The Role of Civic Engagement
in Contemporary Higher
Education
National University of Ireland Galway
Robert G. Bringle, PhD PhilD
Chancellor’s Professor of Psychology and
Philanthropic Studies
IUPUI Center for Service and Learning
rbringle@iupui.edu
IUPUI
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Three-way partnership: Indiana U., Purdue U.,
& city of Indianapolis
Metropolitan campus: 30,000 commuting
students (who work a lot)
Professional education: highly decentralized
campus
Campus mission includes “Civic Engagement”
Infrastructure
– Center for Research and Learning
– Center for Teaching and Learning
– Center for Service and Learning
Center for Service & Learning
• Office of Service Learning
– curricular
• Office of Community Service
– voluntary service
• Office of Community Work Study
– community-service employment
• Office of Neighborhood
Partnerships
– geographically focused engagement
Major Shifts in Faculty Work
From
To
Focus on faculty
Focus on learning
Autonomous
faculty
Building institutions
Individualistic
Collaborative
Discipline-based
Interdisciplinary
University is
separate from
community
Civic engagement
Scholarship Reconsidered: Boyer
• Discovery
• Integration
• Communication (dissemination,
publication, teaching)
• Application
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.
Engagement, Outreach, and
Public Service
• Civic Education
• Civic Engagement
• Community
engagement
• Community-based
Learning
• Community Service
• Engaged Scholarship
• Experiential Learning
• Outreach
• Participatory Action
Research
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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
Distance
Education
& CommunityBased Learning
Community
CommunityBased
Research
Engagement
Teaching
Research
Service
Service
Learning
Professional
Participatory
Community
Action
Service/Voluntary
Research
Community Service
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
Faculty and Student Activities In the
Community
D istance
Education
& C ommunity B ased Learning
C ommunit y
C ommunit yB ased
R esearch
Engagement
Teaching
R esearch
Service
Service
Learning
Professional
Participatory
C ommunit y
A ction
Service/Voluntary
R esearch
C ommunit y Service
Community-Based Learning
Not all community-based instruction is service
learning
• Field work experiences (e.g., Museum Studies,
Anthropology)—NUIG Connect Degree
• Cooperative Education
• Internship
• Practicum
• Service Learning
• Pre-professional field experiences: Clinicals, Student
Teaching—NUIG Professional Experience
Programme
• Applied Learning
• Experiential Learning
• Student Engagement
IUPUI’s Requirements for
Experiential Education
1. Content
2. Activity in the
community
3. Reflection activities
4. Assessment
5. Record
Distinctions Among Approaches to
Service & Experiential Learning
Recipient
BENEFICIARY
Service
Provider
FOCUS
Learning
SERVICE LEARNING
COMMUNITY SERVICE
VOLUNTEERISM
FIELD EDUCATION
INTERNSHIP
(Furco, 1996)
Definition
Service learning is a course-based, credit-bearing
educational experience in which students
a) participate in an organized service activity that
meets identified community needs, and
b) 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
personal values and civic responsibility.
(Bringle & Hatcher, 1995)
Key Elements of SL
• Reflection
– “Perplexity” (Dewey, 1933)
– Activities to structure learning from the service
experience
• Reciprocity
– Partnerships
– Dialogue to structure the service experience
• Civic Education
– Serving to learn
– Learning to serve
But, in too many cases, our students
“… had the experience, but missed the
meaning.”
T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets
(1943)
From A Student’s Journal
Today I got to the nursing
home at 2:00. Talked to
some ladies. Passed out
popcorn at the movie.
Went home at 4:00
Conrad & Hedin, 1990
Guidelines for Reflection
• Clearly links service experience to learning
objectives
• Is structured in terms of expectations,
assessment criteria
• Occurs regularly throughout semester
• Instructor provides feedback
• Includes opportunity to explore, clarify, and
alter values
(Bringle & Hatcher, 1999)
Reflection: The Key Component
• Reflection as a means to learning
• Reflection as a basis of assessing
learning
• Reflection as process to be studied
• Reflection as source of products to use
in research
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
Accountability for Civic Outcomes
•
“Educationally-meaningful service”
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CSL program evaluation and improvement
Institutional assessment of learning outcomes
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CSL phrase, but what does it mean???
Every graduate will write a narrative…
“North star”
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Civic-minded Professional (Hatcher, 2008)
Civic-minded Graduate
Working Definition of CMG
A civic-minded graduate is one who
a) is formally educated and
b) has the capacity and orientation to
work with others
c) in a democratic way
d) to improve the community.
CSL, in process
Civic-Minded Graduate
Self-Identity
Academics,
Pre-Professional
Knowledge &
Skills
Civic Attitudes
&
Action
Civic-Minded
Graduate
CSL North Star
Civic-Minded Graduate
• Personal Integration
• Academic Knowledge and Technical Skills
• Knowledge of Civil Society (e.g., Volunteer
Opportunities, Nonprofit Organizations)
• Knowledge of Contemporary Social Issues
• Listening and Communication Skills
• Diversity Skills
• Self-Efficacy
• Behavioral Intentions → Civic Behavior
Uses of CMG
• Reflection in Service Learning
Classes
• Evaluation across Service Learning
Classes
• Program Evaluation across CSL
programs
• Institutional Assessment of Civic
Learning
Faculty and Student Activities In the
Community
Distance
Education
& CommunityBased Learning
Community
CommunityBased
Research
Engagement
Teaching
Research
Service
Service
Learning
Professional Participatory
Action
Commun ity Research
Service/Vo luntary
Commun ity Service
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)
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
Professional Service as
Academic Work
• Service documented as academic work
• Evidence of significance and impact
from multiple sources
• Evidence of individual contributions
• Evidence of growth (e.g., leadership)
• Dissemination through publications,
including peer-reviewed academic ones
• Dissemination to peers, clients, patients
• Peer review of professional service
Faculty and Student Activities In the
Community
Distance
Education
& CommunityBased Learning
Community
CommunityBase d
Re se arch
Engagement
Teaching
Research
Service
Service
Learning
Professional
Participatory
Community
Service/Voluntary
Action
Community Service
Re se arch
Participatory Action Research
• Collaboration between the campus and
community
• 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
Engaged Research
Can you imagine that your discipline can inform
your professional work in the community?
• Professional service, application, scholarly
engagement
Can you imagine that your professional work in
the community can inform your discipline?
• Scholarship of service, scholarship of
engagement, applied research, engaged
scholarship
Differentiation of Terms
Doing An Activity
– Teaching, Research, or Service
Well-informed
– Scholarly Teaching
– Scholarly Discovery
– Scholarly Service
Contributing to Peer-reviewed
Knowledge
– Scholarship of Teaching
– Scholarship of Service
– Scholarship of Discovery
Scholarship
• Products, some academic
• Significance and impact
– To a knowledge base
– To a discipline/profession
– To the mission of the university
• Peer review
– Internal
– External
Who Cares about Civic Outcomes?
• Practitioners & Colleagues
• Funders Agencies
• Community Partners & Civic
Leaders
• Employers
• Executive Leadership
AAC&U’s Survey of Employers
Best 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%
NCA 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
Fundamental Issue!
In what significant ways is the
intellectual culture of YOUR
CAMPUS incompatible with
programs that embrace civic
engagement, service learning,
or engaged scholarship?
Two Types of Engagement
Institutionalization of
Low
Low
High
Institutionalization
Of Other Types
Of Engagement
Service Learning
High
Research I
Liberal Arts
Liberal Arts
Community
Colleges
Land Grant
Boyer’s New
American
College
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
Institutionalization
“The heart of institutionalization
may be summarized in a few
words: intentionality, coherence,
and commitment"
Furco and Holland, 2004, p. 38
Intentionality
• Leadership at all levels
• Service learning and student affairs
are means to a sets of ends
• Answering the “why” question
• Coaching faculty and staff to
produce well-designed learning
experiences
• Role of assessment, particularly of
the civic outcomes
Coherence
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Strategic versus ad hoc
Centralized versus decentralized
Engaged departments/schools
Across ALL facets of the campus
Multi-level (grad & undergrad)
versus single level
• Multi-modality versus one
Commitment
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Funding
Infrastructure
Faculty and staff development
Linking to other campus initiatives
Issues with Civic Engagement
• Disorganizes an institution organized around
the disciplines
• Warrants interdisciplinarity when structures
are not established for that
• Warrants team work when reward structures
focus on individuals
• Requires institutional adaptation
• Expects democratic processes and lessons
from a non-democratic institution
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?