Strengthening Institutional Support for Service Learning

and Civic Engagement

Robert G. Bringle, Ph.D.Chancellor’s Professor of Psychology and Philanthropic Studies

Director, Center for Service and Learning

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

rbringle@iupui.edu

Boyer’s Civic Engagement

The scholarship of engagement means connecting the rich resources of the university to our most pressing social, civic, and ethical problems, to our children, to our schools, to our teachers, and to our cities.

-Boyer (1996)

Boyer’s Civic Engagement

What is needed is not just more programs, but a larger purpose, a larger sense of mission, a larger clarity of direction.

Ultimately, the scholarship of engagement also means creating a special climate in which the academic and civic cultures communicate more continuously and more creatively with each other.

Criterion Five: Engagement and Service

• Learn from constituencies and analyze capacity to serve

• Commitment and capacity to engage and provide service

• Demonstrate responsiveness to dependent constituencies

• Internal and external constituencies value the organization’s services

Engagement, Outreach, and Public Service

• Civic Education • Civic Engagement • Community

engagement • Community-based

Learning • Community Service • Engaged Scholarship • Experiential Learning • Outreach • Participatory Action

Research

• Partnerships • Professional Service • Public Scholar • Public Service • Scholarship of

Engagement • Scholarship on

Engagement • Service • Service Learning • Student Engagement• Voluntary Service

Faculty and Student Activities In the Community

Research

Community

Teaching

DistanceEducation& Community-Based Learning

Service Learning

Community-Based

Research

Participatory Action

Research

Professional Community

Service/VoluntaryCommunity Service

Service

Engagement

Community Involvement

• Teaching, research, and service in the community

• Occurs in profit, nonprofit, and government sectors

• Has no geographic boundaries

Differentiation of Terms

Community Involvement– Defined by location– Occurs in the community

Civic Engagement– Defined by location and process

– Occurs in and with the community

– Demonstrates democratic values of participation

– Impact + Partnerships

IUPUI 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.

Faculty and Student Activities In the Community

Research

Community

Teaching

DistanceEducation& Community-Based Learning

Service Learning

Community-Based

Research

Participatory Action

Research

Professional Community

Service/VoluntaryCommunity Service

Service

Engagement

AAC&U’s Survey of EmployersBest methods for ensuring that graduates have

knowledge/skills:

• Internship/community-based project where students apply college learning in real-world setting.

83% “Very Effective” and “Fairly Effective”

• Senior project incorporating depth of knowledge, problem-solving, writing, and analytic reasoning skills. 79%

• Essay tests 60%• Electronic portfolio 56%• Multiple Choice Exams 32%

Community-Based Learning

Not all community-based instruction is service learning

• Field work experiences (e.g., Museum Studies, Anthropology)• Cooperative Education • Internship• Practicum• Service Learning• Pre-professional field experiences: Clinicals, Student Teaching• Applied Learning• Experiential Learning• Public Service-Focused Learning• Academically-Based Community Learning• Academic Service Learning• Student Engagement

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)

Key Elements of Service Learning

• Reflection– “Perplexity” (Dewey, 1933)

– Activities to structure learning from the service experience

• Reciprocity– Partnerships– Dialogue to structure the service

experience

• Civic Educationdefine 4

Distinctions Among Approaches to Service & Experiential Learning

Recipient BENEFICIARY Provider

LearningService FOCUS

SERVICE LEARNING

COMMUNITY SERVICE FIELD EDUCATION

VOLUNTEERISM INTERNSHIP

(Furco, 1996)

Why Service Learning in Higher Education?

• Good Pedagogy • Structures Educationally Meaningful

Service• Addresses Community Needs• Promotes Civic Responsibility• Student Development• Student Persistence and Retention• Supports an Expanding Role of Higher

Education

Promoting Learning for Understanding

• Active Engagement

• Frequent Feedback

• Collaboration

• Cognitive Apprenticeship

• Practical ApplicationMarchese

Why do we need more than a vocational education? In part, because we live more than a vocational life: we live a larger civic life and we have to be educated for it.

- D. Mathews

What is Good Citizenship?

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

Faculty and Student Activities In the Community

Research

Community

Teaching

DistanceEducation& Community-Based Learning

Service Learning

Community-Based

Research

Participatory Action

Research

Professional Community

Service/VoluntaryCommunity Service

Service

Engagement

Professional Service

Service applies a faculty member’s 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.

Service @ Indiana University: Defining, documenting, and evaluating. (http://csl.iupui.edu/servicelearning/facultydevelopment.html)

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

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

Differentiation of Terms

Doing An Activity– Teaching, Research, or Service

Well-informed– Scholarly Teaching– Scholarly Discovery– Scholarly Service

Contributing to Knowledge– Scholarship of Teaching– Scholarship of Service– Scholarship of Discovery

Advancement And Tenure Are Decisions About The Academic Nature Of Work

There are differences between professional service as scholarship and

• Doing good• Doing one’s job well• Administrative work• Clerical work• Evaluation for a merit increase• Collegiality• Citizenship

Promotion & Tenure for Professional Service

• Service documented as academic work• Evidence of significance and impact from

multiple sources• Evidence of individual contributions• Evidence of growth and leadership• Dissemination, including publications (some

of which are peer-reviewed academic ones)• Dissemination to peers, clients, patients• Peer review of professional service, including

process and outcomes

Faculty and Student Activities In the Community

Research

Community

Teaching

DistanceEducation& Community-Based Learning

Service Learning

Community-Based

Research

Participatory Action

Research

Professional Community

Service/VoluntaryCommunity Service

Service

Engagement

Participatory Action Research

• Collaboration between the campus and community Partnerships

• Democratization of knowledge that acknowledges different ways of knowing and different types of knowledge

• Social change through actions based on the research that promote social justice.

Strand et al., 2003

Participatory Action Research

• Focus on the adequacy of the process as well as the outcomes

• Peer review by multiple stakeholders, including academic

• Outcomes for multiple stakeholders

• Dissemination to multiple stakeholders

Harkavy: Why Emphasize Civic Engagement?

• Responsible and Moral Choice

• Improve the Quality of All Academic Work

• Self-interest

President

University Administration

Promotion & Tenure

School

Dean

Department

Chair

Faculty

Students

Staff

Support Services

Mission

Two Types of EngagementIn

stitu

tiona

lizat

ion

Of O

ther

Typ

es

Of E

ngag

emen

t

Hig

h

Low

Institutionalization of

Service Learning

Research I

Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts

Community

Colleges

Land GrantBoyer’s New American

College

Low High

To institutionalize service-learning effectively, service-learning must be viewed not as a discrete “program” but as a means to accomplish other important goals for the campus.

Furco & Holland

Comprehensive Action Plan for Service Learning (CAPSL)

Institution Faculty Students Community

Planning

Awareness

Prototype

Resources

Expansion

Recognition

Monitoring

Evaluation

Research

Institutional-ization

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.

Holland’s Areas of Development

• Mission,

• Organizational structure

• Faculty Involvement

• Promotion and Tenure

• Student Involvement

• Community Involvement

• Publications and University Relations

Service Learning as a Subversive Activity

• Develops the public purposes of higher education• 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• Promote democratic values in the academy and with the

community• Broaden assessment• Broaden promotion and tenure• Increase the salience of service in the campus culture• Change campus/community relationships• Change institutional accreditation and quality assurance

• Focuses institution-wide attention

• Assures public of institutional quality

• Supports institutional improvement

• Expands literacy and understanding

• Creates critical data sets

• Facilitates decisions, planning

• Spurs institutional, strategic change

•Connects CE to other institutional work

NCA Accreditation Process and Carnegie Documentation

IUPUI NCA: Three Primary Tasks*

• What are we doing in CE?

• How well are we doing CE?

• What should we, as a campus, be doing in central Indiana?

*NOTE: Prior to release of 2003 Criterion 5

NCA Self-Study of Civic Engagement

I. Enhance capacity for civic engagement A. Demonstrate advocacy and support B. Expand internal resources and infrastructure C. Secure external funding D. Document the quality and impactII. Enhance civic activities, partnerships, and patient and client services A. Offer academic community-based learning opportunities B. Engage in community-based research C. Provide professional services D. Create opportunities for community serviceIII. Intensify commitment and accountability to Indianapolis Central Indiana, and Indiana A. Establish widespread community participation B. Establish widespread campus participation C. Conduct regular forums on the campus community agenda for central Indiana.IV. Identify strengths and challenges for future work

Civic Engagement Inventory• Document/categorize CE activities

– Topical issues (e.g., homeless)– Academic unit

• Increase understanding of CE– Internally (e.g., planning, collaboration)– Externally

• Provide recognition for CE– Schools/campus reports– Individual faculty

• Contribute to quality and impact• Hope to replace with eFAR

Institutional Portfolio

A focused selection of real work, combined with narrative interpretation and reflection, that demonstrates institutional achievements and shows learning and improvement over time—i.e., “institutional effectiveness.”

Why Electronic?

• Information more accessible, transparent, authentic, dynamic, interactive—you can show something, not just describe it

• Can be updated• Accommodates multiple types of evidence• Focus on evidence and alignment• Information accessed/linked more efficiently

(e.g., to support recommendations and conclusions, contextualize information)

• Facilitates campus involvement

www.iport.iupui.edu

Contents

• Primary materials from students and faculty

• Assessment and performance data and reports

• Survey results and reports• Statistical information• Narrative analysis, interpretation, and

reflection

Levels of Aggregation

• Individual (examples)

• Program or other unit (reports)

• Institution (performance indicators)

Portfolio Audiences

• Accrediting agencies

• Community leaders and members

• State governments

• Prospective/current students

• Prospective/current faculty, administrators, staff

• Employers

Purposes

• Internal Objectives (e.g., strategic planning, reports, exemplars)

• External Representations• Accreditation• Carnegie Pilot Project• Quality Assessment• Research

Benefits

• Can foster ongoing conversation about learning, improvement, and assessment

• Catalyst for making improvement efforts more continuous, coordinated, collaborative, and complete

• Promotes faculty development in ways compatible with institutional needs

• Enhances stakeholder understanding of institution’s special mission, roles. and accomplishments

• Demonstrates accountability and credibility• Can be updated

Institutional Maturity

• Lots of counting

• Lots of counting of what’s available

• Look for the intersection of (a) practical to collect and (b) meaningful

• Need more on outcomes, evaluation, impact

• Developing partners to help (e.g., Institutional Research)

Tips

• Identify leadership for CE assessment• Customize process to advance campus

goals• Use to expand capacity of institutional

research• Use to develop community voice and

participation• Identify multiple purposes • Analysis must be mission driven

What we seein IUPUI’s future

1. Assessing knowledge, skills,and dispositions of civic outcomes through narratives from

– Service learning classes– Civic engagement programs– School-based curricular outcomes

2. Developing a campus/community agenda

3. Community impact– 1 study completed4. Faculty outcomes (e.g., publications)

Fundamental Issue!

In what significant ways is the intellectual culture of YOUR CAMPUS incompatible with programs that embrace civic engagement?

Walshok

• Are you asking faculty to account for the PUBLIC MEANING and impact of their scholarship beyond the discipline or profession?

• How is civic engagement presented as an INTELLECTUAL IMPERATIVE?

• How is the institution INTENTIONALLY supporting faculty (e.g., enabling infrastructures) with an interest in civic engagement activities?

Resources for Civic Engagement

Battistoni, R. (2001). Civic engagement across the curriculum: A resource book for service-learning faculty in all disciplines. Providence, RI: Campus Compact.

Boyer, E. (1991, March 9). Creating the new American college. Chronicle of Higher Education, A18.

Boyer, E. (1996). The scholarship of engagement. The Journal of Public Service and Outreach, 1(1), 11-20.

Bringle, R., Games, R., & Malloy, E. (1999) Colleges and universities as citizens. Needham, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Checkoway, B. (2001). Renewing the civic mission of the American research university. Journal of Higher Education, 72(2), 125-147.

Colby, A., Ehrlich, T., Beaumont, E., Stephens, J.(2003). Educating citizens. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Driscoll, A., & Lynton, E. (1999). Making outreach visible: A guide to documenting professional service outreach. Washington, DC: American Association of Higher Education.

Resources for Civic Engagement

Ehrlich, T. (Ed.) (2000). Higher education and civic responsibility. Phoenix, AZ: Oryz Press.

Glassick, C.E., Huber, M.T., & Maeroff, G.I. (1997). Scholarship assessed: Evaluation of the professoriate. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

IUPUI institutional portfolio on civic engagement: North Central Association accreditation. (www.iport.iupui.edu).

Langseth, M., & Plater, W. M. (in press). Public work and the academy: A guidebook for academic administrators on civic engagement and service-learning. Anker Press.

Lynton, E. (1995). Making the case for professional service. Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education.

National Review Board for the Scholarship of Engagement (http://schoe.coe.uga.edu/about/FAQs.html)

Service @ Indiana University: Defining, documenting, and evaluating. (http://csl.iupui.edu/servicelearning/facultydevelopment.html)

WebsitesIUPUI P&T Guidelines• http://www.academicaffairs.iupui.edu/appd/faculty_appts.htmCenter for Service and Learning• http://csl.iupui.edu Community-Campus Partnership for Health• http://www.futurehealth.ucsf.edu/ccph.html National Review Board Scholarship of Engagement• http://www.scholarshipofengagement.org Committee on Institutional Cooperation• http://www.cic.uiuc.edu/groups/CommitteeOnEngagement/arc

hive/documents/EngagementReportREV2-22-05.pdfCampus Compact• www.compact.orgNational Clearinghouse for Service Learning• http://www.servicelearning.org/