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What is Community Engagement?

“…collaboration between institutions of higher education and larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in context of partnership and reciprocity”

Carnegie Foundation for the

Advancement of Teaching

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What is engaged scholarship?

A method of scholarship that can be utilized for rigorous research.
Boyer – 4 categories of scholarship (Chancellor Grasso often cites these):

The scholarship of discovery that includes original research that advances knowledge (i.e., basic research);
The scholarship of integration that involves synthesis of information across disciplines, across topics within a discipline, or across time (i.e., interprofessional education, or science communication);
The scholarship of application (also later called the scholarship of engagement) that goes beyond the service duties of a faculty member to those within or outside the University and involves the rigor and application of disciplinary expertise with results that can be shared with and/or evaluated by peers (i.e., Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, or science diplomacy); and
The scholarship of teaching and learning that involves the systematic study of teaching and learning processes. It differs from scholarly teaching in that it requires a format that will allow public sharing and the opportunity for application and evaluation by others.

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Related Activities and Investments

UM-Dearborn team attended Engagement Academy in 2015

Prepared 10 Year Strategic Goals

Host of Annual Engagement Day
Curricular and Co-Curricular Activities
Embed in campus-wide strategic planning process

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Most important lessons learned

Engagement is about the institution, not the individual
Best practices for institutionalizing community engagement

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Our Charge in 2021 & Beyond?

Continue to embed engagement into the DNA of the institution in preparation for the Carnegie application for reclassification in ~2026.
Continue to track progress on the strategies identified to advance engagement, as well as create work groups to advance the strategies.
Leverage increasingly strategic partnerships with community to further contribute talent and resources in a mutually beneficial way.

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A Bit About Boundary Spanners

Goals

OMI’s “boundary spanning” roles, skills and values provide a platform for successful mutually beneficial community-university engagement

OMI provides tools and resources for addressing key challenges

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Types of Outreach & Community Engagement

Professional & continuing education (content focused)
Service-learning & engaged pedagogies (student focused)
Institutional place-based or issue-based (non-student focused)
Research (faculty focused)
Diversity & inclusivity (internally focused)
Extension (externally focused)
External/state relations (communications focused)
Other?

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Weerts & Sandmann Quadrant Model

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Boundary Spanning

and

OMI’s Professional Identity

(Per the Outreach and Engagement Professionals Network)

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Naming the Work that OMI Does

teacher
facilitator
convener
translator
communication channel
clearinghouse
catalyst
keeps things on course/moving in common direction
maintains trust of group/trusting relationships
surrogate (the outcome belongs to someone else, not you)
agitator of system to fight inertia
has strategic foresight/anticipates opportunity
advocate
ensures sustainability by getting others to take responsibility
mediator/ conflict resolver
interpreter
“idea” person

(2007 NOSC, Sandmann & Weerts workshop)

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Who are OMI Staff?

We are university staff and non-tenure-track faculty members who, in roles distinct from those of tenure-track faculty, facilitate, manage and/or administrate ongoing projects, programs, services, research and relationships with community partners.

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Why are Boundary Spanning Roles Important to the Academia?

The work of engagement is typically led by boundary spanners in academic staff positions rather than tenure-track faculty (Weerts & Sandmann, 2008).
Community partners evaluate the effectiveness of institutional engagement through their relationship with boundary spanners (Weerts & Sandmann, 2008).
Multiple boundary spanning roles must be aligned and work in harmony for engagement to work effectively (Weerts & Sandmann, 2010).
Institutional commitment to outreach and engagement was associated with increased levels of state appropriations for public research universities during the 1990s (Weerts & Ronca, 2006).

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Roles, Functions & Status

Spanning multiple boundaries:

University Community

Faculty Staff

Content expertise Engagement expertise

Research Practice

Individual Collective

Positional power Functional power

Quantitative Qualitative

Positivism Constructivism

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Roles, Functions & Status

Examples of boundary-spanning roles:�

Facilitator and convener
Broker and mediator
Translator, interpreter and diplomat
Catalyst and surrogate
Shepherd
Community organizer and capacity builder
Networker, connector and cultivator
Clearinghouse and communication hub
Advocate of system change
Entrepreneur and innovator

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Shared Skills & Values

The 10 “–ates”:

Relate: Bring people together, understand common interests
Cultivate: Build capacity, prepare environment, develop leadership, build infrastructure
Innovate: Create new solutions, develop new approaches
Collaborate: Structure partnerships, create inclusive environments, maintain relationships
Facilitate: Lead and design processes, advance initiatives
Evaluate: Document, describe, improve
Communicate: Understand, share, exchange
Educate: Learn, apply, disseminate
Advocate: Change systems, acquire resources, protect partnerships
Administrate: Demonstrate accountability, manage resources

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From Network to System of Influence: Communities of Practice

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Tracy’s Scholarship: An Alternative Administrative Practice - Typology

Typology – a systematic classification or study of types
4 Dimensions

Ontology – the nature of being
Epistemology – the theory of the nature and

grounds of knowledge

Social Theory – how we understand the
development and maintenance of the social world
Ethical Framework – our ethical grounding and

stance

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Examples of How OMI Has Supported Faculty

Seed Grants
Grant Support
Research Partnership Support/Network
Sustainable Community Relationships
Project Partnership Support
Administrative Support (when programs don’t have a traditional fit within the University structure)

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Tracy’s Scholarship: An Alternative Administrative Practice Typology – Dim. 1

MASCULINE - BUSINESS METAPHOR	FEMININE - HOME METAPHOR
Scarcity – there is never enough of what is needed Individuals are separate and discrete from each other Humans must dominate nature in order to survive Relationships are instrumental	Sufficiency – there is always enough of what is needed Individuals are interconnected and created by their relationships with one another Nature and humans are symbiotic Relationships are transformational and constructive

Ontology = the nature of being

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Tracy’s Scholarship: An Alternative Administrative Practice Typology – Dim. 2

MASCULINE – BUSINESS METAPHOR	FEMININE - HOME METAPHOR
The knower is separate from the process of knowing Objective knowledge is all that is important to the knower Action is based on what is objectively known; it is not experimental, but based on an expectation that outcomes can be predicted Facts and values are separate	There is no separation between the knower and the external world The knower carries personal knowledge Knowing is achieved through doing, based on experimentation; it is fundamentally pragmatic Fact (consequence) and value (how we regard the consequence) are inextricably connected

Epistemology = the theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge

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Tracy’s Scholarship: An Alternative Administrative Practice Typology – Dim. 3

MASCULINE - BUSINESS METAPHOR	FEMININE - HOME METAPHOR
The social world is achieved through contract or explicit agreement Membership is contingent on performance of one's contracted responsibility People are given explicit roles and act or perform according to them Nature is subordinate to humanity	The social world is achieved through relationship There are no invidious distinctions in the social group; all members are accepted as important Common understanding, based on caring and shared life ways, is the basis of the social group Nature and humanity adapt to each other

Social Theory = How we understand the development and maintenance of the social world

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Tracy’s Scholarship: An Alternative Administrative Practice Typology – Dim. 4

MASCULINE – BUSINESS METAPHOR	FEMININE - HOME METAPHOR
Win/lose; what is best for the individual's survival There are explicit external rules and principles that we must follow Fairness; everyone must be treated equally or the same Everyone is treated the same by standards and regulations – "one size fits all"	Win/win; what is best for the whole Relationship itself regulates behavior; context is everything Fairness; everyone is unique, important and deserves special treatment. Individual needs and unique circumstances are taken into account

Ethical Framework

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Tracy’s Scholarship: Applied to �Community Engagement

Masculine/Business Metaphor as Enacted in a Traditional University Community Engagement Context	Feminine/Home Metaphor as Enacted in a Progressive University Community Engagement Context

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Tracy’s Scholarship: Applied to �Community Engagement – Dim. 1

Traditional Community Engagement	Progressive Community Engagement
scarcity – there are never enough resources to satisfy all members of the community perception that individuals are separate and discrete – there are goods guys and bad guys and the bad guys must be controlled so the good guys can get enough resources to live peaceably some community actors/organizations must be controlled or they will dominate others or hog resources – elites help to make sure disruptive members of society are controlled relationships are instrumental – one only interacts with members of community in order to obtain information, power, or resources	sufficiency – if a community works closely together, all the resources necessary will be identified and brought together to address any problems that arise community is perceived as a coming together of all individuals who are interconnected and created by their relationships with one another – no one is inherently bad or good and all have a place in the community one must build relationships with everyone in community and assume good will toward all positive assumptions and constant interaction build good relationships which result in transformational and constructive interactions and community solutions

Ontology = the nature of being

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Tracy’s Scholarship: Applied to �Community Engagement – Dim. 2

Traditional Community Engagement	Progressive Community Engagement
the correct solution will be found by logically deducing the answer from appropriately collected data and proper analysis specialists – universities/faculty are viewed as the experts or authority figures and are separate from the community organizations with whom they interact Scholarship is objective and separate from those that are studied focus is on obtaining verifiable/testable results to make a measurable impact toward achieving a definable goal. "one model fits all" orientation toward obtaining solutions to community problems – somewhat coercive – what worked somewhere else can be applied everywhere else and is scalable. decisionmaking is typically a function of organizational hierarchy; it is centralized authority (top down) Higher education discipline specific promotion and tenure rules and traditions dominate knowledge creation and generation	the correct solution will be found by communicating with individuals in the community who are living with the problem, and tentatively and iteratively trying various solutions until something works generalists – universities/faculty are viewed no differently than civilians and often take a subordinate/tentative position to the knowledge of the community and are an integral part of the community's culture; they work together to define priorities and allocate resources Scholarship is often subjective and involves and is created jointly with and by members of the community, e.g., participatory action research knowledge is based on a cycle of processes and requires indepth knowledge of the community problem solving is defined by eliminating the problem; improving problem handling; manipulating environmental factors; and understanding that solutions may be easy and cheap one time and expensive and complex the next time, depending on the context of the situation emphasis on the devolution of responsibility and decision-making to those closest to the situation who use a wide array of social and government agencies and community resources to arrive at solutions (bottom up) faculty allow and encourage creativity and innovation to flourish regardless of potential for publishable research – more often interdisciplinary