Participation In Learning Communities Research Articles

We’re Talking About Process: The Primacy of Relationship and Epistemology in Defining Community-engaged Scholarship in Promotion and Tenure Policy

This study examines how community-engaged scholarship (CES) was defined and described in promotion and tenure policies at a university. Examining 67 policies across university, unit and department levels, findings show meaningful variability with regards to whether and how CES was defined or described. Analysis categorizes the types of descriptions used as outputs, outcomes, and/or processes related to or enacting CES. We address the importance of not just naming, but fully describing the core values of CES. We discuss the importance of process as a definitional characteristics, and relationships and epistemology in particular; and, the importance of continuing to explicate the interconnectivity and distinctions between CES and diversity, equity, inclusion, and epistemic justice. 

Persistence and Proliferation: Integrating Community-Engaged Scholarship into 59 Departments, 7 Units, and 1 University Academic Promotion and Tenure Policies

Choosing how to recognize community-engaged scholarship in promotion and tenure policies so that it is assessed accurately and fairly remains a relatively new and ongoing challenge for institutions of higher education. This case study examines how one U.S. research university integrated recognition of community-engaged scholarship across all levels of policy, including university, unit, and department. The terms used within and across policies reveal that while some terms were perpetuated across policies, many more terms proliferated across policies. Using organizational change and signaling theories, as well as the Democratic Civic Engagement Framework, analysis raises questions and insights regarding the use of both specificity and ambiguity when choosing and defining terms, and the use of terms across faculty roles of teaching, research/creative activity, and service to signal and address legitimacy of community-engaged scholarship within a larger context of institutional values. 

Pitfalls and Possibilities of Reciprocal Community Engagement: A Call to the Academy as a Platform for Activism

Abstract What does it mean to be a critical, community-engaged scholar as a full-time academic? In the process of developing mutual and subversive community-engaged scholarship, what dilemmas and difficulties does an early-career academic deal with? This paper taps into these questions by reflecting on my experience of developing a community program and colonial logics embedded in prevalent narratives around community engagement and research. I joined academia with the purpose and hope of making an impact on social inequity beyond the boundary of the academy by engaging with local communities, particularly working-class immigrant communities. During my transition from a K–12 teacher to academia, I learned how community practices are distinctly shaped and defined in relation to research and service in the academic discourses. With predominant research practices and community service that re-inscribe colonial relations and maintain the status quo, becoming a community-engaged scholar does not simply mean a scholar who works with or for communities. It entails a strong intention to subvert the hierarchical relationship between the academy and community, challenge the colonial politics of knowledge production, and re-define the academy as a platform for social change and activism.

Setting an Agenda: The Role of Community-Engaged Scholarship and Practice in Liberal Arts Colleges

Setting an Agenda: The Role of Community-Engaged Scholarship and Practice in Liberal Arts Colleges

전문대학생의 학습공동체 프로그램 효과성 분석

Objectives This study aimed to analyze the effects of self-directed learning ability, self-regulatory efficacy, collaboration preference, and communication skill according to college students’ participation in learning community activities in order to find an effective management plan for the learning community.
 Methods To do so, a survey was conducted on 422 students at S College in Gyeonggi-do. The experimental group had 181 students who participated in the learning community program run by the Center for Teaching and Learning Development in the first semester of 2022. The control group consisted of 241 people who did not participate in the learning community program. To verify the effect of learning community participation, pre- and post-surveys were carried out at the beginning and end of the learning community activities of the experimental group and For statistical verification, covariance analysis(ANCOVA) was performed.
 Results The analysis results showed that the self-directed learning ability, self-regulatory efficacy, collaboration preference, and the communication skill of college students who participated in the learning community improved.
 Conclusions This study is meaningful in that it analyzed the effect of the learning community program on college students and provided basic data for the measures to vitalize learning communities in colleges and performance analysis.

‘No university without community’: engaging the community in social work simulations

ABSTRACT Although community engagement is now a widely accepted part of universities’ agenda, the evidence of learning environments that allow students to gain new knowledge and skills through authentic partnership and reciprocity with community members remains sporadic. Guided by educational and community engagement scholarship, the study examined the involvement of community members in social work simulations at an Australian university. Based on reflexive thematic analysis of focus groups and interviews with community members and university staff who participated in social work simulations, four qualities of practice learning were identified: (1) the value of lived experience and expertise; (2) the importance of preparation for professional practice; (3) dedication of time and resources; and (4) guided by the impacts for community members. Taking a critical perspective, community-engaged teaching recognizes and values the communal aspects of knowing and learning, understood through an examination of teaching and learning and community engagement theory.

Realizing the Promise of Disaggregated Data and Analytics for Social Justice Through Community Engagement and Intersectoral Research Partnerships

In Canada, community and policy leaders have issued urgent calls to collect, analyze, and mobilize disaggregated data to inform equity-oriented initiatives aimed at addressing systemic racism and gender inequity, as well as other social inequities. This essay presents critical reflections from a national Roundtable discussion regarding how meaningful community engagement within academia–community–government research collaborations offers the opportunity to harness disaggregated data and advanced analytics to centre and address the priorities of equity-deserving and sovereignty-seeking groups. Participants emphasized four key priorities: (1) Building equitable and engaged partnerships that centre community-driven priorities and address structural barriers to community engagement; (2) Co-creating ethical data governance policies and infrastructure to support community data ownership and access; (3) Stimulating innovation and pursuing community involvement to create contextualized, advanced analyses and effective visualizations of disaggregated data; and (4) Building the capacity of all partners to effectively contribute to partnership goals. Capacity building was viewed as a bridge across a diversity of lived and professional expertise, enabling intersectoral research teams to collaborate in culturally safe and respectful ways. Beyond identifying key structural barriers impeding the promise of disaggregated data, we present practical opportunities for innovation in community-engaged scholarship to address social justice challenges in Canada.

From the Ground Up: Critical Reflections About Co-Constructing A New Non-Profit Sector Undergraduate Certificate

Community-university engagement is a growing field and takes many different forms. We explain and reflect critically on a community-university developmental process that we created to design a new non-profit studies undergraduate certificate. A steering group comprising students, non-profit organizations (NPOs), and faculty guided our process. We adopted a community-based, emergent, multi-tactic process that went from testing an idea, to collectively designing and co-constructing the certificate to building momentum to operationalize it, over an 18-month period. Our strategy was based on the convergence of three main bodies of literature—community-engaged scholarship, citizen participation, and naturalistic inquiry—and included seven tactics: community-university dialogues, e-communication, interactive booths in public places, presentations and learning circles, student research projects, student and NPO surveys, and pilot-testing undergraduate courses. The outcomes of our process revealed strong community support for a new certificate, which was then co-constructed and later approved by the University Senate. Today, five years later, we reflect on the ebb and flow of our process, in particular: emergent design challenges, the space-in-between, community/university black boxes, ownership, and facilitation work. This exploration contributes to the knowledge base on co-construction processes.

Capstone Design in Engineering Community Engagement Course

Community engagement is a growing area of attention within civil engineering education due to student interest and evidence of its benefits in supporting learning outcomes, among other factors. At Purdue University, a large curricular community-engaged design program, Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS), has partnered with Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB-USA) to give students academic credit for international civil engineering projects. EPICS and EWB-USA align in their utilization of multi-year partnerships between communities and vertically-integrated student project teams. The EPICS EWB-USA course section served as the capstone experience environment for a team of senior design students from the Division of Environmental and Ecological Engineering in the 2019–2020 academic year. This paper provides a case study to illustrate how to meet the new ABET Criterion 3 (student outcomes), in the broad space of civil engineering and related fields, with experiences that incorporate community-engaged learning. The pedagogical techniques and assessment methods utilized to support the development and measurement of the student’s outcomes are described. Discussion is presented on the interplay of course components and specific student learning outcomes. We believe this example can serve as a reference for others working to integrate senior design and community-engaged engineering design, to support student learning outcomes as well as positive community partnerships and impact.

A study on the learning community participation experience of social workers

본 연구의 목적은 현장사회복지사의 학습공동체 참여경험을 파악하는 것이다. 학습공동체에 참여하고 있는 사회복지사 25명을 대상으로 포커스그룹 인터뷰를 실시하였고, 근거이론방법론을 적용하여 분석하였다. 분석결과, 54개의 개념, 16개의 하위범주, 6개의 상위범주가 도출되었으며,‘현장이 원하고 주도하는 학습’라는 중심현상을 확인하였다. 맥락적 조건은‘새로운 교육에 대한 현장의 갈증’, 인과적 조건은‘공적 지원, 학습공동체의 출발’, 중재적 조건은 ‘조직의 지지와 다각적인 지원’인 것으로 나타났다.‘작용/상호작용전략’은‘학습에만 머물지 않는 시도’, 결과는 ‘든든하고 단단해지는 실천’으로 분석되었다. 연구결과를 토대로 사회복지현장의 학습공동체 활동의 의의와 활성화 방안을 논의하였다.The purpose of this study is to find out the experience of participating in the learning community of social workers. Focus group interviews were conducted with 25 social workers participating in the learning community, and grounded theory methodology was applied for analysis. As a result of the analysis, 54 concepts, 16 subcategories, and 6 upper categories were derived, and the central phenomenon of ‘learning desired and led by the field’ was identified. The contextual condition was ‘thirst in the field for new education’, the causal condition was ‘opportunity for starting a learning community’, and the mediation condition was ‘multifaceted organizational support’. The action/interaction strategy was analyzed as ’beyond learning by doing’, and the result was analyzed as ‘practice to get reliable and strong’. Based on the research results, the significance and activation plan of learning community activities in social work field were discussed.

A Narrative Biographical Study of Faculty Collaboration in E-Portfolio Development

Since an e-portfolio system was adapted at the authors' college, the faculty has been encouraged to use e-portfolios in various areas from professional development to instructional purposes. In this paper, they describe two cases of faculty to discuss how they became collaborative partners who support each other in conceptualizing e-portfolios as an instructional tool, designing learning activities for graduate courses, and they reflect on their own practices for enhancing teaching and learning based on the results from interviews, reflective essays, questionnaires and participation in broader learning communities, and a review of their signature e-portfolio assignments. Additionally, they argue how broader teamwork at the college level helped them as faculty to continue their efforts, often supported by the administration. In conclusion, the importance of faculty partnership as well as a continuous support system for faculty in adapting a new technology will be discussed.

Students as co-researchers: Using participatory action research to address college food insecurity

Studies indicate that college students experience high rates of food insecurity. Growing awareness of food insecurity on college campuses has resulted in efforts by many institutions to address the prob­lem through innovative programs such as food pantries, campus gardens, and educational work­shops. While these initiatives play an important role in facilitating food access, they fall short of meeting students’ needs. There is little research on how students’ experiences or knowledge can inform strategies to address food insecurity, nor is there extensive research on how students view this issue for themselves and their peers. This study looks at the benefits of engaging students in participatory action research (PAR) to address college food insecurity. PAR is particularly well suited to address campus food insecurity given its tenets of research, reflection, and action. This paper examines how a PAR project, conducted throughout a semester-long community-engaged learning course at the University of San Francisco (USF), resulted in innovative strategies to address college food insecurity. This justice-based research approach deepened students’ understanding of the issue and inspired them to want to change their campus food systems. Students worked to shift the narrative of food insecurity on campus away from an individual experience that carries stigma toward one of community, relationships, and collective action. This study shows the opportunities to address food insecurity not only through immedi­ate needs-based solutions but also through a justice-based research methodology that centers student experiences and knowledge.

Learner-Centered Teaching Catalyzed by Teacher Learning Communities: The Mediating Role of Teacher Self-Efficacy and Collaborative Professional Learning

Although there is evidence suggesting that teacher learning communities can improve instructional practices, the underlying mechanism is not well-understood. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of self-efficacy and collaborative professional learning in the relationship between teachers’ experiences in learning communities and learner-centered teaching practices. The study surveyed 226 teachers from 28 schools in Taiwan and used structural equation modeling to analyze the data. The findings indicate that participation in teacher learning communities did not directly predict student-centered teaching practices, but, rather, its effect on learner-centered teaching was fully mediated by teacher self-efficacy. Additionally, a mediation path was found from teacher learning communities to teacher self-efficacy to collaborative professional learning and, ultimately, to learner-centered teaching. The study highlights the importance of developing teacher self-efficacy to achieve the desired outcomes of learner-centered teaching programs.

The New Ethnohistory of the Pacific Canadian Region Could Teach Italian Canadians How to Be Worse Settlers and Better Human Beings

This article explores the history of the Italian diaspora in British Columbia through the lens of the New Ethnohistory, focusing on the tensions between the perceived continuity of tradition and cul­tural change. It argues that Italians have actively participated in three different types of colonialism in the Pacific region. First, even though Italian newcomers were almost absent in the early-nineteenth-century “exploitation” era associated with the fur trade and the salmon fisher­ies, they were later the backbone of the local extractive industries in the second part of the century. Second, the earliest consistent wave of Ital­ians arrived during the “extraction” colonial era (1858–64), associated with gold mining, which also continued in certain areas long afterwards. Third, Italians benefitted from the ongoing structures of “settler coloni­alism” since the 1860s. This latter type of colonialism is associated with displacing Indigenous peoples and reshaping the landscape through the imposition of European-style agriculture. Indeed, this essay examines some British Columbian case studies of Italian-Indigenous peoples’ interactions as hermeneutical examples that problematize some his­toriographical tropes. Moreover, it presents the New Ethnohistory, particularly the Community Engaged-Scholarship (CES), as a meth­odology that could provide Italian Canadians with new historiographi­cal perspectives. Finally, this article invites newcomers to engage in a meaningful reconciliation/conciliation with Indigenous peoples and their flourishing cultures to better comprehend their shared past.

Online Modules for Community Engaged Learning During a Global Pandemic

Context: In Summer, 2020, our team created virtual community-engaged learning (VCEL) modules, in response to the need to move classes to online and hybrid delivery styles during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. These modules addressed engaged learning concepts, and were designed with faculty, students, and community partner organizations in mind. Challenge: This paper explores the challenges of creating and beta testing these VCEL modules, as well as the creative methods taken to produce high-quality content that would continue to serve students in the wake of the pandemic. Product: what emerged from this project is a unique set of self-contained learning modules in Canvas Commons that include built-in assessments, allowing students to demonstrate learning, and giving faculty members the ability to review engaged-learning theory and strategies, and to seamlessly integrate the virtual content into their online classes. Findings: Our beta test findings indicate that students generally had a positive experience with the content, and spent approximately two hours, on average, engaging with the material. In this reflective analysis of our process, we offer an explanation of the replicable process of creating VCEL modules and a description of the outcomes associated with the production and testing of the content therein.

Estimating Differences in the Effects of Living–Learning Community Participation on Black Students' Sense of Belonging at Predominantly White and Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Estimating Differences in the Effects of Living–Learning Community Participation on Black Students' Sense of Belonging at Predominantly White and Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Willful Defiance: Connecting the Arts, Liberatory Education, Research and Movement-Building

Patrice and Coco are the creators and performers of the spoken word piece "Willful Defiance," produced in association with the book Willful Defiance: The Movement to Dismantle the School-to-Prison Pipeline, authored by Mark Warren. In this interview, Patrice and Coco discuss the role of spoken word and the arts in empowering young people, dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, and partnering with community-engaged scholarship to engage participants in building a movement for educational justice. this interview that the lines that are often drawn between organizing, artistic Expressions in Urban Educationression and research are false; rather in the hands of organizers like Patrice and Coco, they form an integrated whole, driven by a passion for children and for justice.

Networked Learning Communities in Promoting Teachers’ Receptivity to Change: How Professional Learning Beliefs and Behaviors Mediate

More research on networked learning communities (NLCs) and the causal mechanism among the effects of NLCs are needed. To better understand the impacts of NLCs and the influential factors, this study intended to discover how teachers’ participation in networked learning communities affects their beliefs and behaviors of professional learning and further influence their receptivity to change. Adopting a survey design, we collected 226 valid questionnaires from the pilot schools joining the program of Learning Community under Leadership for Learning supported by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. First, the results indicated that the program’s intervention of NLCs had a significant positive effect on teachers’ receptivity to change. Second, teachers’ participation in NLCs also showed a significant impact on their beliefs and behaviors regarding professional learning. Third, teachers’ beliefs in professional collaborative learning could significantly enhance their behaviors of professional collaborative learning. Fourth, the program’s intervention, employing hands-on professional learning activities, had a significant impact on teachers’ inclination to realize the program, both through direct influence and the mediation of beliefs about professional learning. The results acquired from this study would be conducive to developing strategies to support implementing the NLCs program.

Community-engaged learning to broaden the impact of applied ecology: A case study.

Ecological changes are creating disruptions that often disproportionately impact communities of color and economically disadvantaged areas. Scientists who study the consequences experienced by these communities are uniquely suited to bring the public into their work as a way of setting conditions that enable impacted residents to empower themselves to advance environmental and community change. In addition to involving community stakeholders in the process of science, community science can be used to motivate learning and increase engagement of students. Here we highlight a case study of one way a historically Black college involved local communities and students in water quality monitoring efforts to examine the role of the environment in human health. Students in an introductory-level environmental toxicology course collaborated with community members to track pollution and monitor conditions in an urban, impaired stream. Students participated in bi-monthly water quality monitoring alongside community watershed researchers and an annual day-long multisite sampling event with community residents and organizations. Through this engagement, students and community members contributed to the collection of data, learned about the significance of their results, and translated findings into strategies to advance watershed restoration, health, quality of life, and environmental justice goals.

“We Got Better”: Community Partners’ Perceptions of an Out-of-School Swimming Program for Underserved Children and Youth

The purpose of this study was to describe community partners’ (CPs) perceptions of an out-of-school swimming program (OSSP) for under­served children and youth. Participants were four CPs associated with the OSSP during three consecutive summers and parents of the children and youth who participated in the program. We employed a theoretical perspective derived from the literature on community-engaged scholarship and worked within the interpretive paradigm through a descriptive case study design. We collected data with five qualitative techniques. They were analyzed through analytic induction and constant comparison. Key findings were that CPs found the OSSP to be relevant, to have a high level of reciprocity, and to be resilient. The OSSP was shown to counter structural, institutional, personal, and cultural barriers that limited underserved children’s and youth’s access to and value of swimming. The research and assessment data generated during the OSSP led to little reflection or program improvement. Others aiming to design similar programs may benefit from examining the organizational structure and content of the OSSP.