higher education role in fostering civic engagement
DESCRIPTION
This interactive discussion session focuses on the ways that higher education can promote the civic responsibility of college students and strengthen communities in the process. Drawing on his work in the field, and using concrete examples, Tom Ehrlich discusses how colleges and universities can equip students with the understanding, motivation, and skills of responsible and effective citizenship, and how communities and nonprofit organizations can benefit from neighboring institutions of higher education to promote their civic goals. The discussion includes teaching approaches such as community-service learning and community-based research; emerging issues involving the use of social media for promoting civic learning; and challenges facing community organizations in working with campuses.TRANSCRIPT
Higher Education’s Role in Fostering Civic Engagement
CRAIGSLIST Boot CampAugust 14, 2010
Gerald EismanDirector, Institute for Civic & Community EngagementSan Francisco State University
“So, professor. Which institute do you belong to?”
Topics
Changing Landscape in Higher Ed
Methods for campus-community engagement
Experiences and Opportunities
Wingspread Declarationon
Renewing the Civic Missionof the American Research
UniversityJune 1999
Civic engagement is essential to a democratic society, but far too many Americans have withdrawn from participation in public affairs. Higher education can contribute to civic engagement, but most research universities do not perceive themselves as part of the problem or of its solution.
Whereas universities were once centrally concerned with “education for democracy” and “knowledge for society,” today’s institutions have often drifted away from their civic mission.
The Research Universities Civic Engagement Network
Arizona State UniversityBrown UniversityDuke UniversityGeorgetown UniversityMichigan State UniversityNorth Carolina State UniversityOhio State UniversityPrinceton UniversityStanford UniversityTufts UniversityTulane UniversityUniversity of California, Berkeley….
2005
Curricular Engagement includes institutions where teaching, learning and scholarship engage faculty, students, and community in mutually beneficial and respectful collaboration.
2006
Methods
Community Service Learning
Participatory Research
Social Entrepreneurship
9
Service Learning
Service learning is a pedagogy built on the combination of community service with academic learning so that each is enhanced by the other.
10
Civic Experiential
Academic
SL
SL Venn Diagram
internship
civics class
volunteer
11
Academic
Civic ExperientialSL
SL Venn Diagram Academic
12
Civic Experiential
Academic
SL
SL Venn Diagram Civic
13
A Taxonomy of Engagement
Service Learning Courses without civic learning outcomes.
Ex: Tutor a child in reading. Reflect on ability as tutor.
Community (Civic)Engagement
PoliticalEngagement
ServiceLearning
Service Learning Courses with civic but not political learning outcomes
Ex: Work with environmental agency on creek restoration. Reflect on elements of teamwork.
Service Learning Course with political engagement outcomes.
Ex: Work with county food bank to enroll needy families in food benefits program. Reflect on how state programs are supported.
Co-curricular activity for civic/political engagement.
Ex: Student club invites head of Green Peace to give a lecture on campus.
14
CBPR
CBPR is a collaborative research approach that is designed to ensure and establish structures for participation by the three groups involved in the project - communities affected the research, representatives of organizations, and researchers – in all aspects of the research process to improve health and well-being through taking action, including social change.
Social Entrepreneurship
The use of entrepreneurial practices to develop a social good.
Whirlwind Wheelchair International
How to work with Universities
Faculty Expertise
University Engagement Centers
Student involvement
Faculty Expertise
… or why you should never ask a computer scientist to format your disk
The story of the Shakespearean scholar and the public housing complex.
http://www.sfsu.edu/~icce
“Professor Smith learns how not to get tenure.”
Discussion
• Experiences working with universities
• Opportunities to explore with universities
or
NEN University
NENu’s mission is to serve as a hub for community-engaged scholarship in the Bay Area by providing an infrastructure that facilitates connections among local academic institutions and neighborhood stakeholders so that they can mobilize their combined assets to develop social capital and advance community resiliency.
1:00 pm: Building Resilient Communities through Multi-Sector Collaboration