Engaged Scholarship for Social ChangeIt’s Not Difficult, Just Hard

Randy Stoecker, NYMAPS 2014

It’s not difficult…

A mission statement for engaged scholarship To build constituency power…

to create social change and work toward community…

by facilitating access to our knowledge resources, including faculty, staff, and students.

To build constituency power…

Constituency vs. community Community—fictitious thought-feeling

Constituency—people experiencing common circumstances

Knowledge power Knowledge

Power

Action

Social change capacity Building organization: sustainable leadership,

membership, structure

Deploying effective strategy

To create social change and work toward community…

Two forms of social change Creating change around specific issues

Transforming the social relations of knowledge production

Reciprocity and community Common, not separate goals

Beyond exchange relationships

My liberation is bound up with yours

By facilitating access to our knowledge resources Faculty

Practice a wide range of availability-- short to long

Provide expertise and allyship, not leadership

Staff

Coordinate relationships with constituency groups and supporters

Track and coordinate engaged scholarship activities

Catalogue and connect

Students Learn skills to do specific engaged scholarship

tasks

Volunteer as a global citizen, not as a student

It's just hard -- diverging from dominant practices

Project-based, not hours-based

Skill-based, not volunteer-based

Outcome-based, not output-based

Change-centered, not SL/CBR-centered

Constituency targeted, not individual targeted

Commitment to the project, not the agency

Commitment to the constituency, not the agency

Focus on contributing, not leading

Putting it into action—in the community

Find constituency-led efforts......with social change goals...

...or help them develop goals...

...and identify projects...

...that can help achieve the goals.

Find higher ed resources......that can support the projects...

...and mobilize those resources...

...to do the projects...

...to help achieve the goals.

Putting it into practice--In the institution Fund community organizers and community technical

experts Create curricular flexibility

…to custom-design courses around constituency projects

Deploy a science shop strategy…to coordinate work with constituencies

Train faculty and staff…in community development, community power and popular education

Expand classroom-based education…for civics education, issue education, and training for specific projects

Change tenure and promotion criteria…to respect knowledge production that supports social change

Putting it into practice--In the classroom

Do projects, not hours…to help achieve constituency goals

Limit projects to what the prof can fully support…to support larger social change

Develop projects with the community group before class starts…to help build constituency power

Require students to apply for project work…to eliminate “required volunteerism”

Provide students with training and technical expert mentoring …so they can provide the maximum support, not the minimum

…Even harder than you think

Practicing allyship

Doing accuracy rather than objectivity

Being comfortable with conflict

Confronting power holders against institutional controllers

against disciplinary dictates

Against structural power