Community Engagement In Education Research Articles

Boundary spanning leadership among community-engaged faculty: An exploratory study of faculty participating in higher education community engagement

The purpose of this study was to explore faculty members’ perceptions of their roles as boundary spanners, the expectations they have for professional competencies related to boundary spanning, and how these faculty were prepared to successfully perform in their boundary-spanning leadership roles. In the context of higher education community engagement, boundary spanning refers to the work that is critical in overcoming the divide between the institution and the community (Weerts & Sandmann, 2010). This study revealed boundary-spanning faculty leaders’ perceptions of their roles, competencies for effective community-engaged teaching and scholarship, and ways in which institutions may cultivate and support boundary-spanning leadership among current and future scholars and educators.

Community partners' experiences of higher education service-learning in a community engagement module

PurposeThe purpose of this empirical research paper is to investigate the self-perceived role of the community partner of a higher education service-learning and community engagement module.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach was followed by distributing a questionnaire to the community partners of a community engagement module and coding the responses using ATLAS.ti. A total of 36 responses were received from community partners who work with students enrolled in a compulsory undergraduate community-based project module at the University of Pretoria's Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology.FindingsThe community partners share a common interest in the students' education. They are experts in their fields and can share their knowledge with the students and the university. Through these partnerships, long-term reciprocal relationships can develop. Community partners can become co-educators and partners in education. The pragmatist representations of community partners can be challenged when they understand their own stakes in service-learning or community engagement projects. This better aids higher education institutes in the management and evaluation of service-learning and community engagement pedagogies and curricula.Research limitations/implicationsTwo main limitations underlie this study. Firstly, this research is based on data from one community module at a single university. Although a large number of students are registered in the module, the study would be improved by conducting it at more than one university countrywide. Secondly, the study was performed during the first coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown the country experienced. This was a completely unexpected event for which everyone was totally unprepared. Many of the community partners lacked the resources to receive or respond to an online questionnaire. The nature of the lockdown prevented the researchers from reaching these community partners for a face-to-face interview. The voice of these community partners is, therefore, silent.Practical implicationsThe community partners reiterated their need to be seen as equal partners in the module and appreciated being part of a group of non-profit enterprises working together with a university to pursue a set of common goals. However, their status as peers depends on their willingness and ability to contribute sufficiently to the structure and demands of the service-learning module. The community partners who were able and willing to orientate each group of students to their organisation's mission and objectives, and who executed their roles according to the course requirements, experienced the greatest success in terms of project effectiveness and efficiency, and also in terms of future benefits when students returned to volunteer or provide donations. Given time, these community partners grew into an equal partner with the university's stakeholders, where both their own needs and those of the students were met during the various service-learning projects.Social implicationsSince all respondents in this study are non-profit organisations, the financial assistance and free labour afforded to them by the students are of paramount importance. The community partners also understand the longer-term value implications of successful student projects, as some students return of their free will to volunteer their services when gainfully employed after graduation.Originality/valueCommunity engagement projects are rarely investigated from the community partner's point of view. This paper elicited their responses and examined them through the lens of Fraser's theory of social justice (Fraser, 2009).

Editors' Introduction: Reflections on the Land-Grab Universities Project

Editors' Introduction:Reflections on the Land-Grab Universities Project K. Tsianina Lomawaima (bio), Kelly McDonough (bio), Jean M. O'Brien (bio), and Robert Warrior (bio) on march 30, 2020, the self-described "independent, nonprofit 501(c)3 media organization" High Country News (HCN) published under their Education section "Land-Grab Universities: Expropriated Indigenous Land Is the Foundation of the University System" by Robert Lee and Tristan Ahtone (https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.4/indigenous-affairs-education-land-grab-universities), "How We Investigated the Land-Grant University System" by Robert Lee (https://www.hcn.org/articles/indigenous-affairs-education-how-we-investigated-the-land-grant-university-system), and "Lost and Found: The Story of Land-Grant Universities" by Tristan Ahtone under Editor's Note (https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.4/editors-note-lost-and-found-the-story-of-land-grant-universities). Ahtone (Kiowa) was at the time of publication Indigenous affairs editor at HCN; as this issue goes to press he is the editor in chief at the Texas Observer. Lee is a lecturer in American history at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Selwyn College. With stunning photographs by journalist and photographer Kalen Goodluck (Diné, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Tsimshian) and compelling maps by cartographer Margaret Pearce (Citizen Band Potawatomi), Land-Grab Universities (LGU) sets a new bar for investigative journalism and innovative scholarship in Indigenous lands. In addition to these articles, the project's web portal with interactive maps (by Robert Lee, Tristan Ahtone, Margaret Pearce, Kalen Goodluck, Geoff McGhee, Cody Leff, Katherine Lanpher, and Taryn Salinas) is available at https://www.landgrabu.org/, and the database is accessible at https://github.com/HCN-Digital-Projects/landgrabu-data. Within days, Native scholars across the country were abuzz, sharing the LGU project links with one another and with presidents, chancellors, [End Page 89] provosts, and deans at their academic institutions (whether land-grant universities or not). Impressed with the project's scope, impact on institutions of higher education in the United States, and import for Indigenous studies scholars around the world, editors in the NAIS review collective agreed that LGU warranted extensive evaluation in an Intervention and quickly moved to recruit essays from scholars across the interdisciplinary arenas of critical Indigenous studies, American studies, geography, cartography, economics, digital humanities, history, and higher education. The Intervention includes twelve commentaries and concludes with the transcript of an interview with Lee and Ahtone, who comment on the project, answer questions from the editors, and respond to the multidisciplinary perspectives on their work gathered in this issue. As of October 2020, as this issue is being prepared for our publisher, the University of Minnesota Press, university administrators, faculty, staff, and students are responding to or mobilizing in support of the LGU call for acknowledgment of the massive Indigenous land dispossession and the subsequent enrichment of university endowments documented by the project and for responsibility to the Indigenous caretakers and stewards whose lands and resources have underwritten so much of the U.S. higher education system (including lands dispossessed through means other than the Morrill Act). At Cornell University, the beneficiary of the greatest endowment wealth by far from Indigenous lands and/or scrip distributed by the Morrill Act, the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program has formed a faculty committee to examine the issue and publish a blog (https://blogs.cornell.edu/cornelluniversityindigenousdispossession/). At the University of California, Berkeley, the Centers for Educational Justice & Community Engagement organized webinars in September and October 2020 entitled "The UC Land Grab: A Legacy of Profit from Indigenous Lands" (https://cejce.berkeley.edu/uc-land-grab). The LGU project has also generated significant media attention, such as Scalawag magazine's indictment of the University of North Carolina (https://scalawagmagazine.org/2020/09/indian-land-university-profit/). We are confident that LGU will continue to generate interest, controversy, self-reflection, and hopefully self-improvement within higher education institutions and, most importantly, further research into the tangible realities and consequences of Indigenous land dispossession, the enduring character of Indigenous sovereignty, and the remarkable resilience of Indigenous peoples. [End Page 90] K. Tsianina Lomawaima k. tsianina lomawaima, coeditor of NAIS, is retired from the School of Social Transformation...

The Role of Community Engagement in Higher Education: Convergence Relating to Knowledge Growth- a Practical Model and Guidelines

As attention to community engagement nurtures and it is important that instructors, students, and community associatescomprehend how it is conceptualized. This paper representsresults from a qualitative review with academics and community engagement superintendents nationwide with esteem to how they conceptualize community service.This article reiterates the definition and thoughtfulnessof communityservice as one of the crucialareas of Higher Education Establishments in Ethiopia.Itsseizures the significance of a proper methodologyin the direction of community serviceand contributes about a applied method through the multifacetedinteraction between academic societies and communities. The present study will launch a healthierawareness of the community, its traditions, and its cultural programs as anall-inclusive platform for consideratelocalsocieties. Theproposed recommendationsmay facilitate community engagement architects to prepare andimplement community servicesschemes effectively.

The (im)possibility of monitoring and evaluating the impact of community engagement performance in South African universities: A review

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) allow universities to learn from past experiences, improve service delivery, plan, and allocate resources and demonstrate results as part of their accountability to stakeholders. M&E also assists in keeping projects on track, providing a basis for reassessing priorities and creating evidence-based data for projects. Considerable scholarship is illuminating insights and sharing experiences of community engagement in higher education. However, the question of M&E remains contestable due to the complexities in implementing community engagement in higher education. This article discusses the (im)possibility of facilitating M&E in higher education community engagement spaces. In 2009, the University of Venda established a directorate for community engagement, which I became its first director. I use the insider lens to reflect on the intersections of concepts and constructs such as knowledge co-production, ecosystems, societal impact, and an M&E framework in higher education. I intend here to bring some problems and contestations in generating a framework for monitoring and reviewing community engagement, arguing that the framework should embrace multiple ontologies and be intentional about robust engagement with epistemological, ontological, and ethical questions around exclusivity and dominance. Hopefully I will add a much-needed dimension acknowledging the complexity of a community engagement discourse – toward an inclusive, participatory-ecosystemic way of self-assessment, monitoring and evaluation.

Community engagement in higher education: Developments after the first institutional audit cycle

This study explores how three universities have responded to the Higher Education Qualifications Committee (HEQC) recommendations regarding deficiencies in implementing their community engagement (CE) missions. The Education White Paper 3 locates community engagement within the policy changes of transformation in higher education. However, literature reveals that there is still considerable resistance to accepting CE as a core function of universities. This study is qualitative and uses document analysis to understand the extent to which three universities identified for this study have progressed regarding their CE missions. The documents analysed include HEQC first audit cycle reports, policies, strategic plans, annual reports and institutional websites. Open Systems Theory (Emery) was used to underpin the findings of this study. The results revealed that despite the challenges reported in the literature, universities had developed policy frameworks to facilitate understanding of the concept among internal stakeholders and put structures for managing CE initiatives.

Revisiting community engagement in higher education in South Africa from a vantage point of the notion of third mission

Globally, there is increasing realisation that the idea of universities as ivory towers detached from the societies and environments within which they exist and operate, is untenable in the twenty-first century. Instead, there are reasonable expectations that universities should contribute to the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals, promote human welfare, and generally make the world a better place. The notion of third mission provides a cogent philosophy and a pragmatic framework for universities to work towards fulfilling these expectations. The article unpacks and analyses the notion of third mission of universities. It also discusses probable reasons why, despite the notion gaining momentum and being accepted globally, it has not gained much traction in South Africa where the focus is on community engagement which is but one of the myriads of activities that falls with the gamut of the notion of third mission. It contends that universities in South Africa have not made significant impacts with their community engagement activities because of the limited scope and scale of implementation, among others. The article concludes by demonstrating that universities and the broader society in South Africa have more to gain if the universities were to consider institutionalising, planning and effectively implementing third mission programmes.

Editors' Introduction: Reflections on the <em>Land-Grab Universities</em> Project

Editors' Introduction:Reflections on the Land-Grab Universities Project K. Tsianina Lomawaima (bio), Kelly McDonough (bio), Jean M. O'Brien (bio), and Robert Warrior (bio) on march 30, 2020, the self-described "independent, nonprofit 501(c)3 media organization" High Country News (HCN) published under their Education section "Land-Grab Universities: Expropriated Indigenous Land Is the Foundation of the University System" by Robert Lee and Tristan Ahtone (https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.4/indigenous-affairs-education-land-grab-universities), "How We Investigated the Land-Grant University System" by Robert Lee (https://www.hcn.org/articles/indigenous-affairs-education-how-we-investigated-the-land-grant-university-system), and "Lost and Found: The Story of Land-Grant Universities" by Tristan Ahtone under Editor's Note (https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.4/editors-note-lost-and-found-the-story-of-land-grant-universities). Ahtone (Kiowa) was at the time of publication Indigenous affairs editor at HCN; as this issue goes to press he is the editor in chief at the Texas Observer. Lee is a lecturer in American history at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Selwyn College. With stunning photographs by journalist and photographer Kalen Goodluck (Diné, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Tsimshian) and compelling maps by cartographer Margaret Pearce (Citizen Band Potawatomi), Land-Grab Universities (LGU) sets a new bar for investigative journalism and innovative scholarship in Indigenous lands. In addition to these articles, the project's web portal with interactive maps (by Robert Lee, Tristan Ahtone, Margaret Pearce, Kalen Goodluck, Geoff McGhee, Cody Leff, Katherine Lanpher, and Taryn Salinas) is available at https://www.landgrabu.org/, and the database is accessible at https://github.com/HCN-Digital-Projects/landgrabu-data. Within days, Native scholars across the country were abuzz, sharing the LGU project links with one another and with presidents, chancellors, [End Page 89] provosts, and deans at their academic institutions (whether land-grant universities or not). Impressed with the project's scope, impact on institutions of higher education in the United States, and import for Indigenous studies scholars around the world, editors in the NAIS review collective agreed that LGU warranted extensive evaluation in an Intervention and quickly moved to recruit essays from scholars across the interdisciplinary arenas of critical Indigenous studies, American studies, geography, cartography, economics, digital humanities, history, and higher education. The Intervention includes twelve commentaries and concludes with the transcript of an interview with Lee and Ahtone, who comment on the project, answer questions from the editors, and respond to the multidisciplinary perspectives on their work gathered in this issue. As of October 2020, as this issue is being prepared for our publisher, the University of Minnesota Press, university administrators, faculty, staff, and students are responding to or mobilizing in support of the LGU call for acknowledgment of the massive Indigenous land dispossession and the subsequent enrichment of university endowments documented by the project and for responsibility to the Indigenous caretakers and stewards whose lands and resources have underwritten so much of the U.S. higher education system (including lands dispossessed through means other than the Morrill Act). At Cornell University, the beneficiary of the greatest endowment wealth by far from Indigenous lands and/or scrip distributed by the Morrill Act, the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program has formed a faculty committee to examine the issue and publish a blog (https://blogs.cornell.edu/cornelluniversityindigenousdispossession/). At the University of California, Berkeley, the Centers for Educational Justice & Community Engagement organized webinars in September and October 2020 entitled "The UC Land Grab: A Legacy of Profit from Indigenous Lands" (https://cejce.berkeley.edu/uc-land-grab). The LGU project has also generated significant media attention, such as Scalawag magazine's indictment of the University of North Carolina (https://scalawagmagazine.org/2020/09/indian-land-university-profit/). We are confident that LGU will continue to generate interest, controversy, self-reflection, and hopefully self-improvement within higher education institutions and, most importantly, further research into the tangible realities and consequences of Indigenous land dispossession, the enduring character of Indigenous sovereignty, and the remarkable resilience of Indigenous peoples. [End Page 90] K. Tsianina Lomawaima k. tsianina lomawaima, coeditor of NAIS, is retired from the School of Social Transformation...

Long-Haul

For decades, community engagement scholars have built a robust body of knowledge that explores multiple facets of the higher education community engagement domain. More recently, scholars and practitioners from mainly Christian affiliated faith-based institutions have begun to investigate the complex inner world of community-engaged students’ meaning-making and spiritual development. While most of this fascinating cross-domain effort has been primarily based on “Western” influenced Judeo-Christian traditions, this study explores service-learning/community engagement themes, approaches, rationale, and strategies from an “Eastern” perspective based on the rich tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. This case study research focuses on curricular approaches, influences, and impacts of Buddhist philosophy/spirituality on community engagement endeavors in the context of Maitripa College, an urban graduate higher education institution located in Portland, OR. Researchers corroborate key findings from previous faith-based institutional studies as well as extend the literature in two specific areas: 1) providing strategies for and discussing the role of spiritual formation and development in relation to community engagement; and 2) the Buddhist view of seeing obstacles as opportunities (Thubten Zopa Rinpoche & ʼjig-Med-Bstan-Paʼi-Ñi-Ma, Rdo Grub-Chen III, 2001) as a way to increase effectiveness and harmony in all aspects of life, including academic service-learning endeavors.

Towards the institutionalisation of community engagement in higher education in South Africa

Although discourse related to the salience of community engagement in higher education has proliferated, little has focussed on the process of institutionalisation of community engagement, in South Africa. This paper presents findings from a national study, which focussed on how community engagement can be institutionalised within higher education institutions locally. A qualitative research approach was used to guide the study and in-depth interviews were conducted with members of executive management, members from the directorate and office of community engagement and academics from six universities nationally. Data revealed that there were eight key factors deserving of consideration, in order to institutionalise community engagement within teaching and research and through student involvement, transforming institutional infrastructure and through community partnerships.

Community engagement: Barriers and drivers in South African higher education

Community engagement professionals experience numerous barriers even though community engagement is the third mission of the university alongside first, teaching and learning, and second, research. Community engagement professionals often refer to community engagement as the “stepchild” of higher education. Yet there are also inter-related successful drivers. This article identifies the barrier–driver duality and makes a case for their systemic interconnectedness, an area that has thus far been underexplored. A prominent barrier for community engagement professionals is that there is a lack of substantive conceptualisation of community engagement, intensified by the contradictory placing of community engagement within community and university structures. Interconnected to such barriers, prominent drivers demonstrate the value of scholarly, reflective practice and to enhance the leadership role of the South African Higher Education Community Engagement Forum, inclusive of the views of pertinent members such as academic leaders, students and communities.

Enhancing Community Engagement by Schools and Programs of Public Health in the United States.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention define community engagement as "the process of working collaboratively with and through groups of people" in order to improve their health and well-being. Central to the field of public health, community engagement should also be at the core of the work of schools and programs of public health. This article reviews best practices and emerging innovations in community engagement for education, for research, and for practice, including critical service-learning, community-based participatory research, and collective impact. Leadership, infrastructure, and culture are key institutional facilitators of successful academic efforts. Major challenges to overcome include mistrust by community members, imbalance of power, and unequal sharing of credit. Success in this work will advance equity and improve health in communities all around the world.

Community geography: Toward a disciplinary framework

Community geography is a growing subfield that provides a framework for relevant and engaged scholarship. In this paper, we define community geography as a form of research praxis, one that involves academic and public scholars with the goal of co-produced and mutually-beneficial knowledge. Community geography draws from a pragmatist model of inquiry, one that views communities as emergent through a recursive process of problem definition and social action. We situate the growth of community geography programs as rooted in two overlapping but distinct traditions: disciplinary development of participatory methodologies and institutional traditions of community engagement in American higher education. We then trace the historical development of these programs, identifying common themes and outlining several challenges that community geographers should prioritize as this subfield continues to grow.

Higher education community engagement as a pathway to developing global citizenship practices in young people: South African perspective

The aim of this study is to discuss how South African higher education (HE) is a mechanism to enable global citizenship. This qualitative secondary analysis study draws on retrospective qualitative case study data generated by multiple partners (parents, teachers, young people, HE students, researchers) in a long-term community engagement (CE) study in a remote high school. Thematic analysis of data sources (verbatim transcriptions of participatory reflection and action discussions, and visual data) enabled in-depth multi-partner descriptions on the utility of CE to address social and cognitive injustices given extreme structural disparity and social disadvantage. It was evident that, across CE partner groups, HE involvement was viewed as a mechanism to promote the positive social development of young people. In particular, when young people were included in CE, their social development was supported as they were afforded opportunities to develop capacity as future leaders and in terms of language development in multilingual spaces. We argue that CE can support progress towards social and cognitive justice by offering alternate views and beliefs to young people that promote their global citizenship practices.

Overseas students coordinating committees – the origins of student support in Australia?1

Student support in contemporary educational settings is vastly different from what it was when international education became a visible presence on Australian campuses in the 1950s. At that time, community organizations, businesses and the government cooperated to provide support to students in Australia, with little support being offered formally through universities and colleges. These Co-ordinating Committees survived for decades, into the 1990s. It could be argued that these Co-ordinating Committees facilitated a community engagement in international education that has not continued as the number of students has multiplied. Using archival and other primary source documents, this article will look at the beginnings of the Australian Organisations’ Co-ordinating Committee for Overseas Students (AOCCOS), and other similar organizations. It will analyse how the Committees changed over the decades of their existence, and what role they played in influencing government policies. The article will also investigate when and why these Committees ended, and what, if anything, has taken their place. The huge expansion of the international education sector, with more than half a million students now studying in Australia as international students, has impacted the quantity and quality of engagement with the Australian community for many of these students. Finally, the article will look at efforts to engage the community in the support of, and engagement with, international students in Australia in a more contemporary setting. This includes support provided by institutions, community and sporting organizations and state government and municipal councils.

Pursuing Social Justice through Place-Based Community Engagement: Cultivating Applied Creativity, Transdisciplinarity, and Reciprocity in Catholic Higher Education

This article provides an example of how the traditions and values that have long underpinned the work of Christian higher education are of particular relevance to how Christian universities might partner with communities to address critical 21st-century challenges in groundbreaking new ways. The University of Dayton’s Catholic and Marianist mission and identity calls for community engagement throughout the university and student experience, which gives rise to numerous other efforts across campus. Here we discuss one such effort: a collaborative project that arose out of a space called the GEMnasium, an innovative initiative that provided a new location for place-based community engagement and foregrounded applied creativity and transdisciplinarity as valuable ingredients in fostering reciprocal partnerships in pursuit of social justice. Informed by Gelmon, Holland, and Spring’s (2018) conceptual framework for assessing civic engagement and service learning, we deployed a qualitative focus group approach to understand multiple stakeholders’ experiences in, and the impact of, a workforce enterprise initiative known as the “Freedom Enterprise.” Four thematic findings emerged from the data analysis process: (a) creating a shared community; (b) perseverance in building community; (c) faith-in-action/giving legs to the mission; and (d) uncertain long-term impact. After discussing the findings, we offer implications for community engagement in Christian higher education.

From the Associate Editor: A New Era for Social Change and Community Engagement in Higher Education

From the Associate Editor: A New Era for Social Change and Community Engagement in Higher Education

Evolution of a community-centred experiential learning module: A mixed-methods approach to promote social accountability and community partnership in undergraduate medical education.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Background: Education in social determinants of health (SDH) has become an important part of medical curricula, facilitated increasingly through students' experiential learning with communities. The Community and Workplace Centred Learning Experience (CWCLE) module of the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, intends to integrate and extend second-year medical students' attitudes, skills, and knowledge about SDH and community resources. We aimed to: 1) Solicit students' self-evaluation of their ability to perform module learning objectives, 2) Assess module impact on student attitudes toward SDH, 3) Obtain feedback from community partners and students about their community experiences, and 4) Use feedback to collaboratively develop recommendations to enhance the CWCLE module. Methods: We used a mixed-method approach to combine quantitative data with stories and personal experiences. We developed an online survey for two cohorts of students who had completed the module, soliciting students to self-evaluate their perceived abilities to perform the module's learning objectives and evaluating students' attitudes towards SDH. We invited representatives from community agencies involved in the CWCLE module to participate in focus groups. We also held separate focus groups with students who participated in the online survey to elaborate on their survey comments. Results: In total, 145 students participated in the online survey (response rate=72.5%). Eleven community agency representatives and seven students participated in five focus groups. Our results demonstrate that medical students benefit from community-based experiential learning of SDH and community resources. We trace evaluations and discussions in the ongoing development of this community-based experiential learning module from its initial, primarily medical-school driven designs, towards a substantial involvement of community-based organizations in its operation and continuing redevelopment. Conclusions: Our mixed method offered us a better understanding of module impact and opportunities for improvement. This module evaluation and reform generated opportunities for community partners to influence decisions in medical education and led to a collaborative evolution of a community-centred learning experience. Medical schools should actively engage community partners in teaching behavioural and social components of the curriculum and acknowledge their partners' expertise to promote community engagement and social accountability in medical education.

Mission Animation: Christian Higher Education, the Common Good, and Community Engagement

Christian institutions are founded on a diverse set of historical and theological backgrounds and strive to integrate faith, learning, and living in a way that not only educates and develops students, but also responds to the Christian call of service. Community engagement, therefore, becomes a way for Christian institutions to achieve said goals—fostering authentic partnerships, responding to the needs of communities and individuals, and encouraging student learning and development. This article maps the landscape of community engagement in Christian higher education by exploring its history as well as its philosophical, theological, and theoretical foundations. In addition, practical expressions of community engagement are addressed through a review of two national Christian higher education associations—the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) and the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities—as well as a consideration of programmatic exemplars at evangelical Christian and Catholic institutions and an accounting of CCCU and ACCU members receiving the Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement. The article concludes with a consideration of how community engagement represents a critical dimension of Christian mission in action for evangelical and Catholic colleges and universities.

Community Engagement in Music Education: Preservice Music Teachers’ Perceptions of an Urban Service-Learning Initiative

To facilitate cultural competency among preservice music teachers, music teacher educators must create ongoing opportunities for discourse and situated learning. The purpose of this collective case study was to examine four preservice music teachers’ experiences in the Arranger-in-Residence Program (AIRP)—a community engagement project emphasizing service-learning and placed within a socioeconomically diverse urban school district. Research questions included (1) How did the participants describe their experiences in the AIRP? and (2) What challenges, if any, did the participants experience during the service-learning initiative. The AIRP involved music education students enrolled in an undergraduate-level orchestration course. Overwhelmingly, the participants’ experiences with the AIRP were considered positive and signaled unique opportunities for personal growth as novice teachers. Each of the participants described moments where they acknowledged and confronted their implicit biases.