The construction of university-community partnerships: entangled perspectives (original) (raw)
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2021
Meaningful university-community partnerships (UCPs) can contribute in transforming stereotypes, and promoting collaboration and social learning for students and community members. However, preparing students in higher education to engage in their civic responsibility through UCP-based pedagogy is difficult. This paper illustrates and critically analyses a UCP model practised in an informal curriculum programme at a residential college in a Southeast Asian university to promote holistic learning through community engagement. Engaging with different communities in unique ways is achieved through the UCP, partnerships that were established with institutions and organisations that work with marginalised and vulnerable groups like migrant workers, elderly, youth-at-risk, and more. Grounded in empirical evidence obtained from 31 indepth interviews and five focus group discussions with students, and eight in-depth interviews with community partners, this paper systematically analyses the a...
2010
It is often argued that universities and academic institutions can not continue to be centre of knowledge excellence by isolating their entities from the society and community where they belong to. This is perhaps the reason why the university-community partnership has been one of the major areas of concern for the different higher education stake-holders during recent past. The trend shows that the universities are now increasingly looking for the innovative ways to develop and strengthen partnership with the society and community in view of the continuous pressure for being purpose-oriented and relevant. Traditionally the gap between the universities and community organizations has been wider and also not very cooperative. Historically, partnerships between universities and community organizations have been either non-existent or unconstructive; this state of affairs being the result of opposing philosophies and practices. This alienation has resulted in characterizations of the ‘...
A Critical Approach to University-Community Partnerships: Reflecting on the Diverse Realities
Educational Research for Social Change, 2021
Postapartheid South Africa has seen a greater focus on community engagement by universities, and its inclusion as one of the core focus areas of higher education in addition to teaching and research. This focus on engagement with the community was ignited by a requirement to enhance the university's social responsibility through establishing partnerships with the communities it serves. Higher education institutions have traditionally positioned themselves in engagement projects as the singular organisation that has knowledge to offer when compared to what the community can offer. In this paper, we propose a critical engagement process to enhance collaboration in engagement projects. Our qualitative study resides in a critical theory paradigm, and we used drawings as well as narrative free writing to reflect and explore our perceptions regarding community engagement. We used the collaborative self-study methodology because it provides opportunities for critical and self-critical ...
The ecosystem of partnerships: A case study of a long-term university-community partnership
2010
This article presents a case study describing a robust fortyeight-year partnership between the Boy Scouts of America, Brigham Young University, Utah Valley State College, and others in an annual merit badge Powwow 1 for Boy Scouts. Service-learning occurs as five hundred university students and faculty prepare for and teach merit badge classes to five thousand Boy Scouts as part of this Powwow. The article presents the history and operation of the Powwow, describes benefits to participants, and identifies some of the factors that contribute to the enduring nature of the partnership. The case study suggests that partnerships are similar to ecosystems, in which context and ideology and participant and organizational goals overlap to ensure partnership adaptation and survival. This particular partnership has demonstrated that a service-learning program with all its complexity and propensity to dissolution is more than self-perpetuating; it is actually partnership-perpetuating.
Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning
The research investigates the processes and characteristics of community-valued undergraduate community service-learning (CSL) initiatives that are housed within long-term community-university partnerships (CUPs). Using a case study design, the study used in-depth, semi-structured interviews, document review, and observation to understand three CSL/CUPs within a small, liberal arts university in Atlantic Canada. In total, 54 interviews were conducted with individuals involved with the partnerships, including the community organization partners, staff/volunteers of the community organizations, community residents, students, faculty, and university administrators. Part of the analysis process involved co-writing the stories of each of the CSL/CUPs with the community organization partner and the faculty member partner from each CSL/CUP. From the three CSL/CUP stories and current literature, a conceptual model was developed. This model depicts the processes (development, co-creation, implementation, and care) and key characteristics (reciprocity, dialogue, and praxis) of long-term CUPs that are committed to a shared domain and community-valued development outcomes.
University-community partnerships: A framework and an exemplar
Participatory community research: Theories and methods in action., 2004
University-community partnerships are at the heart of community research and action. In these partnerships, university researchers work in collaboration with a variety of settings and programs, involving community leaders, agency staff, or members of grassroots and self-help groups. This chapter reviews the literature on university-community partnerships and provides a framework of 10 characteristics that are typical of successful partnership endeavors. We illustrate these principles with an example of a collaborative research project undertaken by a DePaul University research team that has engaged in a 10-year partnership with a community-based, self-run, residential substance abuse recovery program called Oxford House. Through a review of this collaborative effort, the authors examine the distinct opportunities and constraints in adopting unconventional methods of inquiry and action, highlighting a number of practical and theoretical issues that have been raised as the research team has striven to maintain a mutually beneficial alliance throughout the endeavor. The experience of the research team demonstrates the benefits to be gained from cultivating and maintaining collaborative university-community partnerships.
Community University Research Partnerships A Critical Reflection and an Alternative Experience
In recent years community-university partnerships have become the 'flavour of the month'. There are pressures from funding bodies such as SSHRC on the academic side and Social Development Canada (HRDC or whatever its current incarnation is) on the non-profit side to build partnerships on research projects. In this discussion, I will ask how can research partnerships be built on principles of equality and mutual interest, in which each group benefits. More important for me is to ask how can struggles for social and economic justice be furthered by these relationships? The discussion will begin with some contextual and wider social questions, examine aspects of the SSHRC CURA program and conclude with a practice example of the collaboration between the Immigrant Workers Centre and the researchers involved in this project over the past 4 years and more recently with Solidarity Across Borders. Lessons from this experience will be shared.
A University-Community Partnership to Change Public Policy: Pre-Conditions and Processes
This paper describes a project aimed at promoting major change in government policy toward the growing problem of food insecurity in Israel. The project was initiated by Ben-Gurion University in collaboration with community service and social advocacy organizations. This joint action led to a dramatic change in government activity. The problem of food insecurity moved from a state of obfuscation to the establishment of a special ministerial committee mandated to develop policy guidelines for a national school lunch program. For higher education to contribute to the community, necessary preconditions must exist: Is the faculty committed to promotion of social change? Do the organizational and community environments legitimize university-sponsored activity for such purposes? Is the faculty competent to act effectively in the community and adopt strategies for political influence? Are there organizational mechanisms, action frameworks, and community contacts that enable collaboration for the purposes of social change? This case discussion uses the