An undergraduate community education curriculum for community development

Abstract

Abstract In 1971 the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin‐Milwaukee broadened its role as a teacher training institute by creating a community education program for the purpose of reaching out to a non‐traditional population of students in the urban Milwaukee area. The original program was staffed by community organizers from Chicago who held the academic ranks of lecturers and specialists. These organizers, after working in an outreach capacity with community groups in Milwaukee, discovered that people from the inner city wanted to learn community development skills. From these initial contacts the staff in the community education program conceptualized a community development role for community educators within an urban setting. These educators would know how to work with people in neighborhoods, organizing them into self help projects that would improve their communities. In 1974, under the leadership of Dean Richard Davis, the community education program became an undergraduate department, and hired faculty with doctorates and for traditional professorial roles within the university. This faculty has created a competency‐based curriculum that prepares students to become effective community developers, allows students to earn fieldwork credits, and grants credits for previous educational experiences. This paper will first discuss the relationship between community development and community education. It will then describe the undergraduate curriculum at the University of Wisconsin‐Milwaukee and compare this curriculum with traditional community development curricula. Finally, it will discuss how this approach to community education relates to the principles of community education.