The Centrality of Engagement in Higher Education: Reflections and Future Directions

In this commentary, the authors reflect on their 2012 article, "The Centrality of Engagement in Higher Education" (EJ1001357) reprinted in this 20th anniversary issue of "Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement." In their original article, they argued that for higher...

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Published inJournal of higher education outreach and engagement. Vol. 20; no. 1; pp. 245 - 253
Main Authors Fitzgerald, Hiram E, Bruns, Karen, Sonka, Steven T, Furco, Andrew, Swanson, Louis
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach, University of Georgia and the Institute of Higher Education 2016
Subjects
Academic Achievement
Data Analysis
Educational Change
Experiential Learning
Feedback (Response)
Futures (of Society)
Hatch Act
Higher Education
Morrill Act 1862
Outreach Programs
Scholarship
School Community Relationship
Smith Lever Act
Social Change
Social Media
United States
United States
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Summary:In this commentary, the authors reflect on their 2012 article, "The Centrality of Engagement in Higher Education" (EJ1001357) reprinted in this 20th anniversary issue of "Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement." In their original article, they argued that for higher education to contribute meaningfully to transformational change in society, it would have to act to make engagement scholarship a central aspect of its work, spanning the spectrum of its disciplinary units, centers, and institutes (Fitzgerald, Bruns, Sonka, Furco, & Swanson, 2012). Solving societal problems requires recognition that the problems are in society; as an embedded part of complex society systems, these societal problems affect universities and the students, alumni, faculty, and staff who are a part of both the university and community systems. Thus, they argued, efforts to solve problems-in-society require new approaches to knowledge generation, generally described within the context of partnerships, collaboration, exchange of knowledges, and cocreation of solutions. Herein, the authors suggest ways to engage community, and perhaps to generate intergenerational input such as making more effective use of social media to build networks and organizations that are inclusive of community partners. Additionally, they raise questions relating to data sources, or "big data," and how analytics may provide new dimensions for community engagement scholarship in experiential learning settings as well as student performance and success analytics, particularly in just-in-time feedback for instructors. The article concludes with a review of several seminal events, such as the emergence of the Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship (ACES) and the induction of its first two sets of members, that have occurred since publication of their original 2012 article. [For "The Centrality of Engagement in Higher Education" (2016), see EJ1097192.]
ISSN:1534-6102