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Vol. 11 No. 1

Transforming Liberal Arts Education through Engaged Scholarship

Submitted
February 21, 2011
Published
2011-02-21

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.