The Scholarship of Civic Engagement American Democracy Project

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The Scholarship of Civic Engagement American
Democracy Project
Robert G. Bringle Chancellors Professor of
Psychology and Philanthropic Studies Director,
Center for Service and Learning Indiana
University-Purdue University Indianapolis rbringle
_at_iupui.edu
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IUPUIs Mission

• Teaching and Learning
• Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity
• Civic Engagement, Locally, Nationally, and
  Globally

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Boyers New American College

• A new model of excellence
• Undergraduates involved in social issues
• Application of theory to practice
• Integrated view of knowledge
• Classrooms extended into communities

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Boyers New American College

• Faculty partnerships with practitioners
• Cross-disciplinary courses
• New dignity and status to the scholarship of
  engagement
• Reflective practitioners

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Traditional Assumptions About Faculty Work -Rice

• Research is the central professional endeavor
  and the focus of academic life.
• Quality in the profession is maintained by peer
  review and professional autonomy.
• Knowledge is pursued for its own sake
• The pursuit of knowledge is best organized by
  disciplines.

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Traditional Assumptions About Faculty Work -Rice

• Reputations are established in national and
  international professional associations.
• Professional rewards and mobility accrue to those
  who persistently accentuate their
  specializations.
• The distinctive task of the academic professional
  is the pursuit of cognitive truth.

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Major Shifts in Faculty Work -Rice

• From To
• Focus on faculty Focus on learning
• Autonomous Building institutions
• faculty
• Individualistic Collaborative
• Discipline-based Interdisciplinary
• University is Civic engagement
• separate from
• community

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Bringle, R. G., Games, R., Malloy, E.A. (1999).
Colleges and Universities as Citizens. Needham
Heights, MA Allyn Bacon.
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Definition of Civic Engagement

• Civic engagement is active collaboration that
  builds on the resources, skills, expertise, and
  knowledge of the campus and community to improve
  the quality of life in communities in a manner
  that is consistent with the campus mission.
• Teaching, research, and professional service in
  and with the community.

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American Democracy Project

• Promoting Civic and Political Involvement
• Curricular
• Co-Curricular
• Campus Climate

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Boyts Definition of Politics

• Persons who disagree working together to get
  things done.

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What is good citizenship?

• Battistoni (2002)
• Civic Professionalism
• Social Responsibility
• Social Justice
• Connected Knowing Ethic of Care
• Public Leadership
• Public Intellectual
• Engaged/Public Scholarship

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Outcomes?

• Kirlin
• Monitoring public events and issues
• Understand distinctions between three sectors of
  society (public, nonprofit and private)
• Understand context for events and issues (what
  happened and why)
• Capacity to acquire and thoughtfully review news
  (read the local newspaper)

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Outcomes?

• Kirlin
• 2. Deliberating about public policy issues
• Think critically about issues
• Understand multiple perspectives on issues

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Outcomes?

• Kirlin
• 3. Interacting with other citizens to promote
  personal and common interests
• Understand democratic society (collective
  decision making as norm)
• Capacity to articulate individual perspective and
  interests
• Work with others to define common objective
• Create and follow a work plan to accomplish a
  goal

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Pedagogies

• Levine
• Service-learning
• Classroom instruction on history and civics
• Moderated discussion of current issues
• Extracurricular activities
• Student voice
• Simulations of legislation, diplomacy, courts

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Service Learning

• A course-based, credit bearing educational
  experience in which students
• Participate in an organized service activity that
  meets identified community goals
• Reflect on the service activity in such a way as
  to gain further understanding of course content,
  a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an
  enhanced sense of civic responsibility
• (Bringle Hatcher, 1997)

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Why Service Learning in Higher Education?

• Good Pedagogy
• Structured Service
• Civic Responsibility
• Student Development
• Expanding Role of Higher Education
• Student Persistence and Retention
• Supports an expanding role of higher education
• Addresses community need

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Promoting Learning for Understanding

• Active Engagement
• Frequent Feedback
• Collaboration
• Cognitive Apprenticeship
• Practical Application
• Marchese

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Key Principles

• Academic credit is for learning, not service.
• Set learning goals for students.
• Establish criteria for the selection of community
  service placements.
• Be prepared for uncertainty and variation in
  student learning outcomes.
• Maximize the community responsibility for
  orientation of the course.
• Do not compromise academic rigor.
• (Howard, 1993)

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Service Learning as a Subversive Activity

• Change the traditional assumptions about faculty
  work
• Change the way faculty teach
• Increase interdisciplinary work
• Contribute to the nature of first-year, honors,
  scholarships, capstones
• Change institutional accreditation
• Broaden assessment
• Broaden promotion and tenure
• Contribute to the campus culture
• Change campus/community relationships
• Promote democratic values in the academy and with
  the community

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Two Types of Engagement
Institutionalization of Service Learning
Low High

• Institutionalization
• Of Other Types
• Of Engagement

High Low
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Professional Service

• Service applies a faculty members knowledge,
  skills, and expertise as an educator, a member of
  a discipline or profession, and a participant in
  an institution to benefit students, the
  institution, the discipline or profession, and
  the community in a manner consistent with the
  mission of the university.

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IUPUI Criteria

• Impact
• Effectiveness
• Significance to recipients
• Significance to university
• Professional development of faculty
• Intellectual Work
• Command of expertise
• Effective solutions
• Innovation
• Ethical
• Sustaining Contribution
• Developmentally more complex
• Leadership
• Communication
• Professional/Peer reviewed
• Multiple and diverse modes
• Integration with teaching and research

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Boyer

• Clear Goals
• Adequate Preparation
• Appropriate Methods
• Significant Results
• Effective Communication
• Reflective Critique

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Scholarly Service will have

• Multiple sources of evidence on impact
• Clear academic qualities
• Demonstrated effective dissemination to relevant
  stakeholders, including academic ones
• Publications, including academic ones
• Peer review
• Demonstrated professional growth

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Unsatisfactory (Documentation of) Service?

• Only listing university committees
• No evidence of nature of activities or results
• Evidence on outcomes, but no evidence of
  individual role
• No review by others
• No evidence on how service work is consistent
  with professional development or goals

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Issues Related to Service

• Time on task Difficult to use as a criterion,
  although scope may be relevant
• Remuneration Typically not relevant
• Process vs. Outcomes Must be balanced, but
  process should not be emphasized to the detriment
  of demonstrating outcomes

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Advancement And Tenure Are Decisions About The
Academic Nature Of Work

• There are differences between professional
  service as scholarship and
• Doing good
• Doing ones job well
• Administrative work
• Clerical work
• Evaluation for a merit increase
• Collegiality
• Citizenship

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Promotion Tenure for Professional Service

• Service documented as intellectual work
• Evidence of significance and impact from multiple
  sources
• Evidence of individual contributions
• Evidence of leadership
• Dissemination through peer reviewed publications
• Dissemination to peers, clients, patients
• Peer review of professional service

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Good Documentation of Scholarly Service will . . .

• Clearly portray the role of the candidate in each
  service activity
• Clearly illustrate how the service activities
  represent well informed plans for achieving goals
• Clearly demonstrate coherence with professional
  development of the candidate

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Is Civic Engagement a Fad?

• Campus Compact 56 initiatives on civic
  engagement in 1999
• National Review Board for the Scholarship of
  Engagement
• Land Grants Outreach Scholarship Conferences
• Accreditation
• Initiatives via Associations of Institutional
  Type
• K-12 and Higher Education Collaborations
• Campus and Community Collaborations
• Cross-disciplinary Projects

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Comprehensive Action Plan for Service Learning
(CAPSL)
Bringle, R.G., Hatcher, J.A. (1996).
Implementing service learning in higher
education. Journal of Higher Education, 67,
221-239. Bringle, R. G., Hatcher, J. A.
(2000). Institutionalization of service learning
in higher education. Journal of Higher
Education, 71(3), 273-290. Bringle, R. G.,
Hatcher, J. A., Hamilton, S., Young, P.
(2001). Planning and assessing campus/community
engagement. Metropolitan Universities, 12(3),
89-99.