Community-Based Learning: Pedagogies, Partnerships, and Practices:

A SHOWCASE

Promising Strategies for Faculty Engagement

Community-Based Learning:Pedagogies, Partnerships, & Practice

A Symposium at the Bonner Summer Leadership InstituteThe Bonner Foundation’s Summer Leadership Institute

Berry College • Rome, GA Thursday, May 29, 2014

Promising Strategies for Faculty Engagement

Share a few key strategies that have proven effective for supporting and enhancing faculty engagement in community-based learning and engagement

A Framework & ContinuumTransactional------->Transformational------->Institutional Alignment

•Short-term investment

•Can be easy and important

•May not lead to long-term relationships and sustained engagement

•Ongoing/repeated

• Involve more relationship building, program development, and management

•Involve several faculty members and senior leaders (position)

•Can help foster changes to institutional awareness, policies, and culture

Transactional• Service-Learning Resource Library• Handbooks (how-to guides)• Assistance with transportation• Financial assistance for course expenses• Teaching Assistants (TA’s) (with simple placement model)• Sample Surveys • Lists of relevant conferences/professional development• Publication lists• Inventories/lists of courses• Helping faculty members plan reflection• Faculty Recognition Strategies*• Letters of reference for tenure portfolios*• Course development support grants* (when not tied to program)

Transformational• Faculty Trainings and Workshops

(internal/guest presenters)• Faculty Development Seminars*• Faculty Fellowships and Cohort Programs• Student Faculty Pairing/Teaching Assistant Cohort

Programs*• Professional conferences (representing institution)• Course/Program development support grants

(Mini-Grants for Service-Learning, CBR, etc.)* • Faculty Advisory Boards*

Institutional Alignment• Strategy to develop Student Learning Outcomes

and measures associated with community engagement*

• Linking community engagement with institutional accreditation review

• Course designator efforts, especially when utilized to promote quality and best practices*

• Efforts to revise tenure and promotion standards to align with faculty engagement*

Spotlight• Faculty Immersions into Community,

Macalester College - Consuelo Gutierrez-Crosby• Faculty Development Workshops and Partnerships with

the Center for Teaching and Learning Berea College - Ashley Cochrane

• Changing Tenure, Promotion and Institutional Policies Allegheny College - Dave Roncolato

• Linking with QEP/QIPs and Accreditation Washburn University - Kristine Hart

• Working on Student Learning Outcomes University of Richmond - Bryan Figura

Faculty Development Seminars

Berea College Ashley Cochrane

•Intensive faculty development experiences, often organized and led by Center staff. Some Centers partner with other units, like a Center for Teaching and Learning

Significance•Support faculty to deepen and apply their

understanding of community-engaged teaching and scholarship

•Guide faculty as they develop a course or academic connection

•Helping faculty develop a community of peers•Build a common language•Expand allies and advocates

Structure•Veteran and new, tenure and adjunct•Cuts across disciplines•Range from 3 to 10; 6 ideal for Berea•Week long or spread over a term or year•For six faculty, costs have been about $6,000 •$500 for week-long participation and

$500 when s/he implements course•Involved mentoring, training, interactions with

partners and peers•Clarifies Center role and resources

Key Elements•mentoring/peer networking: Pairings; intentional

cohort creation

•training/education: structured workshops; syllabus design support

•awareness raising: administrators/senior leaders and partners participate; faculty learn context

•supportive university (and center) infrastructure: connect with Center support; continuity with partners; logistical and operational help

Organizing Considerations

•Design to fit institutional culture•Timing•Participant targeting•Recruitment•Incentives•Evaluation

Faculty Immersions into Community

Macalester College Consuelo Gutierrez-Crosby

•Macalester College’s Urban Faculty Colloquium (UFC) introduces and prepares faculty for civic engagement and which connects them to their urban context as scholars, teachers, mentors, and local citizens

Faculty Immersions into Community

•11 iterations of the UFC with various themes since 2005•3-8 days, depending on time of year and focus •Annual summer UFC engages faculty in local context•Three “national” colloquia (breaks/post graduation) have

built on Macalester faculty, staff, student, and institutional connections in New Orleans, Chicago, and Detroit

•Over 83 Macalester faculty, staff, or partners of the college have participated in at least one local or national UFC

Immersion in Twin Cities

•Get faculty members off campus•The “Distinctiveness of Place”•Bus tour and guided walks around Twin Cities•Intentional exposure to urban and cultural context•Meetings with community partners•Dialogue about how work could connect to

discipline, discuss personal values, and model CBL

Why It Works“The goal is to model for faculty what we tell our students: they are entering a story that began before them, that they will add their own voices to it, and that the story will continue after them. Whenever possible, we provide time for residents and those working in the community to talk directly with faculty. Even as faculty members send students to work in sites or they themselves mentor students in internships or community-based research projects, rarely do residents or organizational leaders interact with faculty directly or introduce their neighborhoods.”

Links with AccreditationWashburn University

Kristine Hart

•Link the institution’s broader strategic aims for community engagement and the Center’s work with accreditation efforts, through the Quality Improvement or Enhancement Plans

Advantages of this Strategy•Learn more across the institution about faculty •Reach and expand success with incorporating experiential

learning and engaged pedagogies•Heighten attention to roles of community partners as co-

educators•Significant financial and institutional resources•Pave the way to address institutional changes, such as

tenure and promotion standards•Leverage the leadership of faculty members

Key Elements•mentoring/peer networking: Surveys; mentoring

relationships

•training/education: Reading groups; trainings; support for bringing in speakers

•awareness raising: integration with faculty governance and operations; links with new faculty orientation

•supportive university (and center) infrastructure: discussing the use of technology and web-based learning and instruction; budget; policy changes (tenure)

Three Recommendations• Meet with your Vice President of Academic Affairs/Provost.

Recruit this person to be a part of your initiatives. Share the impacts of your work, for student learning, career development, diversity, post-graduate success, and community impact.

• Join the strategic planning process (round tables, etc.) at your institution. Show up at the meetings. Recruit others (students, faculty, allies) to do so. Put your themes (community engagement) on the agenda.

• Volunteer to help move these processes forward; be on the committee(s) that help select the focus of the QIP/QEP.

Student Learning OutcomesUniversity of Richmond

Bryan Figura

•This strategy involves formalizing a set of learning outcomes tied to the Center, Bonner Program or civic/ community engagement

Advantages of this Strategy•Demonstrates and documents the impact of community

engagement on student learning•Connects community engagement to institutional core

(curriculum, values, strategic objectives) and multiple faculty/departments

•Elevates the perception and value of community engagement, community-based scholarship, co-curricular and curricular

•Enables the Center to be taken more seriously (rigor) as a professional unit that impacts learning

•Provides feedback and continuous improvement

Needs & Considerations•Conduct a process that engages key

stakeholders (students, faculty, partners, staff) in providing input on student learning outcomes

•Engage expertise (IR dept., role of outside consultant and work with Imagining America, AAC&U, Bringing Theory to Practice)

•Consult established rubrics and examples•Buy-in of leadership

Process & Approach•Intentional Impact working group collected

and analyzed data from student evaluations, write-ups, and CBL coursework

•Bonner Scholars longitudinal study with six write-ups per year (24 total)

•Scoring of write-ups clarified development and outcomes

•Large, intentional, long-term undertaking

Examples1. The BCCE helps students understand the ways that difference, privilege, and power work in their own lives and in our society. Through their experiences in BCCE programs students will develop:• Understanding of their own identities and backgrounds.• Understanding of identities and backgrounds different from their own• Understanding of the systemic forces that have shaped and continue to shape our different life experiences.• Attitudes of curiosity and openness about others.• Capacity for empathy, learning to relate to and appreciate people different from themselves.

2. The BCCE broadens and deepens students’ thinking about complex and interconnected social issues affecting our world today. Through participation in BCCE programs students will:• Strengthen their abilities to analyze complicated social issues.• Connect and apply knowledge (facts, theories, etc.) from their areas of academic study to their own civic

engagement experiences.• Connect and apply knowledge from their civic engagement experiences back to their areas of study, using

these experiences• to comprehend, analyze, and/or challenge theories and frameworks.

Examples3. The BCCE prepares students for active citizenship. Through participation in BCCE programs, students will:• Clarify their civic identity.• Develop and expand their understanding of and capacity for active participation in a

community.• Experience the personal benefits of forming reciprocal relationships in one's community,

including joy, fulfillment, and well-being.

4. The BCCE prepares students for lives of active learning. Through BCCE programs, students will:• Practice self-motivated learning.• Develop and demonstrate communication skills across a variety of settings.• Practice professional skills and gain professional experiences needed to work in a variety of

settings.

Changing Tenure & Policies

Allegheny CollegeDave Roncolato

•This strategy involves making concrete policy changes to tenure standards, on an institutional or departmental level.

Advantages of this Strategy•Incentivize and reward faculty engagement across

the institution, clearly signaling its value to faculty, administrators, and partners

•Significantly reduces barriers to faculty engagement•Elevate the perception and value of community

engagement and community-based scholarship•Supportive policies can drive more complex

partnerships and projects (research and capacity- building)

Considerations•Strategic plans and senior leadership,

especially academic leadership (Provosts, Chairs)

•Perceptions and embedded faculty cultural issues

•Boyer’s four domains of scholarship: discovery, application, integration, and teaching

•Integrate with governance, structures and committees

The Allegheny Case•Embedded in Middle States Civic Learning

graduation requirement•Use of external experts and consultants •Reading Group•The work of the Bonner High Impact team •Grow, equip and expand the circle of

advocates•Capture success: change the narrative

Recommendations (IA)

•Define public scholarly and creative work•Develop policy based on a continuum of scholarship•Recognize excellence of work that connects domains of

knowledge•Expand, document, and present what counts: use portfolios •Expand who counts: broaden peer review•Support publicly engaged graduate students & junior faculty •Build in flexibility at the point of hire•Promote public scholars to full professor •Organize the department for policy change