describe their journeys as “professors in residence” immersed in schoolwide change efforts at two different partnership schools. Collaboration with school staff, students’ families, and community agencies led to the formation of significant alliances that contributed to the process of school improvement and change. Implications for collaboration among stakeholders, engaged scholarship, and lessons learned are discussed.

Violence, Conflict, and Community Service-Learning: Measuring Impact on Students and Community

(hide abstract) University students were involved in the design, implementation, and assessment of a program in local schools on conflict and violence in the media and in one’s own life. The community partners were sixth graders in five area classrooms in the community surrounding the university. This study assesses the impact of a project-based community service-learning (CSL) partnership on both the university students involved and the sixth graders for whom the project was designed. The data suggest that both the sixth graders/community members and the university students learned valuable information and developed critical thinking skills from participation in the project. The analysis of the data gives us important insights into the ways such work can and does make an impact on all parties involved.

Academic and Institutional Change

Assessing Michigan State University’s Efforts to Embed Engagement across the Institution: Findings and Challenges

(hide abstract) This article describes how Michigan State University developed and implemented an institutional framework that identifies outreach and engagement as a scholarly, crosscutting function. These efforts sought to elevate the valuation of outreach and engagement across the institution and to ensure that outreach and engagement complemented the other professional responsibilities of faculty. The article also describes how the institution is beginning to assess the impact of those efforts on faculty attitudes and behavior. Preliminary findings suggest that while institution-level support is necessary, outreach and engagement will not flourish at research universities until academic units interpret and align the institutional framework with faculty efforts in ways appropriate to their disciplines. Efforts also must be taken to ensure that the faculty reward system encourages outreach and engagement.

Promoting Student Engagement through an Academic Leadership Certificate Program

(hide abstract) The University of Georgia’s Interdisciplinary Certificate in Leadership and Service is an undergraduate academic program designed to enhance college students’ preparation for leadership in their communities and organizations through service-learning. This form of engagement with the community prepares students to face the technical and social challenges of the future through cross-disciplinary collaboration, scholarship, and application. The article discusses requirements of the certificate, the collaborative nature of the program across multiple colleges at the university, and the impact of institutionalizing leadership and service by providing a mechanism for both students and faculty to document activity in experiential education and its outcomes. The certificate program or any of its components can serve as a model for other colleges or leadership programs.

Transforming Liberal Arts Education through Engaged Scholarship

(hide abstract) Public institutions of higher education have commonly accepted their responsibility to engage in community service in addition to research and teaching. Less attention, however, has been paid to the role of comprehensive liberal arts colleges in service to the community. This article describes how engaged scholarship has played a transformative role in the institutional life of Calvin College, a Christian, liberal arts college in Michigan. After a brief history of the development of the scholarship of engagement at Calvin College, we discuss how the conversation about engagement has shifted from “doing good” to questioning scholarly paradigms. Finally, we discuss our areas of ongoing growth and lessons learned. In the last decade the influx and involvement of scholars who are now practicing and writing about engagement in fresh and exciting new ways has led to a significant shift in the concept of institutional engagement.

Sharing Knowledge, Power, and Respect: Keys in Bringing Communities Together to Improve Science, Practice, and Relationships

(hide abstract) Are communities better off because of the efforts of higher education? Extension educators have extended university-based research and technologies that have helped create strong, natural resource–based communities. However, the political and socioeconomic environments in which these communities function are changing even faster than the natural environments. Extension educators boast about being change agents, but are they themselves changing? A team of campus/county-based extension faculty transformed themselves from academic experts into colearners who worked with the practice community and the science/management community to address three critical issues: industry transformation, deteriorating relationships between communities, and improving science through cooperative research. One example highlights the importance of involving the impacted community as an equal partner in designing and implementing a federally declared fisheries disaster program. Another illustrates the benefits of two innovative venues for improving science and relationships between practitioners and scientists.

Ecological Development through Service-Learning

(hide abstract) This article describes a successful model used in international service-learning projects that integrates economic development and ecological improvement. The principles of the model are discussed, including commitments to maintain partnerships over time, emphasize the transfer of knowledge from one generation of students to the next, start small, build a history of success, and gain community trust. The application of this model to an evolving series of service-learning projects in Honduras is discussed. The article concludes with a discussion of some of the challenges and management strategies useful in implementing the model.

Policies for engagement

The Engaged University, Community Development, and Public Scholarship

(hide abstract) America’s universities are facing unprecedented scrutiny and criticism. As pressure for institutional change has mounted, universities have taken steps to more effectively respond to the needs of their stakeholders. All of these activities are part of a broad movement to develop new and productive connections between the university and its publics. In this article, we draw on the interactional approach to community to give direction and purpose to the engagement agenda. We also develop a model of engagement and describe how it is related to the practice of community development. We conclude by suggesting how a new conception of scholarship—one that links academic excellence with civic participation—can facilitate community development.

Public Deliberation: Efforts in Two States to Transform Public Policy Development

(hide abstract) A contemporary vision for a democracy is that it involves those who wish to be involved; the highest expression of human rationality becomes reality when ordinary people speak and reason together on issues of common concern. Public deliberation is a structured dialogue around a challenging public problem. It is a means through which citizens can make tough choices about the basic purpose and direction of their communities and their country. Oklahoma State University and the Oklahoma Partnership for Public Deliberation, along with the University of Missouri, incorporated public deliberation into their public policy and community development work. To implement public deliberation, they conducted institutes and academies to prepare extension professionals and community leaders to use this practice in their public lives. Research to determine the impact of public deliberation in these two states indicates that public deliberation is a useful approach to addressing challenging social issues.

Poverty and Population Density: Implications for Economic Development Policy

(hide abstract) Poverty measurements based on geopolitical boundaries may not accurately reflect the concentration of poverty in a given area. Building upon the findings of the Study on Persistent Poverty in the South that identified 91 persistent poverty counties in Georgia, this article argues that a new unit of analysis is needed to understand the conditions associated with poverty. By using census block groups based on population density, it is possible to perform analysis in ways that transcend traditional geopolitical jurisdictions. The article uses this new unit to present findings based on the 2000 U.S. Census results. Implications for economic development policy are also discussed.

Integration of Ethics with American Pedagogy

(hide abstract) The United States has established itself, for better or worse, as the single most powerful country in the world. The American school system was not designed to familiarize its students with the language and concepts of ethics they will need as heirs and future leaders of a nation with ever increasing global reach and influence. This article proposes a program for the integration of ethics consciousness and vocabulary with standard American pedagogy. Practical examples of techniques and materials are proposed for utilization by intentional teachers of students from pre-K through college level.

Political and Academic Linkages in Public Sector Policy Making

(hide abstract) Decision making in the public sector encompasses many topics of interest to the academic researcher—environmental issues, health and human services, budget planning, and so on. Expertise in data collection and analysis is critical to the policy-making process and can be provided by academic researchers. But the “real world” policymaker and the “ivory tower” academician often have difficulty working together. Both parties have been reluctant to venture into each other’s unique worlds. Conflicts in values, goals, and methods often unnecessarily inhibit the forging of strong work relationships. As a result, both parties may miss opportunities to establish relationships that can be mutually beneficial in providing subject material for academic research and stronger public policy. This article discusses the reasons for this problem and suggests ways in which successful partnerships can be designed.

JOURNAL OF HIGHER EDUCATION OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT

Abstracts

Volume 11, Issue 1, Fall 2006