Promotion and Tenure for Community Engaged Research: An Examination of Promotion and Tenure Support for Community Engaged Research at three Universities Collaborationg through a Clinical and Translational Science Award
This study measured faculty perception of how three institutions funded by a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) support community-engaged research in the promotion and tenure process. The study found that faculty view support for community-engaged research with some reserve, with only 36% agreeing that community-engaged research is valued in promotion and tenure process. The authors conclude that more faculty members will conduct community-engaged research when it is rewarded by their institution’s promotion and tenure committees. Marrero, D. G., Hardwick, E. J., Staten, L. K., Savaiano, D. A., Odell, J. D., Comer, K. F., & Saha, C. (2013). Promotion…
Multicultural service-learning and community-based research as a model approach to promote social justice
Social justice and multicultural awareness are inextricably linked (Rosner-Salazar, 64). This article calls for the use of multicultural service-learning and community-based research in curricula to train students as future “service-providers” in diverse, disenfranchised communities. To support this argument, the author highlights the importance of community-academic partnerships, describing how they promote cultural competency and create opportunities for students to apply methods and theory. The author provides examples of courses that empowered students and community members and concludes with recommendations for scholars, evaluators, educators, and activists on how to engage in communities and promote social justice. Rosner-Salazar, T.A. (2003). Multicultural service-learning and…
Productive tensions—engaging geography students in participatory action research with communities
This study discusses an undergraduate module on participatory geographies that involved students in co-producing research with community partners. The authors—a student, two community partners, and a professor—describe the tensions in achieving the module’s diverse aims, and suggest that these tensions are productive for teaching, learning, research, and the needs of community organizations. Pain, R., Finn, M., Bouveng, R., & Ngobe, G. (2013). Productive tensions—engaging geography students in participatory action research with communities. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 37(1), 28-43. Full Text.
Studying the professional lives and work of faculty
Community engagement is one of the major innovations that has occurred in higher education over the last 20 years. At the center of this innovation are faculty members because of their intimate ties to the academic mission. This article examines the progress that has been made in understanding this critical area of faculty work. It builds on past research to consider how the conceptualization of faculty community engagement influences the kinds of questions we ask about it and the kinds of recruitment, support, and professional growth we provide. Implications of the study and for the practice of faculty community engagement…
Early Career Academic Researchers and COmmunity Based Participatory Research: Wrestling Match or Dancing Partners?
Early career faculty members at academic medical centers face unique obstacles when engaging in CBPR. This paper discusses challenges and opportunities for solutions pertaining to mentorship, time demands, unfamiliarity of colleagues with CBPR approaches, ethical review regulations, and publication and promotion. Lowry, L. W., & Ford-Paz, R. (2013). Early career academic researchers and community-based participatory research: Wrestling match or dancing partners? Clinical and Translational Research, 1-3. Full Text.
Dedication to community engagement: A higher education conundrum?
This qualitative study reports on the impact of institutional funding for community engagement on faculty and staff’s professional role and practice of community engaged work. The results demonstrate ways that institutional funds impact faculty and staff’s perceptions of community partner capacity, effects on student learning, their own professional roles, and the value of their community engaged work. While many results were positive, such as relevance of academic work in communities and the creation of university-community partnerships, a conundrum was also revealed—a tension between the University’s public articulation of the significance of community engagement and faculty concerns that the traditional research…
Institutionalizing faculty engagement through research, teaching, and service at research universities
This paper presents a study in which 20 faculty members at 15 research institutions in the United States were interviewed to investigate their motivations and accomplishments in pursuing engaged scholarship. The authors report on the support received and the barriers encountered by the faculty in their engaged scholarship endeavors; this data is then linked to a discussion on how structures and leadership need to change for institutional policies and practices to effectively integrate engagement activities. Moore, T.L., & Ward, K. (2010) Institutionalizing faculty engagement through research, teaching, and service at research universities. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, Fall 2010,…
Broadening the Definition of Scholarship: A Strategy to Recognize and Reward Clinician teachers
This chapter describes a school of medicine’s attempt to reform policies and procedures for promotion and tenure in ways that recognize and reward teaching and clinical practice. By restructuring faculty appointments on a single track and redefining scholarship to include teaching, integration and application (Boyer, 1990), the school sought to reform a practice that consigned faculty who emphasize teaching and clinical practice to second-class status. The authors provide profiles of clinician-teacher promotion candidates, both successful and not, which include alternative forms of scholarship in teaching, integration and application. While this case study was not focused on recognition and rewards for…
C. Wright Mill’s friendly critique of service learning and an innovative response: Cross-institutional collaborations for community-based research
C. Wright Mills would be a “friendly critic” of service learning, acknowledging benefits while being critical of ways that particular practices can perpetuate institutional power inequalities. The authors discuss Mills’ stance and use CBPR projects undertaken together by students from an elite university and a smaller minority-serving university as a case study to determine practices for effective collaboration between diverse institutions. Marullo, S., Moayedi, R., & Cooke, D. (2009). C. Wright Mill’s friendly critique of service learning and an innovative response: Cross-institutional collaborations for community-based research. Teaching Sociology, 37(1), 61-75. Full Text.
Transdisciplinarity and training the next generation of researchers: Problem-centered approaches to research and problem-based learning
This article suggests that transdisciplinary approaches to social research, which are problem centered, are necessary for addressing contemporary social problems. Thus, it suggests that it is important to teach students how to think and design research in transdisciplinary ways. The article details how transdisciplinary approaches to research can be coupled with problem-based learning (PBL) in order to teach students responsive problem-solving strategies and qualitative research skills. Leavy, P. (2012). Transdisciplinarity and training the next generation of researchers: Problem-centered approaches to research and problem-based learning. International Review of Qualitative Research, 5(2), 205-223. Full Text.
Pursuing engaged scholarship in an age of austerity: A postcard from Memphis
Growing numbers of university presidents and senior administrators have come to understand the value of having a robust public scholarship agenda. Yet, ever-shrinking resources can make engaged scholarship seem like a risky proposition for young faculty members. This paper explores what it takes to get faculty to leave the high road of traditional positivist research and wade in the muddy waters of engagement, and what is at stake then they do. Lambert-Pennington, K. (2012). Pursuing engaged scholarship in an age of austerity: A postcard from Memphis. Metropolitan Universities, 23(1), 111-125. Full Text.
Outreach and Engagement in Promotion and Tenure
In 2001, Michigan State University’s Office of University Outreach and Engagement significantly revised the university’s reappointment, promotion, and tenure review form to embed opportunities to report outreach and engagement throughout the form. The revisions reflected MSU’s definition of outreach and engagement as a form of scholarship that cuts across institutional missions of teaching, research, and service; emphasized the use of multiple forms of evidence to document quality; and encouraged reporting of integrated scholarship. Six years later, researchers examined how and to what extent outreach and engagement activities were reported on the revised form. The study focused on over 200 forms…
Tips for Constructing a Promotion and Tenure Dossier that Documents Engaged Scholarship Endeavors
As more faculty practice engaged scholarship and as more institutions value this work, scholars are eager to improve engaged scholarship dossiers for promotion and tenure. This paper focuses on how to strengthen the engaged scholarship dossier. The author overviews the engaged scholarship dossier context, explains the significance of documenting engaged scholarship, presents four steps for documenting engaged scholar¬ship in the dossier, and provides a list of best practices for faculty to build their engaged scholarship dossiers. Franz, N.K. (2011). Tips for constructing a promotion and tenure dossier that documents engaged scholarship endeavors. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 15(3),…
Navigating the Boundaries of the Scholarship of Engagement at a Regional Comprehensive University
In this study faculty members at Western Carolina University examine their university’s experience with integrating the Boyer scholarship model (with an emphasis on the scholarship of engagement) into the institution’s departmental and institutional culture. Their study analyzed promotion and tenure documents from across departments. The authors conclude that the adoption of the Boyer model was a semi-radical process, with unique definitional, conceptual, and logistical challenges that resulted in a diverse array of practices and approaches across the university’s departments and colleges. Nevertheless the process also gave rise to a campus actively engaged in productive and stimulating conversations to discover what…
Strategies for Creating an Engaged Campus: Faculty Development, an Advanced Service Service Learning Toolkit
Creating faculty reward and evaluation systems that take faculty community based work into account is a critical step in moving a campus toward engagement. Here you will find a wealth of material, including handbooks, policies, and criteria, from colleges and universities that have grappled with this issue, some of which are research institutions. Campus Compact, Strategies for creating an engaged campus: Faculty development, an advanced service-learning toolkit. Full Text.
Terms of engagement: Community engagement structures and policies on UNC Campuses
Although community engagement is increasingly recognized as a core value of universities, much is unknown about how universities institutionalize community engagement into the identity and culture of a campus. The author uses the Carnegie Foundation engagement designation to examine how engagement structures and policies vary within ten University of North Carolina campuses. Variations in engagements strategies are identified and discussed. Krisel, C. (2010). Terms of engagement: Community engagement structures and policies on UNC Campuses. (Masters thesis). Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina. Full Text.
Facilitating action research: a study of coaches, their experiences, and their reflections on leading teachers in the process of practitioner inquiry
This exploratory study examines the experience of action research coaches who coach teachers on inquiry. Focus group interviews were conducted with novice and experienced coaches, and four challenges arose that spanned across both groups, despite the level of experience: time, coaching wondering development, coaching data analysis, and administration. Implications and future research directions based on this study are discussed. Krell, D. E. (2012). Facilitating action research: a study of coaches, their experiences, and their reflections on leading teachers in the process of practitioner inquiry. Professional Development in Education, 38(5), 827-844. Full Text.
Student perceptions of community-based research partners and the politics of knowledge
This study assessed the perceptions of community partners held by undergraduate students in a seminar focused on community-based research. Evidence is presented indicating that appropriately structured undergraduate courses can (and should) encourage students to recognize community partners as valuable sources of knowledge. Kane, E. W. (2012). Student perceptions of community-based research partners and the politics of knowledge. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 19(1), 5-16. Full Text.
Competency-based faculty development in community-engaged scholarship
The Faculty for the Engaged Campus initiative (FEC) of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH) developed a one-year competency-based faculty development pilot program designed to achieve two objectives: increase competencies in community engagement and community engaged scholarship and encourage participants to serve as ambassadors of engaged scholarship. This article describes the components of the pilot-program, and analyzes its impact and effectiveness by examining participant surveys and interviews. Findings, critical program features, and lessons learned are explored. Jordan, C. Doherty, W.J., Jones-Webb, R., Cook, N., Dubrow, G., & Mendenhall, T.J. (2012). Competency-based faculty development in community-engaged scholarship. Journal of Higher Education Outreach…
Investigating faculty learning in the context of community-engaged scholarship
This study investigates faculty learning resulting from a faculty development program implemented at North Carolina State University to build capacity for community-engaged scholarship. Implications of this study include the value-added by examining faculty learning through reflection products as well as self-report scales, the need to build faculty capacity for learning through reflection, and the proposal of new strategies for documenting faculty learning from faculty development programs. Jameson, J. K., Clayton, P. H., Jaeger, A. J., & Bringle, R. G. (2012). Investigating faculty learning in the context of community-engaged scholarship. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 18(2), 40-55. Full Text.
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