MEETING THE CHALLENGES, AND

REALIZING THE PROMISES, OF HIGHER

EDUCATION COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Randy Stoecker

THE PROMISE

To students:

Educational enhancement

Career advancement

Moral/personal development

To communities:

Filling of resource gaps

Allyship for equity

Promotion of justice

THE CHALLENGES

Lack of outcomes, or negative outcomes, for

communities.

Partial problematic outcomes for students

Reinforcement of stereotypes

Resistance to “required volunteerism”

Poverty tourism

Resume volunteerism

CONSEQUENT QUESTIONS ABOUT THE

PROMISE

Can we simultaneously educate students and fill

community resource gaps?

Can we support students’ career prospects and

promote equity for marginalized communities?

Can we support students’ moral development and

support justice for marginalized communities?

DIALECTICAL ANSWERS

The more education students get from communities, the

less practical benefit communities get from students.

The more that community work is used to enhance

students’ visibility and status, the less visible the

community and its assets are.

The more we support justice for marginalized

communities, the more students may question their own

privilege and/or ours.

UNPACKING: EDUCATING STUDENTS AND

BENEFITING COMMUNITIES

What is a community:

Geography

Identity

Sum+

Collectivity

What are community

benefits:

Problem solving

Capacity building

How we engage students in

communities:

Individual service

Decontextualized activities

Minimal mentoring

How we prepare students:

Lack of training in specific

issue work

Lack of training in community

work

Consequence: unintended side effects

UNPACKING: BUILDING UP STUDENTS AND

BUILDING EQUITY FOR COMMUNITIES

How we build up

communities

Taking power from

professionals

Eliminating one-way

“knowledge transfer”

Dismantling hierarchies

How we prepare

students:

To become

professionals

To transmit and apply

knowledge

To accommodate

hierarchies

Consequence: The privileging of charity models

UNPACKING: STUDENT MORAL

DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNITY JUSTICE

Community justice

Restorative justice

Change, not charity

Collective action

Political analysis

Student socialization

Punitive justice

Charity, not change

Individual achievement

Depoliticized mystification

Consequence: sewing confusion and cynicism

TOWARD A NEW PROMISE

A mission statement for higher ed community

engagement:

To build community capacity…

To create social change…

By facilitating community access to our knowledge

resources, including faculty, staff, and students

UNPACKING THE MISSION STATEMENT

What is capacity?

Ability to find and keep volunteers (rather than higher ed

supplying them)

Ability to develop and deploy knowledge resources

Ability to be heard and understood

Ability to plan and act

What is change?

Full distribution of opportunities and benefits

Full distribution of decision-making power

What is facilitating access?

Customizing higher ed to fit community priorities

Connecting communities to higher ed resources (science shops)

A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE

MISSION STATEMENT

knowledge

power

action

Inspired by Michel Foucault

Diagnose

(CBR)

Prescribe

(CBR)Implement

(SL)

Evaluate

(CBR)

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

Community targeted, not individual targeted

Commitment to the project, not the agency

Commitment to the constituency, not the agency

Focus on contributing, not leading

A NEW ETHICAL BASE

Promote active and representative participation toward enabling all community members to meaningfully influence the decisions that affect their lives.

Engage community members in learning about and understanding community issues, and the economic, social, environmental, political, psychological, and other impacts associated with alternative courses of action.

Incorporate the diverse interests and cultures of the community in the community development process; and disengage from support of any effort that is likely to adversely affect the disadvantaged members of a community.

Work actively to enhance the leadership capacity of community members, leaders, and groups within the community.

Be open to using the full range of action strategies to work toward the long-term sustainability and well being of the community.

Source: Principles of good practice, Community Development Society, http://www.comm-dev.org/

PUTTING IT INTO ACTION—IN THE COMMUNITY

1. Find constituency-led efforts...

...with community change goals...

...or help them develop goals...

...and identify projects...

...that can help achieve goals.

2. Find higher ed resources...

...that can support the projects...

...and mobilize those resources...

...to do the projects...

...to achieve the goals.

PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE--IN THE

INSTITUTION

Curricular flexibility

Tenure and promotion criteria

Resources for community organizing and

community technical experts

Deployment of science shop strategy

Training for faculty and staff in community

dynamics, popular education

Expansion of classroom-based civics

education, issue education

PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE--IN THE

CLASSROOM

Projects, not hours

A limited number of projects

Projects developed by faculty and community group

before class starts

Students apply for projects

Students receive appropriate training to do projects

Technical expert mentoring (either faculty or community)