Community engagement as a cornerstone enabling learning and teaching and research in the post modern world (original) (raw)
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In setting the context, this review starts by defining 'public engagement‘ and then reflects on how 'community engagement‘ sits within it. The term 'public engagement‘ denotes the myriad ways in which universities engage the public with their work. This review aims to act as a resource to support institutions and academic staff in promoting and embedding public engagement within the curriculum in the UK. It explores a number of definitions which encompass this activity, and outlines the contexts in which it takes place. The main body of the review presents key forms of public engagement in the curriculum, and reflects on challenges related to teaching and learning to be considered to ensure it can be embedded. It concludes with a summary of key points arising from the review and makes recommendations for further research. It has found a wide range of activities that fall within this designation as well as overlaps and inconsistencies of terminology. This, together with the complexities surrounding the activities, implies researching and practising in the field is a challenge, albeit a stimulating one. Community engagement and civic responsibility is a key element in the mission of many universities as they express their desire to make a difference in their constituent communities. Some pursue this mission explicitly and support academics, students and communities in their endeavours. Community engagement through the curriculum requires a measure of institutional investment in order to support, recognise and reward students and staff, and to ensure optimal benefit to the institution and the community. As of writing, increasing numbers of institutions have become signatories to the NCCPE‘s Manifesto for Public Engagement. This growing commitment within the UK is supported by international agreements and declarations whereby universities across the world have pledged to advance and increase their partnerships with, relevance to, and positive impact on, local and global communities.
University-Community Engagement: Current Tensions and Future Trends
International journal of African higher education, 2020
Community engagement has become a key pillar of Higher Education that is intricately linked to the traditional academic roles of teaching and research. Meaningful collaboration with relevant external stakeholders that addresses critical socioeconomic and developmental challenges in society is of strategic interest to many Higher Education Institutions. However, building significant and sustainable relationships between universities and external stakeholders is a complex task that is fraught with tensions that impede the achievement of set goals. A desktop documentary analysis was conducted using a literature review to examine these tensions with the objective of shedding light on how they impede institutionalisation of community engagement within universities. The article also identifies likely future trends in community engagement in the Higher Education sector, with particular emphasis on the impact of technology.
Research within the context of community engagement
Higher Education in South Africa: A …, 2009
Community engagement is a concept with a complexity of meanings, approaches and application. Derived from the scholarship of engagement of Boyer, community engagement reflects a commitment to relevance within the context of higher education institutions. The chapter aims to explore the issues that emerge in the continuing debate around engagement with communities. This is done from the perspective of the global era that impacts on knowledge production which is integral to the mission of community engagement. The South African response to engagement also reflects conflicting interpretations and imperatives that influence the application of community engagement in universities. The dichotomies in the conceptualisations of community engagement influence higher educational institutions on three levels: that of management, the academics in their teaching and learning, and the community. The concepts of knowledge and power have implications for all three levels of engagement. These will all impact on efficacy and sustainability of engagement efforts. The issues and challenges on these levels are highlighted for further debate. Possible avenues for research on the level of management, the academic and the community are suggested.
Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 2018
This article seeks to address what it means to be an ‘engaged’ university and, in so doing, to contribute to current discourses – in a fast growing field – about how to collaborate with communities for meaningful social transformation. As a group of researchers from the faculty of education in a South African university, we share our thinking and the theoretical notions that underpinned our planning and executing of a 3-year engagement with a rural secondary school. In asking ‘How might dialogic engagement of the university community and the community the university serves, enable agency towards active citizenship in the context of education?’, a collaborative engagement project between and within a school-community and the university was initiated. In this conceptual article, we unpack and discuss a critical university and school-community engagement with, and interpretation of, three key concepts that underpinned it: dialogic engagement, community and active citizenship. We conclu...
Community– university engagement – global terms and terrain
Universities are both apart from and a part of society. They are apart in the sense that they provide a critically important space for grasping the world as it is and – importantly – for re-imagining the world as it ought to be. The academic freedom to pursue the truth and let the chips fall where they may isn’t a luxury – in fact it is a vital necessity in any society that has the capability for self-renewal. But universities are also a part of our societies. What’s the point unless the accumulated knowledge, insight and vision are put at the service of the community? With the privilege to pursue knowledge comes the civic responsibility to engage and put that knowledge to work in the service of humanity. (Higgins, 2012).
Community University Engagement Initiatives: Trends and Progress
2014
Granados Sanchez, J., and Puig, G. (2014) Community University Engagement initiatives: trends and progress. In: Escrigas, C., Granados Sanchez, J., Hall, B.L., Tandon, R., Puig, G. and Forns, M. (eds.) Higher Education in the World 5. Knowledge, Engagement and Higher Education: Contributing to Social Change. Series: GUNi series on the social commitment of universities (5). Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, pp. 113-126. ISBN 9780230535565
REIMAGINING UNIVERSITY-COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
South African Journal of Higher Education, 2023
Keywords: universities, community engagement, political economy, praxis epistemology, academic capitalism, ratings and rankings regimes, EdTech. The Second Higher Education Conference convened jointly by Universities South Africa (USAf) and the Council on Higher Education (CHE) provided the space to reflect, collectively and critically on the notion of “The Engaged University”. This article is based on a keynote address to this conference in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the environmental and inequality crises confronting South Africa and the world. After an examination of the societal context of universities, the article discusses critical issues in relation to university-community engagement. It attempts to address these issues by firstly providing an overview of the long-standing debates in our country concerning the academy’s responsibilities and accountability to various constituencies beyond the universities gates and the imperative to rethink scholarship to engage communities meaningfully. Secondly, it will provide an appreciation of the overarching political economy of higher education and the corporatisation of universities before drawing conclusions about the processes that impede or allow the university to be responsive to community engagement. The article will provide a few historical and contemporaneous examples of the work of university-based researchers with various communities. It will highlight the research of those who have an orientation toward working class communities and aim to democratise knowledge production. The article argues that the latter’s “praxis epistemology” (Amini 2017) assists us in reimagining university-community relations.
Unraveling University–Community Engagement : A Literature Review
Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 2021
University-community engagement has been implemented by an increasing number of universities across the world, in a period characterized by growing international competition. The growing interest in university-community engagement has resulted in a variety of definitions and a high level of complexity as to what the concept means and what it entails. Using a literature review, this paper offers a critical assessment of the academic literature on university-community engagement. The paper aims to provide insight into trends, commonalities and variation in the literature, to enable the identification of an agenda for future research. Four main gaps in the literature are distinguished. The paper calls for a more critical conceptual discussion that should be supported by empirical research. The paper suggests to broaden the theoretical lens, and the use of particular research approaches such as theories of change, in order to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the concept of universitycommunity engagement.
Multidisciplinary Approach to University-Community Engagement
This article is a case study examining a multidisciplinary model used by the University of Newcastle’s Coal River Working Party (CRWP) in New South Wales to facilitate university-community engagement. Community engagement in relation to universities is an intrinsic part of their mission and increasingly there is greater participation by staff, students and alumni as an important resource for the whole community. The CRWP is one group associated with the University of Newcastle taking up this mission facilitating university- community engagement. The CRWP is using a multidisciplinary approach to bring many participants together around Australasian Journal of University-Community Engagement 77 the themes of history and heritage. Members of the group include academics, students, and people from the wider community, as well as government and non-government organisations, to engage on matters associated with Coal River. This model encourages active participation by diverse groups and individuals with a focus on ‘place’ and facilitates research and fosters new opportunities for community-university engagement.
2018
This publication defines the concept of community engagement in higher education and its role in contemporary debates about the role of higher education in the 21st century and maps international initiatives and projects that have attempted to develop frameworks for monitoring/measuring community engagement. The publication identifies the needs, gaps and opportunities for a European framework for community engagement of higher education.