Civic Engagement In Higher Education

Numerous studies have chronicled students lack of trust in large social institutions, declining interest in politics, and decreasing civic skills. This book is a comprehensive guide to developing high-quality civic engagement experiences for college students. The book defines civic engagement and explains why it is central to a college education. It describes the state of the art of education for civic engagement and provides guidelines for designing programs that encourage desired learning outcomes. In addition, the book guides leaders in organizing their institutions to create a campus-wide culture of civic engagement.

Provides an original and challenging contribution to contemporary debates on the civic purpose of higher education, exploring its manifestations through practices of teaching and research. Offers critical perspectives on the role of higher education institutions in terms of realizing civic missions, especially in current global market conditions.

This volume provides an original and powerful contribution to debates about the civic purpose of higher education. It suggests that universities can best realize their civic mission by making it central to their policy and practice. Bringing together researchers from three continents, the book offers an international perspective based primarily upon first-hand pedagogical experience. A transatlantic overview of the purpose, place and practice of one such pedagogy (service learning) is provided and its potential as a foundation for civic engagement assessed. In its last section the book moves from the theory of citizenship to practical considerations. In doing so, the book offers advice on establishing civic engagement to all those involved in teaching and learning within higher education.

Twenty-five leaders from the higher education and service-learning sectors provide insight into what works in building citizenship through civic engagement on their campuses and communities. From small colleges to large universities, these strong voices demonstrate that American democracy is very much active and prepared for the 21st century.

This book offers a much-needed appraisal of two key social change movements within higher education: civic engagement and social innovation. The authors critically explore the historical and contemporary contexts as well as democratic foundations (or absence thereof) of both approaches, concluding with a discussion of possible future directions that may make the approaches more effective in fulfilling the broader democratic mission of U.S. higher education. This is an essential resource for those in higher education who wish to promote and advance social change, as it provides an opportunity to critically examine where we are with our civic engagement and social innovation approaches and what we might do to best realize their promise through changes in our educational processes, pedagogical strategies, evaluation metrics, and outcomes.

This book offers a broad overview of many issues related to assessment in higher education, with specific application for understanding the impact of service-learning and civic engagement initiatives. This revised edition includes an additional chapter that explores recent changes in the assessment landscape and offers examples and resources for designing assessment strategies for community engagement in higher education. The original text includes narrative addressing assessment issues and strategies; a detailed discussion of learning from multiple research projects performed over the past two decades about impact on multiple constituencies –students, faculty, communities, and institutions; and a discussion of strategies for data collection, analysis, synthesis, and reporting. Specific assessment instruments for use with each constituency are provided, including suggestions for administration, preparation, and data analysis. This volume will be helpful for individuals seeking a comprehensive resource on assessment issues in higher education.

The Engaged University is a comprehensive empirical account of the global civic engagement movement in higher education. In universities around the world, something extraordinary is underway. Mobilizing their human and intellectual resources, institutions of higher education are directly tackling community problems – combating poverty, improving public health, and restoring environmental quality. This book documents and analyzes this exciting trend through studies of civic engagement and social responsibility at twenty institutions worldwide. This timely volume offers three special contributions to the literature on higher education policy and practice: a historical overview of the founding purposes of universities, which almost invariably included a context-specific element of social purpose, together with a survey of how these "founding" intentions have fared in different systems of higher education; a contemporary account of the policy and practice of universities – all over the world – seeking to re-engage with this social purpose; and an overview of generic issues which emerge for the "engaged university."

This volume argues for reexamination of the field of community engagement, suggests that the most effective way forward requires rethinking the structures of traditional higher education, and points to the growing emergence of evidence-based best practices that can catalyze a renaissance in community engagement and in higher education.