Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement

Providing Faculty-to-Faculty Support: Moving the Needle Forward in Service-Learning From Limited Exposure to Implementing a Campuswide Program

2023-07-10T18:02:23-04:00

The benefits of service-learning have been well documented in the literature in terms of student outcomes (i.e., increasing retention rates). The purpose of this article was to gather the experiences of faculty who participated in the Service-Learning Faculty Scholars program, a faculty development program designed to infuse service-learning into their courses and across campus at a midsized university in the Midwest. Faculty participated in a faculty cohort model. Listening sessions were held to gather faculty input, and a total of seven faculty participated. Participants were asked a series of open-ended questions. After a thematic analysis of the data, several themes emerged: service-learning competency/development, challenges, cohort effect, scholar experience, program-level support/resources and training, student experiences, community partner relationships, and faculty reflections on course design. Limitations and future research are discussed.

Bridging the Gap Between Faculty Motivations and Institutional Aspirations Using the Community Engagement Institutional Assessment Rubric

2023-10-24T13:44:04-04:00

This article examines faculty motivation to integrate community engagement (CE) into teaching and research, in relation to faculty identity, rank and status, experience, and faith. Building upon previous research that focused on intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, our study also examined the role of an institutional definition of CE with clear criteria, as outlined by the Community Engagement Institutional Assessment (CEIA) rubric, in the motivational cycles of faculty reflection on current and aspirational aspects of CE. Surprisingly, our results illustrate that even when colleges and universities support CE across the institution, faculty may not be significantly motivated by this expressed valuing of CE. Importantly, our findings indicate that faculty would like to achieve the aspirational status on all criteria, pointing to the potential for the rubric to bridge the gap between institutional mission and individual faculty motivations. Enhancing this alignment may increase sustained and meaningful impact on the community.

Civic Engagement as a Course-Level Strategy for Integrative Learning

2024-02-19T16:50:46-05:00

Engaged learning seeks to cultivate integrative approaches that require students to use multiple points of view or approaches in their coursework. Similarly, civically engaged courses ask students to consider public problems that involve multiple stakeholders, institutions, and policies. We are interested in whether courses designed to meet civic engagement goals might also improve student self-assessment of integrative learning at our institution and could serve as a developmental step toward more holistic strategies. To test our hypothesis that student participation in civic engagement would improve student self-assessment of integrative learning, we compared summative student survey scores from students enrolled in similar courses with and without a civic engagement component (n = 275). Boxplot and statistical analysis (unpaired two-sample Wilcoxon test) were used to determine if civic engagement pedagogy made any meaningful impact on integrative learning. Our results show strong overall improvement in survey scores after civic engagement courses.

Service-Learning in Times of Crisis: Early Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic and Their Effects on Reciprocity

2023-11-09T12:49:38-05:00

This study has two main objectives: (1) to analyze how different constituencies (students, teachers, and community partners) in service-learning courses at VU Amsterdam (Netherlands) responded to the COVID-19 crisis during the first outbreak and (2) to investigate the effects of these responses on reciprocal interactions between them. Our results show that the switch to an online environment caused a high burden on teachers. However, their motivation, adaptability, and creativity have been essential to safeguard students’ academic outcomes and the benefit to community partners. Also, the responses to the COVID-19 crisis have created opportunities for urgent and relevant community-based activities and for new conceptualizations of community. This article presents the current state of the impact of a crisis situation on experiential pedagogies such as service-learning and provides recommendations on how to safeguard different types of reciprocity in an online environment and better respond to crises in the future.

Investigating the Long-Term Impacts of “Place-Rich” Community-Based Learning Experiences on University Students

2023-05-01T09:13:45-04:00

This study aimed to develop a deeper understanding of the long-term impacts of place-rich community-based learning on university students. This study was informed by transformative learning theory, which recognizes how learning experiences that expand the learner’s worldview help develop autonomous thinking. A mixed-methods approach was used to explore the perspectives of graduates who participated in immersive community-based learning (CBL) experiences. Graduates from two programs at the University of Prince Edward Island between 2004 and 2017 completed the Civic-Minded Professional scale online. A subset of respondents were invited to participate in interviews. Students’ experiences of dissonance, transformational learning moments, reflection, and civic engagement were also assessed. Key findings include participants’ expanded and deeper appreciation for cross-cultural awareness, their more deliberate engagement with volunteer opportunities, and their emergence as advocates for the communities they worked with. Findings will be used to improve, diversify, and develop new CBL experiences for university students.

Community Partner Experiences in a Service-Learning Development Program

2023-11-09T13:05:14-05:00

In response to continued calls for research centering community perspectives in service-learning and community engagement, this mixed-methods article examines the experiences of community fellows who were a part of a university service-learning development program. The purpose of the program was to train faculty and community partners in service-learning pedagogy and implementation practices. We analyzed self-reported data from 25 community partners over eight cohorts of the program. In the article, we find that community fellows grew their knowledge of service-learning terms and practices. At the same time, they identified logistic and equity challenges in service-learning implementation and partnerships. Amid these experiences, community fellows highlighted the formation of a shared community among all fellows as the strongest outcome of the program. The shared community afforded them space to build meaningful relationships, collectively plan, and problem-solve together as they practiced service-learning.

Sustaining Community–University Partnered Sustainability Research: A Typology Grounded in Community Partners’ Goals and Motivations

2024-02-19T17:05:07-05:00

Community–university partnerships are a critical vehicle for promoting sustainability, and the partnerships themselves can be sustained by ensuring that participants achieve mutual benefits in terms of their respective goals and missions. Although the literature emphasizes mutuality and reciprocity, fewer studies investigate community partners’ motivations for participating in community–university partnerships in their own terms. Drawing on semistructured interviews and Q methodology, we identify four distinct perspectives among our community partners, each prioritizing a different set of goals and working from different interpretations of community–university partnerships. One perspective stresses solving practical problems, another focuses on building organizational capacity, a third advocates for recognition of their community’s lived experience, and a fourth aims to articulate visions of a sustainable future. These four perspectives suggest a spectrum where some partners prefer a more transactional partnership whereas others work toward a fundamental transformation of how society conceptualizes knowledge and expertise.

The Interlocking Roles of Campus Security and Redevelopment in University-Driven Neighborhood Change: A Case Study of the University of Pennsylvania

2023-11-13T16:21:31-05:00

Why are many urban universities’ relationships with their surrounding communities fraught despite university efforts at community engagement? Relationships between the factors underlying university-driven neighborhood change remain largely unexplored. In this article, I take the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) as a case study and examine the relationship between campus security on the one hand and university-related redevelopment projects in Penn’s West Philadelphia neighborhood on the other. I ask what this relationship can reveal about how university-driven neighborhood change operates and why Penn’s relationship with its community is persistently tense. I organize my data into two case studies and argue that campus safety and redevelopment have long worked hand-in-hand to securitize campus by creating and reinforcing private zones of exclusivity. Not only have crime and resulting security measures played a key role in driving redevelopment projects, but recently, redevelopment itself has further begun to serve as a form of securitization.

Unfolding the Community Engagement Narratives of Three Universities Using a Discourse Analysis Approach

2023-04-11T13:01:39-04:00

Although a large body of literature discusses the advancement of community engagement in higher education, a less substantial body of scholarship explores how engagement is promoted and institutionalized within universities. In this exploratory study, using a discourse analysis of official reports posted on the websites of three university cases, the qualitative results unfolded how community engagement was institutionalized. The study identified some of the basic mechanisms social language uses to create institutions within institutions, like university engagement. The study provided data to support the theoretical assumption that language, through a host of possible configurations of texts, generates discourses that engender social actions such as institutionalization. Those processes disclosed how engagement was produced, and it is still evolving. Further research strategies are discussed.

Extending a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Approach to Understanding and Addressing Postsecondary Awareness and Access

2023-10-20T14:45:17-04:00

Postsecondary education enrollment is declining across the United States. The U.S. Department of Education’s Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) initiative focuses on increasing the college-going rate of students living in low-income neighborhoods through targeted university–community partnerships (UCPs). Here, we reflect on our program’s use of a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to explore family postsecondary perspectives during the pandemic with the goal of developing community-level interventions. We outline the implementation of this approach in defining community, sharing planning power with partners, and responsive sampling. Reflection on the relevance, inclusion, and value of CBPR in education research is included.

Building Bridges: Strengthening University–School Relationships Through Service-Learning

2023-08-11T18:34:01-04:00

This qualitative dissertation aimed to understand if an after-school kinesiology service-learning program changed the relationship between a large Research I institution and a local public school. Eight 7th- and 8th-grade students, three classroom teachers, and one administrator participated. Data collection methods included semistructured individual interviews, observational field notes, and reflective memos. Findings suggested that school staff perceived a positive relationship between the university and the school district but a complicated one between the university and the city. Participating teachers and school leaders believed the service-learning program positively impacted their students and helped strengthen the relationship between the university and the school. The study also highlighted the importance of effective communication in university–school partnerships and uncovered challenges in communication concerning the service-learning program. The middle school students perceived benefits from receiving academic support, and school participants felt that the relationships formed between the university and middle school students were impactful.

Isn’t Global Thinking Relevant—Even Essential—for Any Civic Education?

2024-05-28T10:15:44-04:00

28(2) Entire Issue

2024-06-26T15:57:25-04:00

28(2) Entire Issue

28(2) Editorial Board

2024-06-26T16:00:07-04:00

28(2) Editorial Board

28(2) Table of Contents

2024-06-26T16:02:28-04:00

28(2) Table of Contents

28(2) Note from the Editor

2024-06-26T16:04:36-04:00

28(2) Note from the Editor