How Can We Better Prepare Students for Community-Engaged Scholarship in Higher Education?

Introduction

In today’s connected globe, more and more HEIs are now seeing the benefit of Community Engaged Scholarship (CES). This approach of learning and research extends the learning beyond a classroom and engage students in problem solving together with communities. Educating students for community-engaged learning at the tertiary education institution is crucial for the creation of citizenship and democratization, enhancement of analytical competence, and the society transformation. – preparing students for community-engaged scholarship in higher education

This guide will aim to address each of these following components central to the preparation of students for CES to benefit educators, school administrators, and other stakeholders. We will look at what CES looks and why it is so important in higher education learning as well as best practices for preparing students for good and robust community engagement.

Through embracing CES, we enable students to be active and educated members of the society in order to bring required change in their society or the world. It is now timely to travel on this road towards enhancing recognition as well as practical applications of community-engaged scholarship in higher learning institutions.

What is Community-Engaged Scholarship?

CES is a participative interdependent partnership among the campus, faculty, students, and local citizens to solve complex community problems. It involves two forms of cooperation such as interdependence, integration, trust and both parties make decisions together. Unlike conventional scholarship in which scholars produce knowledge for the scholars within the academic community, CES approach embodies the generation and use of knowledge for the society.

CES can take many forms, including:

• Participatory Action Research: This position makes the community members as key stakeholders in the process of formulating the research questions, collecting data, processing and even in the act of presenting the results that are arrived at.
• Community-Based Research: This type of research is done in collaboration with community-based organizations with regards to matters of concern to the community.
• Service-Learning: This combines classroom learning with community service, thus creating instances where in extracurricular activities can help solve problems affecting the community.

While these are just a few examples, the core principle of CES remains consistent: But that is the thing about it, it is about building relationships with the world out there and making the university a force for good.

Key Characteristics of CES:

• Reciprocity: Thus, the community and the university comprehensively benefit from the partnership.
• Collaboration: All the partners have input their specialization and opinions.
• Relevance: The research or project concerns problems that are of significance in the society.
• Respect: Equal respect to all the partners and their work is appreciated.
• Action-Oriented: It is expected that the knowledge produced by CES will prove practical and can be used to bring change, more importantly, constructive change.

From the preceding CES thinking, the following points were established: From this, it will be easier to prepare students for independence engagement in meaningful and effective community participation.

Why is Community-Engaged Scholarship Important in Higher Education?

Therefore, community, engagement scholarship (CES) has a significant function of enhancing a higher learning institutions’ student, faculty and the society. It blurs the conventional academic division and helps the university to pay more attention to what is happening around. It is high time to consider the potential advantages of adopting CES in the context of the continuation of the scope of study at the universities.

Benefits for Students:

• Enhanced Learning: CES helps students practice the issues they learned in the classroom environment, enhance their IT knowledge and develop critical thinking skills.
• Personal Growth: In their work with various communities and views, the learners learn to be understanding, culturally aware, and citizens of the world.
• Career Development: The events that are carried out by CES usually assist the students to gain important interpersonal skills like communication, problem solving and teamwork which is useful in most companies.
• Civic Engagement: Thus, CES makes willingness of students and prepares them to be responsible and productive members of the society.

Benefits for Faculty:

• Research Relevance: CES creates opportunities for faculty to link their research to current problems, which enhance its applicability.
• Teaching Innovation: Using CES in their classroom practice can improve the level of interaction with students and their learning processes.
• Community Partnerships: CES maintains strong relationships with various community organizations because of this, any party with an interest in the activity of the Other can engage in knowledge sharing with CES.

Benefits for Institutions:

• Enhanced Reputation: Anyone who values CES shows that their institution is truly an institution that cares for the community thus giving it a good reputation in terms of students enrollment and recruiting more faculty.
• Community Impact: Thus, CES has the potential to help solve critical social problems and develop the quality of life in communities surrounding organizations.
• Increased Funding: This has the advantage of forcing institutions to look for extra funding as many funding agencies focus on the projects that will involve use of community funding.

Benefits for the Community:

• Access to Resources: CES can help to open access to the universities’ resources including knowledge, equipment and students willing to volunteer.
• Empowerment: CES provides support to the communities to ensure they become active stakeholders in research and in societal decision making processes that impact them.
• Social Change: This paper identifies how universities and communities can enhance positive social justice by addressing constructs and issues that result in social inequality.

Consequently, community-engaged scholarship is a useful leverage for the change and promotion of however education for all stakeholders aims.

How to Prepare Students for Community-Engaged Scholarship

Becoming ready for CES entails a systemic and purposeful course that involves the following: curriculum and instruction, faculty capacity building, community, and students. Non-refundable to state that by working to eliminate challenges in each of these areas, institutions can effectively develop a supportive community environment that will enhance the achievement of significant engagement impact.

Curriculum Development

CE is therefore highly important and must be incorporated in curriculum so that students can develop appropriate knowledge and experiences for interventionist practice. This can be achieved through a variety of approaches:

• Integrate CES into existing courses: Integrate CES principles and practices to existing courses of different fields-training. For example, in sociology, the course could have an attachment to a specific community, to do some research on behalf of the class or a business class could undertake a marketing campaign for a selected non-governmental organization.
• Develop dedicated CES courses: Develop courses that are exclusively devoted to CES, which include topics such as community organizing; participatory action research; and community based and unleashed ethical issues.
• Offer CES-focused programs: Create department or program majors or minors that afford students precise, cutting-edge education and practicum in CES.
• Create experiential learning opportunities: All possible to incorporate real world CES projects like internships, service learning, community based research projects for students.

Faculty Development

Professors also have a very significant part in training the students for CES. Faculty members require being endowed with the knowledge, skills and resources for implementing this CES in their teaching learning and research activities. Institutions can support faculty development through:

• Training and workshops: Develop and conduct seminars on how to implement CES in classrooms or implementing meaningful partnership with the community as well as important information about the ethical use of community members’ information.
• Faculty learning communities: Develop faculties, practice communities where the faculty members may discuss the evidence of their practice, learn one from the other, and merge on the CES joint undertakings.
• Mentorship programs: Match those CES faculty who have extensive experience in community engagement with the relatively inexperienced members in order to offer advise and assistance.
• Recognition and rewards: Commission an award, funding or promotion framework for CES to show appreciation to faculty who participate in CES.

Community Partnerships

The element of CES requires strong and mutually beneficial interaction with the community. These partnerships should be based on respect, collaboration and engagement, and the goal of responding to identified community needs. Institutions can foster community partnerships by:

• Establishing a community liaison: Assign someone in the university or an office to be responsible for all the interactions between the university and the community.
• Creating a community advisory board: Invite state’s representatives, Mayors and council chairpersons, and other key influential personalities to sit on an advisory committee for CES’s schemes.
• Supporting community-based organizations: Give out grants and grants-in-aid to community-based groups and organizations, open employment avenues to them and provide them with use of university amenities.
• Developing clear partnership agreements: An expectation must always be made, agreed and put down in writing on how each partner will contribute to the partnership.

Student Support

CESs affect students in a number of ways and therefore students require assistance at different stages of these experiences. Institutions can provide this support through:

• Orientation and training: Closely educate and inform students about CES as the principle, its practices and the ethical issues involved in the practice.
• Mentorship programs: Give the students a chance to be assigned a faculty or community members who will be able to guide them.
• Reflection activities: Regular journal writing or discussion or presentation on what students have learned from their CES could be promoted amongst students.
• Financial support: Compensate students who may have a problem affording a way to get to the CES project or may lose money due to attending the project.

In adopting the above strategies, institutions are able to develop environments that would assist students for creating positive and effective community-based scholarship.

Challenges and Considerations in Preparing Students for Community-Engaged Scholarship

By identifying possible perceptible community-engaged scholarship (CES) benefits, it is also essential to discuss a range of its limitations and potential ethical issues. If these factors are effectively managed in advance, CES experiences delivery will be ethical and sustainable at institutions.

Ethical Considerations:

• Power Dynamics: Reinforcing the concept of collaborative partnership, attention has to be paid to the relationship imbalance that may occur between universities, on the one hand, and outside stakeholders, including communities, on the other. There is a need for institutions to nurture fair cooperation relations in which the opinion of the community counts.
• Community Consent: Ensure that CES projects get permission from the community before participating in such projects. It is important to share with the public the intended purpose of the project, the project aim and objectives with special emphasis on prospecting gains and losses of the project.
• Data Ownership and Sharing: Be specific on who owns data and who has access to it. Make sure that collection and using of data fully respects the rights of preserving the community’s privacy and confidentiality.
• Confidentiality: Guarantee anonymity of the community members participating in CES projects. Make sure that students and faculty make proper use of ethical by understanding the right practices to take while conducting their research.

Other Challenges:

• Time Commitment: CES may take a lot of time, especially for the students and the faculty. The institutions should set aside sufficient time and funds in order to facilitate CES activities.
• Sustainability: It was necessary to come up with ways of how the different projects implemented by CES can be sustained in the long run. This can range from attaining funds for the cause or for the community, to the building up of the community basic assets or ensuring that a partnership is formed and maintained.
• Assessment: Identify specific ways of evaluating CES projects and how students benefit from what they learn. Sometimes, it may require the application of a number of qualitative and/or quantitative research techniques.
• Cultural Humility: As both a word of advice and a vision for the future, ensure that students and faculty members come to CES with a culture of cultural sensitivity in order to increase capacity to learn about local partners and respect their way of doing things.

Strategies for Addressing Challenges:

• Provide training and support: Provide programs for students and faculty to learn the standards of ethical concerns, diversity sensitive or cultural competence, social responsibility and other appropriate interaction with people in the communities.
• Establish clear guidelines and policies: It is important to establish standard the procedures that should be issued for CES activities such as ethical standards for the company, partnership and data use policies.
• Foster open communication: There should be free flow of information between the university and the community partners. More concern should be dedicated to the effective creation of opportunities for discussion and feedback.
• Engage in ongoing reflection: Ask students and faculty regarding their CES experiences and whether they find anything that needs to be changed.

The following challenges and considerations present the institutions the chance to adopt practices in supporting and cultivating the scholarly engagement of communities in an ethical manner.

Examples of Successful Community-Engaged Scholarship Programs

A host of institutions across the nation have adopted CES and have implemented them in their institution’s curriculum and research endeavors making it possible for others to emulate from the models provided. Here are a few examples of successful CES programs:

1. The Michigan State University’s Community Engagement Scholarship Program:

• Focus: MSU’s programmed focuses on the development of effective collaborations between the faculty, students and partners within their communities to solve various social problems.
• Key Features: The CES program provides many sources and aids for the members of both the faculty and students involved, comprising of funding schemes, workshops, and a center on CES.
• Impact: Projects that have involved MSU’s CES program are normally based on the community and have solved multifaceted problems including the environmental degradation, lack of adequate health provisions and leadership in community economic growth.

2. Portland State University’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions:

• Focus: The Institute for Sustainable Solutions at PSU is focused on multi-disciplinary research and community participation to solve sustainability problems.
• Key Features: The institute consists of the posse and student body along with others in the community to do projects focusing on climate, cities, and equity.
• Impact: Most urban sustainability challenges have been creatively solved by the institute; for instance, through green infrastructure projects and community-based renewable energy projects.

3. The University of Pennsylvania’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships:

• Focus: What the Netter Center supports is university-supported community school where school is the center of community activity.
• Key Features: The center has contractual working relations with school systems, where they offer internships, after school care, health care services, and adult education.
• Impact: Their community schools at the Netter Center have enhanced education, organizational values, as well as availability of services to learners.

4. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) Center for Service and Learning:

• Focus: The Center for Service and Learning at IUPUI encourages service-learning and community-based education for all IUPUI disciplines.
• Key Features: It also supports the colleges and schools with faculty development, students and community to enhance the valuable service learning.
• Impact: Through service learning, it has been found that student learning was improved, and the needs of the community addressed and students engaged in community projects.

The following is a review of diverse cases that show how institutions can develop successful models of community-engaged scholarship. From these models, institutions can borrow and best prepare and execute their own context-relevant and relevant, impactful CES programs as a win-win for the student participants and the community.

The Future of Community-Engaged Scholarship in Higher Education

CES is a dynamic concept because years of practice have led to its constant growth based on the changes in society and new tendencies. As we look towards the future, several key factors are likely to shape the trajectory of CES in higher education:

1. Emphasis on Equity and Social Justice:

CES will progressively be seen as a justice instrument in the fight against the structural injustice treatment. In the light of this, institutions will require to undertake a self-analysis of their CES practices so as to determine the extent of how they are making society a better place. This is therefore achieved through such foci as identifying with marginalized communities for their needs and addressing structural power dynamics in belonging to communities.

2. Integration of Technology:

Technology will become more involved in the support of working with communities. Web 2.0 technologies such as social media and communication applications, as well as data mapping tools can be used to meet and engage with the community partners and keep records on the work done by CES. However, mindful must also be paid to the discrete usage of technology and to the fact that it must not widen already existing digital gaps.

3. Focus on Global Engagement:

Whereby, CES will grow from just being local but will turn into more elaborate forms of collaboration in the world. This will mean that institutions are going to have to find new ways of doing business across cultures, as well as tackling global issues.

4. Interdisciplinary Approaches:

It is therefore correct to believe that complicated social issues present multi-disciplinary causes. Interdisciplinary collaborations would continue to characterize CES as specific problems would be solved by scholars from different fields.

5. Emphasis on Sustainability:

University and college administrators will need to work out ways to enhance the sustainability of CES programs. This may require, for example, obtaining various financial resources, strengthening the CES community, as well as mainstreaming CES into the organizational environment.

6. Growing Recognition and Support:

CES is starting to be appreciated as a useful approach to instruction, scholarship, and outreach. This is with support of the increasing number of institutions that are coming with centers of engagement with the society, CES academic programs, and offering assistance to faculty and students with special involvement in CES.

Through these trends, and by anticipating the challenges and benefits that will come with them, higher education institutions can assure community-engaged scholarship remains vibrant and contributes to the societal realization of a more just, equitable and sustainable future.

Conclusion

Bridging students to engage in community-engaged scholarship (CES) in higher learning institution is being part and parcel in the future. It prepares students to have the knowledge, skills right and values that enable one to be an active person in society to help in the improvement of society’s wellbeing. The implementation of CES means that institutions can build meaningful connections between academe and the public and create partnerships beneficial for both by focusing on solving societal issues.

In this guide, I have presented many-faceted advantages of CES, the main approaches to students’ readiness, as well as, disadvantages and prospects. Here we have demonstrated how CES can improve students’ learning outcomes, personal development, as well as encouraged the development of civically responsible behaviors. We have also looked at how institutions can develop supports for CES through curricular and faculty formation, community, and student involvement.

However, as we look at the future, it is important to set our pace to the realization that CES is a process that needs constant mulling, evolving, and sharing. Thus, common sense of mutuality, respect for one another and mutual agreement in decision-making will assert that CES is to keep up as a favorable force in higher learning institutions as well as the rest of the world.

We invite you to engage with the materials and strategies presented in this guide and to contribute your practice with ideas and recommendations about the preparation of students for CE Scholar. In partnership, we can work toward a vision for higher education in which institutions and their students are intimately engaged with the surroundings and where positive change for society results from learners’ efforts.

References:

• Bringle, R. G., & Hatcher, J. A. (1995). A service-learning curriculum for faculty. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 2(1), 112-122.
• Jacoby, B. (2009). Service-learning in higher education: Concepts and practices. Jossey-Bass.
• Saltmarsh, J., Hartley, M., & Clayton, P. H. (2009). Democratic engagement white paper. New England Resource Center for Higher Education, University of Massachusetts Boston.
• Strand, K., Marullo, S., Cutforth, N., Stoecker, R., & Donohoe, P. (2003). Community-based research and higher education: Principles and practices. Jossey-Bass.