Developing Community Engagement in Student Affairs: The Promise and Potential of Community-Based Learning

• In Event: Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Faculty as Change Agents: Issues of Citizenship and Community Engagement

Abstract

Colleges nationwide have embarked on university-wide initiatives to become engaged with the local community (Jacoby, 2009). The purpose of this study is to explore the promise and potential of graduate community-based learning (GCBL) as a pedagogical method. This qualitative study will examine graduate students’ experiences with campus partners that seek to work with community members as part of a new university-community partnership. Using a justice-learning framework (Butin, 2007) this paper will explore graduate students’ academic and professional learning through GCBL. This paper will also highlight the degree to which students increase their learning and skill-set with social inequities at the micro and macro levels.

Authors

• Erica K. Yamamura, Seattle University

• Ethan DeCoster, Seattle University