Content with Topics : Engaged Scholarship

Advising graduate students doing community-engaged dissertation research: The advisor-advisee relationship

This qualitative study examines the relationship between doctoral students doing community-engaged dissertation research and faculty advisors, providing literary background and a descriptive outline of the study’s participants, methods, data collection/analysis, and limitations. The findings reveal five characteristics of such relationships: (1) background and experience matter; (2) faculty advisors and advisees are co-learners; (3) the advisor-advisee relationship can approach a synergistic state; (4) faculty advisors often serve as interpreters and interveners; and (5) community-engaged dissertation studies often lack “struc¬tural” support. The authors conclude with two practical steps for faculty to serve as effective mentors: (1) be sensitive to, and learn from,…

Institutionalization of community-engaged scholarship at institutions that are both land-grant and research universities

This article reports on North Carolina State University’s community-engaged scholarship faculty development program established in 2009–2010. Literature that grounded the development of the program is first presented, followed by sections on program design, implementation, and products produced by the participants. The authors reflect on how institutional identity as both a land-grant and research university leads to four main tensions: funding support, reappoint¬ment, promotion, and tenure policies, and faculty commitment. In conclusion, the article asserts that this dual-identity creates a contradiction that challenges the institutionalization of engaged scholarship. Jaeger, A.J., Jameson, J.K., & Clayton, P. (2012). Institutionalization of community-engaged scholarship at…

Reflections on community-engaged scholarship faculty development and institutional identity at Ohio University

Ohio University was funded by the Faculty for the Engaged Campus initiative to design and implement a faculty development program comprised of three major components to increase faculty competency in engaged scholarship: (1) a Faculty Fellowship in Engaged Scholarship, (2) the Community-Based Participatory Research Learning Community, and (3) the co-editing of a book, Participatory Partnerships for Social Action and Research. This paper explores the implementation of the faculty development program and concludes with a discussion on two lessons learned. Hamel-Lambert, J.M., Millesen, J.L., Harter, L.M. & Slovak, K. (2012). Reflections on community-engaged scholarship faculty development and institutional identity at Ohio…

Engaging Academia in Community Research: Overcoming Obstacles and Providing Incentives

In 2007, in order to learn more about the disconnect between university goals to be engaged in their home community and a university culture and structure that devalue or lack support for that engagement CUES initiated a scan, summarized in this report, highlighting an upward trend: An increasing number of universities (particularly land grant and urban universities) are emphasizing the importance of engaged-community research and starting to address the mismatch between university goals for engaged-community research and the university culture and structure that typically do not value and nurture such research. The core information for this report was gathered through…

Enhancing student research through a virtual participatory action research project: Student benefits and administrative challenges

This article argues that graduate students in a distance learning environment can gain meaningful research experience through a virtual participatory action research project. A case study of a virtual participatory research project with graduate students is presented and evaluated. The administrative issues that arose from adhering to the democratic participatory action research process under virtual constraints are discussed, and recommendations for addressing these issues are provided. Gordon, S. M., & Edwards, J. L. (2012). Enhancing student research through a virtual participatory action research project: Student benefits and administrative challenges. Action Research, 10(2), 205-220. Full Text.

Collaborative Futures: Critical Reflections on Publicly Active Graduate Education

This book places graduate education at the center of ongoing efforts to legitimize publicly engaged scholarship within the academic profession. The inspiration, resources, and usable frameworks for engaged scholarship included in the book can be a resource for graduate students, as well as the faculty and administrators who mentor them. The book powerfully indicates both the need and the means to change institutional cultures and forge a publicly active path for graduate education. Gilvin, A., Roberts, G. M., & Martin, C. (Eds.). (2012). Collaborative Futures: Critical Reflections on Publicly Active Graduate Education. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. Full Text.

Telling Contested Stories: Conflicts of Accountability in Engaged Scholarship

In this essay, the author, a scholar of American religious life who has extensively studied ex-gay ministries, reflects on her response to being asked to publicly comment on a highly controversial NPR story about sexual reorientation counseling. The author describes how her identity as an engaged scholar compelled her to publish an article about the NPR story, despite the complexity of her feelings about the topic and inner conflict about where her accountability lies as a researcher who asked about, and heard, highly intimate, moving, vulnerable stories about a practice that she finds personally problematic and politically dangerous. The author…

Building capacity for community-engaged scholarship: Evaluation of the faculty development component of the Faculty for the Engaged Campus Initiative

This paper reports the results of the faculty development program of the Faculty for Engaged Campus Initiative of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH). The authors provide background on the objectives of the Initiative and outline various components of their Community-Engaged Scholarship Faculty Development charrette: selection process, self-assessment tools, curriculum, and strategies for faculty development, and development of team action plans. The evaluation findings are then examined, suggesting that “external funding, ongoing support beyond a one-time charrette, and a set of standard curricular tools can help institutions implement community-engaged scholarship faculty development programs on their campuses” (Gelmon et al, 2012, p….

Moving from place to place: Exploring the complexities of being an academic and activist in/for Appalachia

In this paper, the author reflects on her experience of being an academic and activist simultaneously, and offers recommendations to those experiencing that same dichotomy. She highlights her struggles as an academic, activist, and native working in Eastern Kentucky, and the ways in which she attempts to blur the line between those roles. Throughout the paper, the author emphasizes the power of place(s) in shaping her understanding of Appalachia and her duties as an academic/activist. Fickey, A. (2012). Moving from place to place: Exploring the complexities of being an academic and activist in/for Appalachia. PRISM: A Journal of Regional Engagement,…

Metropolitan Universities

This issue of Metropolitan Universities includes papers emanating from the work of the Community-Engaged Scholarship for Health Collaborative, a three-year (2004-2007) initiative designed to build capacity for community-engaged scholarship (CES) in health professional schools, several of which address issues related to review, promotion and tenure of engaged scholars.  Of note is one article (Freeman, E., Gust, S., and Aloshen, D.) that provides perspective from community partners. Holland, B. & Bennett, H. (2009). Metropolitan universities. 20(2).  Indianapolis: Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. 

Evaluation of the Prevention Programs That Work curriculum to teach use of public health evidence to community practitioners

This study evaluated the Prevention Programs that Work training curriculum, which teaches practitioners from community-based organizations to locate, choose, adopt or adapt, and evaluate an evidence-based program. Participants in the training completed a pretest and posttest; Analysis revealed significant improvements in self-ratings across all training competencies from baseline to posttest. These results show that a comprehensive curriculum can build competencies in the use of evidence-based strategies among community practitioners. Escoffery, C., Carvalho, M., & Kegler, M. C. (2012). Evaluation of the Prevention Programs That Work curriculum to teach use of public health evidence to community practitioners. Health Promotion Practice, 13(5),…

Community-based participatory research skills and training needs in a sample of academic researchers from a clinical and translational science center in the northeast

This study investigated the CBPR training needs of researchers interested in CBPR to inform efforts to build infrastructure for conducting community-engaged research. A survey was administered to 127 academic health researchers affiliated with Harvard. Findings revealed that many respondents did not have the comprehensive package of CBPR skills, reporting a need for training in a variety of CBPR skill sets. Further, the number of respondents who wanted a mentor in CBPR exceeded the number of respondents who were willing to act as a mentor, which suggests an important area for development. DiGirolamo, A., Geller, A. C., Tendulkar, S. A., Patil,…

Why Faculty Promotion and Tenure Matters to Community Partners

Three community partners, experienced with and engaged in partnerships between universities and communities with varying challenges of success and failure, examine the specific challenge of review, promotion, and tenure for community-engaged faculty and its impact on the community. They explain how retaining and valuing community-engaged faculty who can both represent the academy to the community and bring the community into the academy are essential to helping secure the common good. Freeman E, Gust S, Aloshen D. (2009). Why faculty promotion and tenure matters to community partners. Metropolitan Universities Journal, 20(2), 87-103. Full Text.

Empowering promotores de salud to engage in community-based participatory research

This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a community-based training program that empowers promotores (community health workers) to identify the health needs of recent Latino immigrants. The training program was a total of 30-hours, and included fieldwork accompanied by skills development in leadership, organization, interpersonal communication and survey implementation. The evaluation of the program demonstrated the feasibility of recruiting and engaging promotores to identify health priorities within their community. Cupertino, A. P., Suarez, N., Cox, L. S., Fernandez, C., Jaramillo, M. L., Morgan, A.,…Ellerbeck, E. F. (2013). Empowering promotores de salud to engage in community-based participatory research. Journal…

Results from the data and democracy initiative to enhance community-based organization data and research capacity

This study evaluated an initiative designed to increase community-based organizations’ data and research capacity through a 3-day train-the-trainer course on community health assessments. The results of the evaluation suggest that an intensive, short-term training program can achieve large immediate gains in data and research self-efficacy in community-based organization staff. In addition, the results show initial evidence that such a training program can achieve longer-term behavior change related to use of data and research skills. Carroll-Scott, A., Toy, P., Wyn, R., Zane, J. I., & Wallace, S. (2012). Results from the data and democracy initiative to enhance community-based organization data and…

Exploring how social media can enhance the teaching of action research

This article explores how social media have been used to enhance the teaching and learning of action research. The authors discuss their experience with teaching an action research module in the ABCD program, which uses Web 2.0 technologies and social media to up-skill people who are ‘under-employed’ in South Wales, UK. The authors found that the module’s blog, chat, and forum tools were used by students to deepen their understanding of action research. Carroll, F., Jenkins, A., Woodward, C., Kop, R., & Jenkins, E. (2012). Exploring how social media can enhance the teaching of action research. Action Research, 10(2), 170-188. Full…

Engaged scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Campus integration and faculty development

This article describes UNC Chapel Hill’s community-engaged scholarship faculty development activities and the impact of the activities on promotion and tenure initiatives and the university’s new academic plan. The authors describe the activities and report two main lessons learned: incorporation of these activities into existing university programs helps institutionalize them, and implementation of these activities into broader university programs widens the forum for the promotion of community engaged scholarship. Blanchard, L.W., Strauss, R.P., & Webb, L. (2012). Engaged scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Campus integration and faculty development. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement,…

More than research and ruble: How community research can change lives (including yours and your students)

In this article, the author shares lessons learned from personal experience engaging students in community research. The lessons are based on the author’s experiences teaching at a large research university, as well as at a liberal arts college in a professional school of psychology. Several strategies are provided for fostering the research process and community-based research with students. Aten, J. D. (2012). More than research and ruble: How community research can change lives (including yours and your students). Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 31(4), 314-319. Full Text.

Training partnership dyads for community-based participatory research: Strategies and lessons learned from the Community Engaged Scholars Program

This paper describes a unique campus-community training initiative for CBPR, the Community Engaged Scholars Program (CES-P), which is run by the South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research Center for Community Health Partnerships. The CES-P provides simultaneous training to community and academic partners during an 18-month program. Program elements include 12 monthly interactive training sessions, mentorship with apprentice learning opportunities, and funds for a CBPR pilot project. The development, implementation, evaluation framework, and initial outcomes of the CES-P are described. The CES-P has early promising outcomes as a potential model for CBPR training. Andrews, J. O., Cox, M. J., Newman, S….

Scholarship in Public: Knowledge creation and Tenure Policy in the Engaged University

In this comprehensive report Imagining America’s Tenure Team discusses and recommends rationales, policies, and strategies for strengthening public engagement within a continua of: 1) scholarship with which academic public engagement has full and equal standing, 2) scholarly and creative artifact, 3) professional pathways for faculty, including the choice to be a civic professional, and 4) actions for institutional change Emphasis is on enabling engaged faculty to prepare for and successfully gain tenure and promotion. Curricular models are also provided. Ellison, J & Eatman, T. (2008). Scholarship in public: Knowledge creation and tenure policy in the engaged university, Imagining America, Syracuse…