Colleges and universities as place-makers: Understanding the “community” in higher education-community engagement

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 1:45 pm - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Institutional Responsibilities for Teaching, Learning, and Community Engagement

Abstract

Community engagement (CE) is widespread across higher education organizations (HEOs). CE includes various behaviors such as service learning, collaborative/research partnerships, economic development, and service days. While research on CE is growing, our understanding of how CE is enacted differently across HEOs, who is included in the external community and the decision-making process around HEOs’ CE activities and communities is limited. We utilized organizational theory to address this in an exploratory mixed methods design using a novel quantitative dataset and qualitative interviews. Preliminary quantitative findings indicate differences in how HEOs undertake CE and how they define their external communities. Preliminary qualitative interviews show three different patterns of decision-making within HEOs around CE.

Authors

• Sondra Nicole Barringer, Southern Methodist University

• Brianna R. Freshwater, Southern Methodist University