Building Engagement Across the Campus: Creating Engaged Departments AAC

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Building Engagement Across the Campus Creating
Engaged Departments AACU Pedagogies of
Engagement ConferenceApril 14 16,
2005Bethesda, Maryland

• John Saltmarsh, Project Director
• Integrating Service Academic Study
• National Campus Compact
• jsaltmarsh_at_compact.org
• Kevin Kecskes, Director
• Community-University Partnerships for Learning
• Portland State University
• kecskesk_at_pdx.edu
• Steven Jones, Coordinator
• Office of Service Learning, Center for Service
  and Learning,
• Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
• jonessg_at_iupui.edu

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Workshop Goals

• Investigate motivation for engagement
• Place departmental engagement in disciplinary and
  institutional contexts
• Discuss multiple approaches to civic engagement
  including service-learning.
• Present institution-wide programmatic models
• Discuss strategies for departmental engagement
• Share lessons learned
• Consider the engagement of departments at your
  campus

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Agenda

• Explore an Engaged Department Framework
• Engaged Departments as a key component of an
  engaged campus (IUPUI)
• Engaged Departments in action (PSU)
• Lessons Learned
• Resources

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An Engaged Department

• When we talk about an engaged department, what
  do we mean by engagement?

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Engagement

• Civic engagement means working to make a
  difference in the civic life of our communities
  and developing the combination of knowledge,
  skills, values and motivation to make that
  difference.Thomas Ehrlich, et. al., Civic
  Responsibility and Higher Education (2000)

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Engagement

• An essential point made by Russ Edgerton and Lee
  Schulman in a critique of the 2002 NSSE results
  is relevant here We know, for instance, that
  students can be engaged in a range of effective
  practices and still not be learning with
  understanding we know that students can be
  learning with understanding and still not be
  acquiring the knowledge, skills, and dispositions
  that are related to effective citizenship.

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Engagement

• Complementary learning opportunities inside and
  outside the classroom augment the academic
  programservice-learning provides students with
  opportunities to synthesize, integrate, and apply
  their knowledge. Such experiences make learning
  more meaningful, and ultimately more useful
  because what students know becomes a part of who
  they are.
• (2002 NSSE Annual Report)

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Engagement

• Civic engagement means creating opportunities
  for civic learning that are rooted in respect for
  community-based knowledge, experiential and
  reflective modes of teaching and learning, active
  participation in American democracy,
  institutional renewal that supports these
  elements.

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What is the Compelling Interest in Engagement?

• The Civic Purpose of Higher Education (the
  mission imperative)
• Improved Teaching and Learning (the pedagogical
  imperative)
• Creating New Knowledge (the epistemological
  imperative)

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The Civic Purpose of Higher Education (the
mission imperative)

• "Unless education has some frame of reference it
  is bound to be aimless, lacking a unified
  objective. The necessity for a frame of
  reference must be admitted. There exists in this
  country such a unified frame. It is called
  democracy."
• John Dewey (1937)

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Improved Teaching and Learning (the pedagogical
imperative)

• People worldwide need a whole series of new
  competencies...But I doubt that such abilities
  can be taught solely in the classroom, or be
  developed solely by teachers. Higher order
  thinking and problem solving skills grow out of
  direct experience, not simply teaching they
  require more than a classroom activity. They
  develop through active involvement and real life
  experiences in workplaces and the community.
• John Abbott, Director of Britains Education 2000
  Trust, Interview with Ted Marchese, AAHE
  Bulletin, 1996

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Creating New Knowledge (the epistemological
imperative)

• The epistemology appropriate to engaged
  teaching and scholarship must make room for the
  practitioners reflection in and on action. It
  must account for and legitimize not only the use
  of knowledge produced in the academy, but the
  practitioners generation of actionable
  knowledge.
• Donald Schon, The New Scholarship Requires a New
  Epistemology, Change, 1995
• Knowledge - particularly useful knowledge that
  can be applied in the economy and society is
  something more than highly intellectualized,
  analytical, and symbolic material. It includes
  working knowledge, a component of experience, of
  hands-on practice knowledge.
• Mary Walshok, Knowledge Without Boundaries. 1995

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What is Your Primary Interest in Engagement?

• The Civic Purpose of Higher Education (the
  mission imperative)
• Improved Teaching and Learning (the pedagogical
  imperative)
• Creating New Knowledge (the epistemological
  imperative)
• Another interest.

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Why The Department?

• Departments are the units in which the
  institutions strategy for academic development
  is formulated in practice.
  Donald Kennedy
• The department is arguably the definitive locus
  of faculty culture, especially departments that
  gain their definition by being their campuss
  embodiment of distinguished and hallowed
  disciplines. we could have expected that
  reformers would have placed departmental reform
  at the core of their agenda yet just the
  opposite has occurred. There has been a
  noticeable lack of discussion of or even new
  ideas about departments role in reform.
• Edwards, Richard. 1999. The Academic Department
  How does it Fit Into the University Reform
  Agenda? Change, September/October, p. 17-27.

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The Engaged Department

• An Educational Reform Agenda
• Improved learning
• 2. Scholarship reconsidered
• 3. Public relevance - socially responsive
  knowledge

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Key Features of an Engaged Department

• The work of the department is collaborative
  Shift from my work to our work
• Public dialogue about the values, interests, and
  goals of the department.
• Engagement as community-based public problem
  solving.

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An Engaged Department Agenda

• Unit responsibility for Engagement Related
  Activities.
• Departmental Agreement on the concepts and
  terminology that allow faculty to explore the
  dimensions of engaged work most effectively.
• Departmental agreement on how best to document,
  evaluate, and communicate the significance of
  engaged work.
• Strategies for deepening the departments
  community partnerships.

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Addressing Departmental Engagement

• Defining Civic Engagement.
• Effective Departmental Collaboration.
• Community Partnerships.
• Evolving Faculty Roles and Rewards.
• Assessment Principles and Strategies.
• Creating an Action Plan.

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Why Be a More Engaged DepartmentMetropolitan
State University Communications, Writing,and the
Arts

• Promote cultural diversity initiatives
• Promote critical inquiry thinking
• Understand points of commonality (shared
  purposes and goals)
• Promote dialogue and commonality among our
  programs and communities
• Connects reflection with action
• Collective responsibility to bridge town/gown
• A shared understanding of how the department adds
  value to the community

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Placing Departmental Engagement Within an
Institutional Context
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An Integrated Approach
Institutional Engagement
Faculty/Staff Engagement
Departmental Engagement
Student Engagement
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CIRCLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION ENGAGEMENT INITIATIVES
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Civic Engagement in Higher EducationExpanding
our Understanding
Service- Learning (curricular and co-curricular)

• Other pedagogies, mechanisms, strategies
• _______
• _______
• _______
• _______

Community-Based Research

• Associated civic skills, attitudes, attributes,
  and behaviors to be developed
• ___________
• ___________
• ___________
• ___________

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Descriptions and Definitions Pedagogies for
Civic Engagement
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PSU Developmental Model
Faculty
Development Approaches
Individual Faculty Engagement
Scholarship of Engagement
Service- Learning
Community- Based Learning
Departmental Level Engagement
Community- Based Research
Community Service
Institutional Level Engagement
Civic Engagement
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IUPUIs Mission

• IUPUI Mission Statement
• The MISSION of IUPUI is to provide for its
  constituents excellence in
• Teaching and Learning
• Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity
• Civic Engagement, Locally, Nationally, and
  Globally
• with each of these core activities characterized
  by
• Collaboration within and across disciplines and
  with the community,
• A commitment to ensuring diversity, and
• Pursuit of best practices

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IUPUIs Vision Statement

• IUPUIs vision is to be an engaged institution
  that stands as a model for effective, mutually
  beneficial collaborations of students, faculty,
  staff and community.

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Institutional Portfolio on Civic Engagement/Civic
Engagement Task Forces Goals

• Enhance capacity for civic engagement.
• Enhance civic activities, partnerships, and
  patient and client services.
• Intensify commitment and accountability to
  Indianapolis, central Indiana, and the state.

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Strategic Goals of the Center for Service and
Learning

• 1. Support the development of service learning
  classes.
• 2. Increase campus participation in community
  service activities.
• 3. Strengthen campus-community partnerships.
• 4. Advance the scholarship of service.
• 5. Promote civic engagement in higher education.

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Overview of Commitment to Excellence Funds

• General Goals
• 1. Create new models for undergraduate student
  learning and civic engagement.
• Increase opportunities for undergraduate students
  to participate in meaningful experiential
  education
• Increase the number of undergraduate students
  involved in multiple community-based learning
  experiences
• Create new models for student learning through
  civic engagement that have both vertical and
  horizontal distribution

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Overview of Commitment to Excellence Funds

• General Goals, continued
• 2. Develop staff infrastructure with academic
  units.
• Be accountable to good practice and to internal
  and external constituencies through systematic
  assessment and reporting of student learning
  outcomes and campus performance indicators for
  service learning and civic engagement.
• Engage in collaborative work with community
  partners to address complex community issues.

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Overview of Commitment to Excellence Funds

• Specific Goals
• Interdisciplinary Community Partnerships
• Develop interdisciplinary campus-community
  partnerships (horizontal focus).
• Engaged Department/School Initiatives
• Assist schools and departments to develop
  strategies to (a) include community-based work in
  both teaching and research (including student
  research), (b) include community-based
  experiences as a standard expectation for majors,
  and (c) develop a level of coherence within the
  unit that will allow them to model successful
  civic engagement and progressive change at the
  departmental and/or school level (vertical
  focus).

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Criteria for Proposals-Engaged Departments/Schools

• Student learning
• 1. Involves undergraduate students in civic
  engagement activities that include teaching,
  research, and service, preferably in ways that
  integrate across those activities
• 2. Involves large numbers of undergraduate
  students in multiple ways, include
  service-learning classes, internships,
  independent readings and research, etc.
• 3. Involves entering undergraduate students and
  structured developmental sequences of curricular
  and co-curricular activities that contribute to
  student learning and development.

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Criteria for Proposals-Engaged Departments/Schools
, continued

• Community partnerships
• 1. Focuses on community issues in central Indiana
  in ways that engage the campus and communities in
  activities that are academically meaningful and
  worthwhile to the communities.
• 2. Demonstrates community input in the
  development of the proposal, if feasible.
• 3. Demonstrates a plan for shared decision making
  with community partners over time.
• 4. Demonstrates a plan for continued community
  connections and community input during program
  implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.

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Criteria for Proposals-Engaged Departments/Schools
, continued

• Internal Collaboration
• 1. Collaborates with other IUPUI partners to
  leverage additional campus resources.
• 2. Identifies roles of faculty and staff with
  project responsibilities within academic units
  that are involved.
• 3. Advances the mission of the department and/or
  school in important ways around civic engagement.
• Project management
• 1. Structures faculty leadership with clear
  commitment to the success of the proposed
  activities and provides a timeline for organizing
  the project operations under faculty and staff
  leadership.
• 2. Identifies plans for matching funds from
  department/school and external sources to support
  the initiative and has plans for securing
  additional external support. Departmental or
  school matching funds are required, and although
  no proportion is specified, those with higher
  levels of matching funds will be favorably
  reviewed.
• 3. Identifies ways in which Commitment to
  Excellence funds support will be phased out and
  other forms of support will ensure continuation
  of project activities.

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Criteria for Proposals-Engaged Departments/Institu
tes, continued

• Assessment and evaluation
• 1. Provides an assessment plan that will document
  impact on student learning, contribution to
  departmental/school goals, and campus mission and
  goals.
• 2. Establishes how the proposed activities will
  be successful in terms of IUPUIs Civic
  Engagement Performance Indicators, with
  particular regard for those indicators focused on
  Principles of Undergraduate Learning.
• 3. Establishes how the proposed activities will
  contribute to academic work including securing
  external support and creating academic products.
• 4. Provides an assessment plan for documenting
  the community impact of the work (e.g., health
  indicators, policy, quality of life.)
• 5. Establishes some procedures for oversight and
  evaluation that are relatively independent of the
  established infrastructure and incorporates
  community participation in these functions.
• Dissemination
• 1. Develops plans for disseminating information
  and publications in ways appropriate to a variety
  of local and national audiences.

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Results of Engaged Department Initiative To Date

• 2003
• 3 proposals, 1 funded (funding was discontinued
  after 1st year of grant)
• 2004
• 4 proposals, 2 funded
• 2005
• Campus-wide Engaged Department Institute15
  departments represented
• 7 proposals, 3 funded
• 1st Annual Civic Engagement Showcase will be held
  April 22, 2005

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Why Work with Departments?An Integrated Approach
Institutional Engagement
Faculty/Staff Engagement
Departmental Engagement
Student Engagement
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Why work with Academic Departments? PSUs
Response

• Faculty generally find their intellectual and
  professional home in the department.
• Nationally, work is being done to educate
  discipline associations and articulate
  connections to engagement.
• Student experiences with community-based work can
  be fragmented when coordinated largely at the
  individual faculty level
• There are several potential benefits for
  students, faculty, and community partners

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The Engaged Department Program at Portland State

• Uses community-based learning to facilitate the
  integration of community-based work and
  reflection into academic study
• Encourages the scholarship of engagement
• Collaborative activities that directly support
  the university mission, Let knowledge serve the
  city.

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PSUs Programmatic Process

• Campus wide distribution of request for proposals
• Competitive, peer-reviewed selection process
• Development of interdisciplinary faculty
  learning community featuring monthly group
  discussion sessions with identified topics
• Material resources provided
• Campus-wide dissemination and celebration of
  outcomes at the end of the year

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PSU discussion topics for monthly group meetings

• Modified planning document used by Campus Compact
  for the national institutes
• Discussion/clarification of terms
• Strategizing barriers and facilitators for
  engagement
• Curricular change related to engagement
• Engaging others in the department
• Assessment
• Related scholarship (of teaching and of community
  engagement)

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Working with Departments PSUs History

• Engaged Department Institute offered by Campus
  Compact, June 2001
• Team of 6 participate in a 4-day institute to
  explore the concepts of the department as a unit
  of engagement and change.
• 7 departments participated in year-long program,
  2001-2002
• 12 units in 2002-2003
• 12 units in 2003-2005 (06)

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PSU Model of Working with Departments Four year
Journey

• 7 department participated in year-long program,
  2001-2002
• School of Business Administration
• School of Community Health
• Department of English
• Department of Mathematical Sciences
• Department of Psychology
• University Studies, university-wide general
  education program
• School of Urban Studies and Planning

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PSU Model of Working with Departments Four year
Journey

• 12 units participated in year-long program,
  2002-2003
• Department of Applied Linguistics
• Department of Architecture
• Department of Art
• Child and Family Studies Program
• Department of Educational Policy, Foundations,
• and Administrative Studies
• Department of English
• Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
• Department of Physics
• Department of Psychology
• Office of University Studies, Freshman Inquiry
• School of Urban Studies and Planning
• Womens Studies Program

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PSU Model of Working with Departments Four year
Journey

• 12 units currently participating in program,
  2003-2005
• Center for Science Education
• Department of Applied Linguistics
• Department of Art
• Department of Educational Policy, Foundations,
• and Administrative Studies
• Department of Geology
• Department of History
• Department of Political Science
• Department of Public Administration
• School of Urban Studies and Planning
• School of Community Health
• University Studies Program Freshman Inquiry
  Capstone Program
• Womens Studies Program

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Identifying Common Interests and Overlapping
Areas of Engagement

• Survey of
• recent past
• current
• near future
• Focus on FACULTY work
• - scholarship of engagement, service- and
  community-based learning and/or research,
  outreach, partnerships, etc

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Course Mapping Activity

• Civic Engagement Concept or Skill
• Course Name and Number
• Required/Elective
• Who Teaches?
• Community Partners Involved
• Hours of Student Involvement
• How Often Taught?
• Nature of Experience (thematic focus, team
  approach, internship, s-l course, comm.-based
  research, capstone, etc.)
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  

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Engaged Department Connective Pathways
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Identifying Common Interests and Overlapping
Areas of Engagement

• Take time to clarify, query, notice
• Celebrate past, present, and future work
• Take time to dream (collectively)
• Keep an eye on impacts / outcomesask for whom?
  Students, scholarly work, community partners,
  resource generation, etc.
• Who else could be at the table? Why?

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Emerging Successes at PSU

• Department of Art
• Organic, build on faculty interests, responsive
  to many community partners, tie to assessment
• Evidence comm. partners on hiring committees
• Education Foundations, Policy, Administration
• Intentional, collective study, long-term planning
• Evidence department-wide community tour
• Urban Studies and Planning
• Organic, adaptive, focus on integrating and
  deepening the required internship
  (sustainability)
• Evidence integrative seminar, common readings

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Lessons Learned
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Lessons Learned at IUPUI

• Support from academic leadership is
  key-Chancellor, Provost, and Deans.
• Expand on existing engagement-many departments
  had been doing engaged work, but it was not
  coordinated nor was it integrated in
  undergraduate curriculum.
• Departments need support in assessment,
  identifying other forms of support, and fiscal
  reporting.
• Greatest impact in terms of students has been
  application of service learning to introductory
  and capstone courses.
• New community partners have been brought in.

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PSU - Lessons Learned

• Curricular change takes time
• Institutional support is critical
• Like people and institutions, departments each
  operate in their own climate and contexts.
  Recognizing, affirming, and building from that
  foundation is ESSENTIAL therefore,
• Flexibility, adaptability, and creativity are
  more important than proposing a template
  approach
• Even if all faculty are not adopters of
  service-learning, this effort enhances individual
  and departmental familiarity with service-learning

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PSU - Lessons Learned (cont.)

• Identifying one or more required community-based
  courses for the major that intentionally
  integrate key civic engagement conceptsindependen
  t of the instructorfacilitates the
  institutionalization of departmental engagement.
• Utilizing a developmental framework to sequence
  community engagement
• Recognition of efforts is important.
• After four years of institution-wide
  implementation, we now see emerging a continuum
  of departmental level engagement
• From a barely aggregated set of individual
  faculty efforts, on the one end of the scale, to
• The emergence of groundbreaking collective
  thinking, planning, and action on the other end
  of the continuum.

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Exploring Multiple Perspectives

• Characteristics of an Engaged Department
  Assessment Initiative
• Unit-level Perspectives
• Faculty Perspectives
• Community Partners Perspectives
• Students Perspectives

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Initial Data Analysis

• Responses vary
• General trends
• Most faculty, chairs, students, community
  partners see progress and are hopeful
• Persistent challenges
• Insufficient collective planning at the unit
  level
• Little or no student input in unit-level
  decisions
• Inconsistent articulation and understanding of
  goals/purpose for and by all involved
• Some C. P.s want more opportunities for
  co-teaching

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Faculty Perspective

• The philosophy and pedagogy of the department
  are completely aligned with the characteristics
  of an engaged department.
• The responsibilities of faculty are understood
  to include the facultys own civic engagement and
  the facilitation of civic engagement and
  development of civic capacity among students.
• - PSU womens studies faculty member,
  September 2004

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Chair Perspective

• Some faculty include community-based activities
  in their CV, some dont
• Some community partners make important
  contributions to student learning, some dont.
• We are starting to have community partners serve
  as adjunct faculty.

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Community Partner Perspective

• The units success is rooted in powerfully
  combining academic study with engaged,
  accomplished community leaders.
• This academic effort personifies the Universitys
  mission of being a leader and a resource to the
  Metropolitan areaindeed, to the entire state.
• The faculty likely dont get the acknowledgement,
  support or reward commensurate to the terrific
  work they doand do very well.
• - Community partner for PSU political
• science department, October 2004

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Creating and Recognizing Conditions for Success

• Institutional Aspects
• Strong alignment to institutional mission
• Institutional support
• Scholarship of engagement recognized in P and T
  guidelines
• Resource allocation / Center
• Faculty development support

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Creating and Recognizing Conditions for Success

• Departmental
• Culture of collaboration / agenda sharing
• Leadership, risk-takers in department
• Leader able to translate community work to
  align with individual faculty agendas
• Tipping point - of colleagues (especially
  tenured colleagues) ready to collaborate
• Sufficient common understanding of terms
  (pedagogy, CBR, scholarship of engagement, etc.)
• Departmental/disciplinary mission alignment
• History of CBL / SL / CBR successes

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Creating and Recognizing Conditions for Success

• Community Partners
• Desire for deeper, longer-term partnerships
• Desire to co-instruct, in and out of classroom
• Frustration with the time problem
• Recognition and ability to articulate benefits of
  committed partnerships
• History of successes

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Creating and Recognizing Conditions for Success

• Students
• History of successes
• Pushing for deeper opportunities to engage
• Local vs. out-of-state students (pre-connections
  to community)
• Search for deeper meaning and increased sense of
  agency

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Activity

• In what ways does your departments academic
  culture encourage or discourage engagement?
• What educational/academic outcomes could be
  achieved by your department through a focus on
  civic engagement?
• In what ways do your institutions PT guidelines
  reward engagement?
• What might your institutions PT guidelines be
  adapted to reward engagement?

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Now What? Strategic Questions

• What current departmental efforts/successes might
  be leveraged?
• What barriers are in the way?
• Who can help?
• Who is / isnt at the table (yet)?
• How might this be tied to scholarship?

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Resources

• Engaged Department Toolkit (Campus Compact,
  2003)
• Civic Engagement Across the Curriculum
  (Battistoni, 2002), Campus Compact
• Assessing Service-Learning and Civic Engagement
  (Gelmon et al, 2001), Campus Compact
• Departments that Work (Wergin, 2003), Anker Pubs.
• Overcoming Hollowed Collegiality, (Massy,
  Change Magazine, July/August 1994).
• The Collaborative Department (Wergin, 1994),
  AAHE.
• The Academic Department How Does it Fit into
  the University Reform Agenda? (Edwards, Change
  Magazine, Sept./Oct. 1999)
• Engaging the Department, The Department Chair,
  Summer 2004 (Kecskes, 2004)
• Civic Responsibility and Higher Education
  (Ehrlich, 2000)
• Educating Citizens (Colby, et al., 2003)
• Forthcoming Book on the Engaged Department
  (Kecskes and Associates)