The Engaged University: Implications for Teaching, Scholarship, and Service at WCU

1. The Engaged University: Implications for Teaching, Scholarship, and Service at WCU Heather Laine Talley, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Carol Burton, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Studies Wednesday, August 10, 2011 New Faculty Orientation

2. Western Carolina University • 9,600 students • Rural, Western NC • 480+ full-time faculty • 130 degree programs • UNC System Member • Public, Comprehensive • Boyer Scholarship Model • Endowed Professors (25+) • Honors College (1400+) • Regional Stewardship • Engagement/Civic Mission • Established 1889

3. WCU Mission Western Carolina University creates engaged learning opportunities that incorporate teaching, research and service through residential, distance education and international experiences. The university focuses its academic programs, educational outreach, research and creative activities, and cultural activities to improve individual lives and enhance economic and community development in the region, state and nation.

4. What is an Engaged University? • Institutional emphasis/mission on engagement with community • Faculty research agendas that include community-based research • Faculty partnerships with external constituents that are reciprocal • Institutional and department support for faculty involvement with the community to support teaching, scholarship, and service

5. Community Engaged Teaching, Research, and Service Community Engagement Source: Community Campus Partnerships for Health

6. The Vision of an Engaged Faculty The aim is to imagine a [faculty] profession that is not so much narrowly circumscribed by teaching and learning with students in classrooms as one that is widely engaged—through scholarly, instructional, and outreach activities—in expansively teaching and leading us as institutions, communities, and a nation into a future of exciting possibilities. Gary Rhoades, Former General Secretary, AAUP

7. What is engaged scholarship? …scholarly or creative activity integral to a faculty member’s academic area; it encompasses different forms of making knowledge about, for, and with diverse publics and communities. Through a coherent, purposeful sequence of activities, it contributes to the public good and yields artifacts of public and intellectual value. Scholarship in Public: Knowledge Creation and Tenure Policy in the Engaged University

8. Scholarship at WCU Consistent with our mission and vision as a regionally engaged institution, Western Carolina University defines and assesses scholarship broadly through the Boyer Model.

9. Boyer Model of Scholarship

10. Differentiating Types of Scholarship • The scholarship of discovery - the pursuit of inquiry and investigation in search of new knowledge. • The scholarship of integration - connections across disciplines and advancing knowledge through synthesis. • The scholarship of application - how knowledge can be applied to the social issues of the times in a dynamic process that generates and tests new theory and knowledge. • The scholarship of teaching and learning - transmitting knowledge, but also transforming and extending it. • The scholarship of engagement - any of the above dimensions of scholarship connected to the understanding and solving of pressing social, civic, and ethical problems. Carnegie Inquiry into Faculty Scholarship, initiated in 1987

11. Is all engagement scholarship? The scholarship of engagement goes beyond the provision of service to those within or outside the university. To be considered scholarship, there must be an application of disciplinary expertise with results that can be shared and/or evaluated by peers (Boyer). Community Engagement Engaged Scholarship

12. Select Criteria for Assessing Engaged Scholarship… • Relationship to Public Good • Academic Fit • Intellectual Appropriateness and Urgency • Methodology • Results and Contributions • Communication and Dissemination • Reflective Critique

13. An Example of Engaged Scholarship: Dr. David Shapiro Madison Distinguished Professor of Communication Science and Disorders Composed an international team, including his students, to conduct cross-cultural comparisons on stuttering intervention techniques and generate a practitioner’s guide to working with stutterers in an international context.

14. Examples of Engaged Scholarship… Knotts, H. Gibbs, C. Donald Livingston, Gordon E. Mercer, & B.D. Friedman.(2004). Integrating teaching, learning, and community outreach: Western Carolina’s local government youth assembly. International Social Science Review, Spring-Summer. Retrieved from  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IMR/is_1-2_79/ai_n6145471/?tag=content;col1 Nichols, Jane, & T. Shorb. (2007). Sustainability education and teaching leadership. Academic Exchange Quarterly. Available at  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3325/is_2_11/ai_n29397975/

15. Tapley, Erin. (n.d.). Rural murals as public service. Community Works. Available at http://www.communityworksonline.org/

16. Questions for your group… • What is on your scholarship agenda? • What does engagement look like in your discipline? • How can engagement be incorporated into your scholarship? 15 minutes

17. What is engaged teaching? Engaged teaching is the creation of a learning environment (inside and outside the classroom) that incorporates all of the following: • inquiry and investigation (discovery) • synthesis (integration) • analysis and application • knowledge transmission and transformation • the understanding of real world social, civic, or ethical issues

18. What is engaged learning? Empowering students to integrate knowledge and skills from their academic and co-curricular experiences to become intentional participants in their own learning. To that end, WCU hopes to impact students’ understanding of self, their intellectual flexibility and versatility, and their capacity for integrated learning. 

19. WCU’s Pathway to Intentional Learning… Engaged teaching provides students with opportunities to: • Integrate information from a variety of contexts • Solve complex problems • Communicate effectively and responsibly • Practice civic engagement • Clarify and act on purpose and values

20. An Example of Engaged Teaching: Dr. Mickey Randolph Professor of Psychology Requires students in Behavior Modification course to conduct workshops in the community based on course content to raise awareness of childhood obesity and to develop strategies for healthy living.

21. An Example of Engaged Teaching: Dr. Chris Cooper Western Carolina University students in a graduate-level policy analysis course are researching and writing articles for Wikipedia as part of an initiative to improve the quality of public policy content on the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

22. Examples of Engaged Teaching & Service… William Richmond, associate professor of computer information systems, links students with “clients” such as the Jackson County Department of Social Services, to analyze needs and then recommend software or technology to improve efficiency.

23. Mae Miller Claxton, assistant professor of English, helped students connect “place” with a person’s identity through coursework interviewing Appalachian residents, service learning at Appalachian Homestead Farm Preserve and digital heritage projects.

24. Questions for your group… • What courses are you teaching this year? • What are some of your best teaching practices for facilitating synthesis and integration? • How will engagement be incorporated into your teaching? 15 minutes

25. What is engaged service? Alignment of faculty work and application of university goals and resources to local and regional issues through the development of reciprocal, collaborative partnerships and exchanges. Engaged service and community outreach include the exploration and application of knowledge, information, and resources in a broader context and for the greater public good (Boyer).

26. Community Service Vs. Engaged Faculty Service • While social and civic projects are important, they are not university service in and of themselves. Why not? • Examples of engaged service: consultation with local non-profits; development of technical reports for external companies; policy analysis for federal agencies; polling and surveying of residents for local governments; private company program evaluation.

27. Questions for your group… • To what university service are you particularly well suited? Service in your discipline? • What might engaged service look like for you? 15 minutes

28. More WCU Faculty Engagement Forest Stewards is an associated entity of Western Carolina University with a primary objective to give students hands-on experience in the design and implementation of sustainable forest stewardship practices

29. Dr. Peter Bates, Natural Resources Management • Assisted in the assessment and stewardship of more than 20,000 acres of forested land under diverse ownerships in western North Carolina. • Organized and supported stakeholder dialogue and biophysical assessment of three municipal watersheds in the region. Each of these watersheds was subsequently placed under a conservation easement that guarantees their protection in perpetuity. • Provided management services and expertise to conservation-friendly developers who desire to maintain resource stewardship on their property. • Trained over 3 dozen undergraduate and graduate student interns in the application of effective, sustainable resource management practices. • Co-hosted more than a dozen tours and workshops for resource professionals, practitioners, landowners, and policy makers

30. More WCU Faculty Engagement James Zhang, associate professor of engineering and technology and dean of the Kimmel School, develops student hands-on learning experiences with organizations such as Blue Ridge Paper and the Watershed Association of the Tuckasegee River.

31. More WCU Faculty Engagement Dr. Heather Laine Talley Professor of Sociology Regular contributor to www.feministwire.com, an online magazine that publishes accessible feminist analysis; Co-leads Act Like a Grrrl a grassroots program for empowering teenage girls

32. Engagement is what you make of it!