This study explored the civic engagement of adults holding an associate's degree compared to those holding a bachelor's degree. Most prior research has focused on individuals who hold 4-year degrees; the present study, however, sought to understand differences between holders of 2-year degrees and 4-year degrees. Descriptive statistics…

This article reports on how one teacher education program utilized a Learn and Serve America grant to embed service-learning experiences into its practices. Included are narrative reflections on how the program faculty developed a community-based, participatory approach to service-learning in order to act as a responsive partner to the needs of…

Universities' increasing applications of science and technology to address a wide array of societal problems may serve to thwart democratic engagement strategies. For emerging technologies, such challenges are particularly salient, as knowledge is incomplete and application and impact are uncertain or contested. Insights from science and…

This qualitative study provides a theoretical framework for understanding faculty members' motivation to persist in utilizing academic service-learning pedagogy. Twenty-four faculty members from a private liberal arts university in the southeastern United States were interviewed about the benefits and challenges of teaching academic…

How do leaders of the scholarship of engagement (SOE) experience and define this field? Although there have been a significant number of reports and national forums, the field continues to experience diversity of understandings and ambiguity in this discourse. To gain insights into these differing understandings of SOE, this study explored the…

The role of higher education is changing in today's world because the world itself is changing, and complex problems confront us daily. This essay will explore the role of an emerging group of individuals who can serve as a bridge between the academic community and the world at large. These administrators, faculty members, staff, students,…

Narratives from 3 presenters at the closing session of the 2013 Engagement Scholarship Consortium Conference demonstrate that higher education institutions and communities can forge deep and sustainable relationships to address the "wicked problems" in their countries and communities. University leaders in Nigeria described how students…

In this reflective essay I examine the activity of a bus tour, organized as the result of an ongoing university and city partnership. I illustrate how riding the bus is not only symbolic for positionality in our society, but also how it can be a viable mechanism for initiating boundary spanning and promoting opportunities for place-based learning…

The move to "internationalize" United States universities has contributed to increased interest in global service-learning. This article presents qualitative data collected by a team of faculty and students during a service immersion in Nicaragua. The solidarity model of service-learning attempts to address shortcomings of earlier…

Community engagement professionals and partners serve as, work with, study, and build the capacity of boundary spanners. To augment knowledge about these functions, the Weerts-Sandmann Boundary Spanning Conceptual Framework (2010) has been operationalized through a survey instrument to examine community engagement boundary-spanning behaviors by…

Today's Cooperative Extension organization continues to face challenges of providing relevant, quality programming in urban communities. Challenges include the ability to build capacity in Extension's urban youth educators to assess and interpret the unique, variable needs of urban clients and to communicate effectively the identified…

The purpose of this action research study was to explore how community colleges increase their capacity for community engagement. Faculty and staff members who were identified as community engagement leaders within a public community college participated in a series of interventions to improve community engagement practices within the college. The…

In university-community partnerships, boundary spanners can flexibly traverse historically divided lines to increase access to resources and build upon reciprocal partnerships. Previous research has examined the roles of boundary spanners but only from the perspectives of the institutional partners. The purpose of this dissertation study was to…

Community boundary spanners create ties that bind the campus and its surrounding region for reciprocal relationships. Using community boundary spanning literature as a conceptual framework, this study went beyond existing research on public and 4-year comprehensive universities to examine how university leadership at rural, private liberal arts…

A model is presented for coordinated community planning to address multiple service needs in two countries. Two communities, one in western Texas and one in the United Kingdom, found that despite the considerable efforts of multiple organizations, the local social, educational, and health services remained uncoordinated. Furthermore, there was no…