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Community-Engaged Academic Pathways

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Contents:

Tools & Resources

The following resources may help you and your campus as you work on creating a minor, certificate, and/or concentration related to civic and community engagement, or focusing on issues like poverty, food insecurity, and so on. 

Inventory and Campus Worksheet (Developed by the Bonner Foundation in conjunction with its FIPSE Initiative)

Developed in 2004, this simple inventory can help you as a campus begin to identify the typical courses that comprise formal minors or academic programs in civic engagement. The worksheet explains seven types of courses and provides examples (from campuses that participated in the earliest iterations). If your campus is creating a minor or certificate about a specific community (place- or issue-based), you may then want to add other courses that span several disciplines where students might gain exposure to the relevant concepts, skills, and knowledge. 

Download the inventory here: FIPSE Inventory2017.

Community Engagement Fundamentals Knowledge Hub (Developed by Campus Compact)

This resource area provides an overview of the foundations of higher education community engagement and the breadth of work in the field. 

Community-Engaged Learning & Teaching Knowledge Hub (Developed by Campus Compact)

This resource area provides information on how to effectively facilitate curricular community-engaged learning (service-learning) experiences that are beneficial to students and community. 

Engaged Research Knowledge Hub (Developed by Campus Compact)

This resource area provides information about the principles, methods, and practices for engaging in ethical and reciprocal research with communities.

Service-Learning Course Examples: This page on Western Michigan University's website lists examples of integrating service learning in different disciplines - accounting, anthropology, art, biology, business, communication, education, history, mathematics, physical education etc. 

Articles & Reports

Civic Learning in the Major by Design (AAC&U, Edited by Shelly Johnson Carey) — This publication, tied to a special initiative led by Caryn McTighe Musil at the American Association of Colleges and Universities, shared a number of case studies from institutions who have worked intentionally to embed civic learning and community engagement within majors. See articles like:

Community Engaged Signature Work (AAC&U, Edited by Kathryn Campbell) — The Bonner Foundation worked in partnership with the American Association of Colleges and Universities to produce an issue of AAC&U’s quarterly journal. The issue introduced the aspiration of Community Engaged Signature Work, a culminating integrative learning experience for undergraduates, but suggesting it could have a real-world civic impact. Articles by scholars and practitioners at Allegheny College, Emory & Henry College, Loyola University, Portland State University, and other institutions punctuated effective strategies for curriculum and institutional change. Ashley Finley and Bob Breason discussed the most current evidence for the value of civic engagement, which ties it to well-being and flourishing. Bonner alumni Katie Beck and Jonathan Franklin provided compelling examples of their own Signature Work and its impact on their future career choices.

Civic Engagement at the Center: Building Democracy through Integrated Cocurricular and Curricular Experiences (AAC&U, 2008 by Ariane Hoy and Wayne Meisel)

In 2004, the Bonner Foundation began work with 15 campuses to create a model for civic engagement minors, concentrations, and academic programs, with support from the U.S. Department of Education and its Fund for Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE). In 2008, Civic Engagement at the Center captured this model. Moreover, the monograph shared the broader Bonner student developmental model and its potential for enhancing students’ civic learning and socially responsible leadership to a national higher education audience. First, the monograph describes key elements of the Bonner Program’s developmental cocurricular model, drawing on research about its impact on students. Then, it introduces the architecture of emerging civic engagement minors, certificates, and academic programs, drawing on the common elements from programs at fifteen colleges and universities. Additionally, lessons learned about the process of developing and approving such academic programs are shared. Published by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. You can purchase printed copies at aacu.org [search in Publications]. You may download a pdf here (and purchase one also at aacu.org).

Core Competencies in Civic Engagement: A Working Paper in the Center for Engaged Democracy's Policy Papers Series (2012 by the Center for Engaged Democracy)

Building off the proliferation of minors and other academic programs for civic engagement across the country, the Center for Engaged Democracy commissioned the creation of a report and document that might synthesize what “core competencies” in civic engagement might look like for academic programs. The resulting monograph offers a synthesis of reviews of the literature, national reports, and actual academic programs, highlighting several key results worth pursuing in future research. While the report, which drew on interviews of several organizations in the field, did not fully capture the Bonner Foundation's own emerging academic trajectory, it does present several useful examples of the skills, competencies, and models in the field. You can download a pdf here. 

Integrative Learning: Campus Models and Case Studies (AAC&U Website)

There is a growing national emphasis on fostering undergraduate students’ integrative learning through multiple forms of engaged educational experiences. As learning across boundaries becomes a signature characteristic of a 21st century liberal education, curricular, co-curricular, and pedagogical innovations call for new forms of cross-cutting faculty oversight to discern the quality and level of students’ overall integrative learning. Such oversight is in addition to the responsibility that the faculty already have for the effectiveness of the curriculum in their own departments and across general education.  You can view case studies here. 

The LEAP Challenge: Engaging in Capstones and Signature Work (AAC&U Peer Review)

This issue presents findings from the eight-campus LEAP Challenge: Engaging in Capstones and Signature Work project consortium. Cross-consortium perspectives are presented in the feature articles, which are organized around the five themes that emerged during the project—defining capstones and signature work, organizing capstones and signature work, student preparedness for capstones and signature work, institutional readiness for capstones and signature work, and assessing capstones and signature work.  You can view the articles here.

Other Articles

• A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future (2012)
• American Association of State College and Universities (AASCU) Task Force on Public Engagement (2002). Stepping forward as stewards of place: A guide for leading public engagement at state colleges and universities.
• Blanchard, L. W., Hanssmann, C., Strauss, R. P., Belliard, J. S., Krichbaum, K., Waters, E., & Seifer, S. D. (2009). Models for faculty development: What does it take to be a community-engaged scholar? The Community-Engaged Collaborative, 20(2), 47- 65.
• Calleson, D. C., Jordan, C., & Seifer, S. D. (2005). Community-engaged scholarship: Is faculty work in communities a true academic enterprise? Academic Medicine, 80(4), 317-321.
• Mills, S. D. (2012). The four furies: Primary tensions between service learners and host agencies. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 19(1), 33-43.
• Mitchell, T. D. (2008). Traditional vs. critical service-learning: Engaging the literature to differentiate two models. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 50-65.
• Saltmarsh, J., Hartley, M., & Clayton, P. (2009). Democratic Engagement White Paper. Boston, MA: New England Resource Center for Higher Education. 
• TED Talk: A call to reinvent liberal arts education (2009) by Liz Coleman, former President of Bennington College
• How Do We Teach College Students To Ask Big Questions? (2018 TED Radio Hour)
• The Barbara A. Holland Collection for Service Learning and Community Engagement (SLCE) is both uniquely retrospective and comprehensive, offering the worlds largest physical collection in the field. This internationally important collection features digital derivatives of materials originally collected by the National Service Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC) including: engagement research in higher education, K-12 schools, the community-based organization sector and Tribal Nations 

Other Books

• Beckman, M., Long, J. F. (2016). Community-based research: Teaching for community impact. Stylus Publishing, Sterling, VA.
• Berkey, B., Meixner, C., Green, P. M. & Eddins, E. A. (2018). Reconceptualizing faculty development in service-learning / community engagement: Exploring intersections, frameworks, and models of practice. Bloomfield Stylus Publishing.
• Colby, A., Beaumont, E., Ehrlich, T., & Corngold, J. (2007) Educating for democracy: Preparing undergraduates for responsible political engagement. Jossey Bass, San Francisco, CA. Supplemental materials - http://archive.carnegiefoundation.org/ educating_for_democracy/docs/index.html
• Coughlin, S. S., Smith, S. A., & Frenandez, M. E. (2017). Handbook of community-based participatory research. Oxford University Press.
• Dolgon, C., Mitchell, T. D., & Eatman, T. K. (2017). The Cambridge handbook ofservice-learning and community engagement. Cambridge University Press.
• Donhue, D. M. & Plaxton-Moore, S. (2018). The Student Companion to Community-Engaged Learning: What You Need to Know for Transformative Learning and Real Social Change. Stylus Publishing, Sterling, VA.
•  Dostilio, L. D. (2017). The community engagement professional in higher education: A competency model for an emerging field. Campus Compact.
• Jacoby, B. (2014). Service-learning essentials: Questions, answers, and lessons learned. Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series, San Francisco: CA.
• Hoy, A. & Johnson, M. (2013). Deepening Community Engagement in Higher Education: Forging New Pathways. Palgrave McMiillan, New York: NY.
• Matto, E. C., McCartney, A. R. M., Bennion, E. A., and Simpson, D. (2017). Teaching civic engagement across the disciplines. American Political Science Association. Available at http://web.apsanet.org/teachingcivicengagement/.
• Post, M. A., Ward, E., Longo, N. V., Saltmarsh, J., Levine, P., & Eatman, T. K. (2016). Publicly engaged scholarsL Next-generation engagement and the future of higher education. Stylus Publishing, VA.
• Saltmarsh, J. & Hartley, M. (2011). To serve a larger purpose: Engagement for democracy and the transformation of higher education. Temple University Press, Philadelphia: PA.
• Stoecker, R. (2016). Liberating service learning and the rest of higher education civic engagement. Temple University Press, Philadelphia: PA.
• Strand, K., Marullo, S., Cutforth, N., Stoecker, R., & Donohue, P. (2003). Community-Based Research and Higher Education: Principles and Practices. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.

Professional Organizations

• AAC&U: Association of American Colleges and Universities
• Campus Compact and their list of orgs. - https://libguides.merrimack.edu/communityengagement/professionalorganizations
• International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE).
• POD: The Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education is devoted to improving teaching and learning in higher education. Founded in 1976, POD provides its members with personal and academic relationships that are essential for professional growth. https://podnetwork.org/ memberships/membership-benefits/
• IMPACT Conference: https://www.impactconference.org/about-the-conference/
• Engaged Scholarship Consortium - https://engagementscholarship.org/
• partnerships/engagement-scholarship-network/associations
• Imagining America - https://imaginingamerica.org/