Community engagement in higher education : : policy reforms and practice / / edited by W. James Jacob [and three others] ; contributors, Eiman Abokhodar [and thirty-two others].

• Superior document: Pittsburgh Studies in Comparative and International Education ; Volume 3
• TeilnehmendeR: Abokhodar, Eiman,; Jacob, W. James,
• Place / Publishing House: Rotterdam, Netherlands ;, Boston, Massachusetts ;, Taipei, Taiwan : : Sense Publishers,, 2015.; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Edition: 1st ed. 2015.
• Language: English
• Series: Pittsburgh studies in comparative and international education ; Volume 3.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (344 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

There seems to be renewed interest in having universities and other higher education institutions engage with their communities at the local, national, and international levels. But what is community engagement? Even if this interest is genuine and widespread, there are many different concepts of community service, outreach, and engagement. The wide range of activity encompassed by community engagement suggests that a precise definition of the “community mission” is difficult and organizing and coordinating such activities is a complex task. This edited volume includes 18 chapters that explore conceptual understandings of community engagement and higher education reforms and initiatives intended to foster it. Contributors provide empirical research findings, including several case study examples that respond to the following higher educaiton community engagement issues. What is “the community” and what does it need and expect from higher education institutions? Is community engagement a mission of all types of higher education institutions or should it be the mission of specific institutions such as regional or metropolitan universities, technical universities, community colleges, or indigenous institutions while other institutions such as major research universities should concentrate on national and global research agendas and on educating internationally-competent researchers and professionals? How can a university be global and at the same time locally relevant? Is it, or should it be, left to the institutions to determine the scope and mode of their community engagement, or is a state mandate preferable and feasible? If community engagement or “community service” are mandatory, what are the consequences of not complying with the mandate? How effective are policy mandates and university engagement for regional and local economic development? What are the principal features and relationships of regionally-engaged universities? Is community engagement to be left to faculty members and students who are particularly socially engaged and locally embedded or is it, or should it be, made mandatory for both faculty and students? How can community engagement be (better) integrated with the (other) two traditional missions of the university—research and teaching? Cover image: The Towering Four-fold Mission of Higher Education, by Natalie Jacob.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material / W. James Jacob , Stewart E. Sutin , John C. Weidman and John L. Yeager -- Community Engagement in Higher Education / W. James Jacob , Stewart E. Sutin , John C. Weidman and John L. Yeager -- Divide and Conquer / Kassie Freeman -- Service-Learning and Disaster Recovery / Alex Johnson and David Hoovler -- Engaging Technology in University-Community Partnerships / Tatyana Dumova -- Building University-Community Partnerships / Maria Adamuti-Trache and Adrienne E. Hyle -- Place-Based Approaches to Engagement: Can Universities be Local and Global? / Linda Silka , Mario Teisl and James Settele -- University and Communities in Partnership / Tracy M. Soska -- Public Higher Education Performance in the United States / Stewart E. Sutin and Kathryn Bethea -- Service-Learning as Catalyst for Integrating Community Engagement Across Core Academic Functions / Lina D. Dostilio and Dan Getkin -- Critical Civic Literacy as an Essential Component of the Undergraduate Curriculum / Seth S. Pollack -- Teachers College Partnership Schools Consortium / Kecia Hayes and Emily Zemke -- Evolution, Not Revolution / Anne C. Kaplan -- The Shape of Community Engagement in Urban Centers – Possibilities or Improbabilities / Carolyn M. Shields -- Knowledge Matters / Sumin LI and Dongfang Wang -- A Comparative and Empirical Study of Academic Service Activities / Futao Huang -- The Role of Maasai Mara University in Promoting Sustainable Development / David K. Serem and Augustine M. Kara -- Enhancing Community-University Engagement / Gustavo Gregorutti , Zeno L. Charles-Marcel , Wilma González , Géner Avilés and Herbert Roel Cea -- Action Learning as an Approach for Developing Leaders, Solving Problems, and Building Successful Teams / Eiman S. Abokhodair -- Notes on Contributors / Linda Silka , Mario Teisl and James Settele -- Index / Linda Silka , Mario Teisl and James Settele.