This article considers the historical and current national context for integrating community engagement into graduate education. While it might be argued that most graduate education contributes generally to society by advancing knowledge, we are referring here to community engagement that involves some reciprocal interaction between graduate education (through students and faculty) and the public, an interaction that betters both the discipline and the public or set of stakeholders for whom the work is most relevant.
The authors survey and synthesize the literature on the history of graduate education in the United States and assess current barriers to and facilitators of integrating community engagement into doctoral programs. The authors consider what models already exist that might be replicated. Finally, the article concludes with a set of recommendations for national service-learning
and outreach organizations, graduate deans, department chairs, and faculty interested in integrating community engagement into their doctoral programs.