Community-engaged scholarship

1. Community-engaged scholarship Cynthia Gordon Harvard Ed.D. expected May 2013 UC Berkeley, American cultures engaged scholarship

2. Engaged Communities, Critical Citizens: A Pedagogy for Collaboratively Developing Knowledge and Solutions to Public Issues • US higher education institutions mission statements returning to civic purposes of higher education(AACU, 2008; Furco & Goss, 2001; Musil, 2011) • Community-engaged scholarship recommended as a practice for achieving civic outcomes (Boyer, 1996; Campus Compact, 2011). • Multiple meanings, overlapping meanings (Howard, 2011) • Lack of clarity

3. Presentation Goals • What definition of community-engaged scholarship integrates the multiple understandings of this term (and related terms—e.g. public scholarship, scholarship of engagement) from the literature? • What pedagogical components are repeatedly recommended by researchers and practitioners of community-engaged scholarship, public scholarship, and scholarship of engagement?

4. Presentation Outline • Methodology • Consensus definition • Six components • Practical Examples • UC Berkeley American Cultures Engaged Scholarship program & Cal Corps Public Service Center • Critical Community-Engaged Scholarship

5. methodology • Literature review of articles on: • community-engaged scholarship • public scholarship • active and engaged scholarship • curricular engagement and outreach and scholarship • community-based research • scholarship of engagement • Definitions and recommendations for action

6. Community-engaged scholarship: AN integration of terminology

7. Methodology “race-through” • MaxQDA • Grounded theory • Coding: openaxialintegrated theory • Two interpretive communities • Colleagues • Educational research for social and racial justice • Community-Engaged Scholarship Practitioners • Suzan Akin and Megan Voorhees from the Cal Corps Public Service Center and Victoria Robinson, head of the American Cultures Engaged Scholarship program at the University of California, Berkeley

8. a consensus definition • Community-engaged scholarship focuses on the application and collaborative development of knowledge to consequential public issues through authentic, mutually beneficial partnerships between universities and communities. It includes: • Scholarly investigation of real-life social problems or public issues • Real-life social problems and research to address these problems that are defined with or by the community • Community-university partnerships that are collaborative and reciprocal and have shared authority in defining success • Knowledge to solve or improve public issues that is collaboratively developed by universities and communities • The utilization of institutional resources and knowledge to solve these real-life social problems or public issues • Community-engaged research or projects that are related to faculty members’ research and teaching

9. a caveat… • Expand on theoretical definitions of components • Provide concrete example of each component in practice • On the one hand… • Artificial divide of a holistic and synthetic pedagogy • On the other hand… • Instructive device for clearly illustrating each component • Will end with synthetic example

10. Community-engaged scholarship: Component 1 • Scholarly investigations of real-life social problems or public issues • Public issues could come from an array of areas • Economic development to social or cultural expansion (Stanton et al., 2007) • Education and the economy, agriculture and food, access to healthcare, urban revitalization, conservation of the environment, and natural resources (The Kellogg Commission, 1999). • Public issues most relevant to mission, faculty scholarship, and the surrounding communities

11. Component 1: AN Example • UC Berkeley Professor Victoria Robinson’s course: A Comparative Survey of Racial and Ethnic Groups in the U.S: Towards an Abolition Pedagogy • Tools and historical background necessary engage in meaningful and informed debates about race, gender, legal status, crime and punishment in the US • Tools into practice to consider questions of an abolition pedagogy • Strives “create genuinely healthy, stable communities that respond to harm without relying on imprisonment and punishment.” (Critical Resistance, 2012) • In collaboration with: • Critical Resistance (local-and national-prison abolition community organization) • Two student fellows • Identified public issues: • Knowledge gap the prison industrial complex (PIC) and grassroots struggles • Lack of accessibility to existing PIC knowledge

12. Community-engaged scholarship: Component 2 • Importance of who defines real-life social problems or public issues • Either community-identified or collaboratively identified with university and community members

13. Component 2: AN Example • UC Berkeley Professor William Satariano’scourse: Introduction to Community Health and Human Development • Collaborative syllabus development • Community Advisory Board - perspectives on key public health issues • Building on previous relationships…. • Local health departments (Contra Costa County, Alameda County, and San Francisco) • A governmental agency—The Department of Maternal and Child Health Services • Two local nonprofit organizations • Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disasters (CARD) • Building Blocks for Kids (BB4K) • Consulted on: • course content, readings, in-class speakers, panel members

14. Community-engaged scholarship: Component 3 • Community-university partnerships that are collaborative, reciprocal, and mutually beneficial • Shared authority in defining success

15. Component 3: AN Example • Satariano’s course: Introduction to Community Health and Human Development • Partnership with Building Blocks for Kids (BB4K—improving the quality of life for children with health-related needs) • Course learning goal: • Students should be able to research and interpret US census data and apply this information to assessing and addressing factors in epidemiology • BB4K writing government grant • Include a needs assessment of residents in their constituency • Legitimacy through a university partnership • Reciprocal and mutually beneficial partnership

16. Community-engaged scholarship: Component 4 • Collaborative production of knowledge • Knowledge-generating tasks are shared with community partners and university members • Everyone has a role in public problem-solving

17. Component 4: AN Example • Robinson’s course: Comparative Survey of Racial and Ethnic Groups in U.S • Establishing the knowledge gap on the prison industrial complex • UC Berkeley Student Fellows in the course: David Melena and Aries Jaramillo • Three members of Critical Resistance • Critical Resistance • Organizing experiences and familiarity with community oral histories • Identified specific categories of knowledge missing from Wikipedia • E.g. alternatives to incarceration, three strikes, gender responsive corrections, and racial profiling • Students • Collaborative working groups • Researched , wrote, revised Wikipedia pages with academic standards for citations • New knowledge collaboratively created and publicly available

18. Community-engaged scholarship: Component 5 • Use of institutional resources and knowledge to solve real-life public issues • Universities rich in: • library access, technology, research-expertise, and knowledge • Communities rich in: • Practical application of theoretical knowledge • Connecting university resources to community knowledge and/or issues

19. Component 5: AN Example • UC Berkeley Art Practice course… need to check in further with professor of this course before sharing.

20. Community-engaged scholarship: Component 6 • Course content and focus related to the faculty member’s scholarship • Community-based component related to academic content of course • Community-based component extends faculty member’s research and/or results in collaborative knowledge production in faculty member’s area of expertise

21. Component 6: AN Example • UC Berkeley Professor Juana María Rodríguez’s course: Queer Theories/Activist Practices • Faculty member’s scholarship: • Intersection of ethnic studies and sexuality • Identities transformed through language, law, culture, and public policy • Spaces: Activism-in particular surrounding HIV; immigration law; and cyberspace • Course content: • Definitions of activism, community engagement, and social transformation • Limits/possibilities various interventions—arts, law, advocacy, and direct action • Community-based component • Community organizations focused on HIV activism, arts, law, and advocacy • Collaborative knowledge production: annotated bibliographies • Extension research: other direction… research deepens course

22. Integrating Community-Engaged Scholarship and Critical Service-Learning: • Many similarities between critical service-learning and community-engaged scholarship: • Development of authentic relationships with community partners • Focus on relevant social issues • Integration of service or community-engagement with course content • Community-engaged scholarship: A slight shift in emphasis • Community-engaged scholarship: includes focus of utilizing institutional resources • Critical service-learning focus on: • Balancing student learning and service with the community-identified needs/issues • Community-engaged scholarship focuses on: • Knowledge application and the collaborative production of knowledge to solve pressing social issues. • Progressive shift from locating “social problems” within communities to locating problems in ourdemocracy

23. Building on critical service-learning “Without the exercise of care and consciousness, drawing attention to root causes of social problems, and involving students in actions and initiatives addressing root causes, service-learning may have no impact beyond students’ good feelings. In fact, a service-learning experience that does not pay attention to those issues and concerns may involve students in the community in a way that perpetuates inequality …” (Mitchell, 2008, p. 51)

24. Building on critical service-learning • Critical service-learning includes unambiguous focus on social justice and the redistribution of power • Community-engaged scholarship may focus on similar topics yet critical consciousness not explicitly-named • Critical community-engaged scholarship • Includes the six components • Building on critical service learning • Explicit focus on justice • Development of not just knowledge, but critically-conscious knowledge • Redistribution of power • Democratization of classroom (not in 6 components) • Valuing expertise and work of students • Knowledge base that comes with bringing diverse experiences into classroom

25. critical community-engaged scholarship • UC Berkeley Professor HatemBazian: Muslims in America • Partnerships • Multiple off-campus community organizations: (e.g. Council on American-Islamic Relations, Asian Law Caucus, Zaytuna College, Northern California Islamic Council, Arab Cultural Research Center …) • On-campus: Muslim Student Association • Public issue • Muslim Americans being left out of the public discourse in America • Course Focus • Affirm the Muslim community within the fabric of American society • Document US-Muslim community narratives in systematic ways

26. critical community-engaged scholarship • Blurring the boundaries of university and community • Course Twitter Feed • Council on American-Islamic Relations tweets a link to their article on Dutch politician Geert Wilders  in-class discussion topic • Feedback from community organization • Access to information on Muslims in America limited  Bazian posts all lectures on iTunes for free download (utilize university resources) • International conference, Islamophobia Production and Redefining a Global “Security” Agenda for the 21st Century • Addressing public issue • Students develop websites that “Document the history of Muslims in America” • 45 webpages now publicly available

27. critical community-engaged scholarship • Bazian’sResearch Agenda • to use education as a tool for empowerment • to counteract the structures in place which prevent Muslim Americans from reaching their full humanity and citizenship in American life • Collectively--webpages of students, policy recommendations and articles from community organizations, and online and in-person dialogue on current events deepens, shapes, and informs Bazian’s research agenda • Reciprocally—twitter feeds, webpages, publicly accessible lectures, and conference sessions—are building the knowledge base on Muslims in America

28. In conclusion • Higher education institutions re-committing to civic purposes • Train graduates for leadership positions with power and influence in our society (Gutman, 1987), thus crucial prepare citizens for just democratic participation • Community-engaged scholarship—is frequently recommended as a practice for achieving civic-engagement outcomes (Boyer, 1996; Campus Compact, 2011). • Synthesize consensus of recommendations from the literature • Working definition of community-engaged scholarship with six components • Possible future direction—critical community-engaged scholarship • Future researchers should deconstruct AND reconstruct this definition

29. Thank you • Cynthia Gordon • Harvard Graduate School of Education • Ed.D. expected May 2013 • UC Berkeley, American Cultures Engaged Scholarship • Graduate Research Assistant • Email: cynthia_gordon@mail.harvard.edu