Full Description
What practices can researchers use to gain a more nuanced understanding of educational issues in the community and be part of the solution to those issues?Engaged Research and Practice is about two prevailing and complementary ideas that have surfaced in the higher education arena: engaged research and higher education for the public good. Engaged research is scholarship that not only attempts to open up new knowledge, but it does so with a sense that the new knowledge, insight and directions have a direct relationship to needs and problems within our communities, institutions, and policy arenas. Engaged, actionable, or participatory research and scholarship attempts to tackle the identified issues of our communities and society. This handbook offers important insights and tangible examples of how higher education leaders may work directly with communities and in policy settings to understand the deeper meanings often lost in conversations about educational opportunity. Each chapter addresses the ways in which faculty, community and administrative leaders may connect research and practice through unique research projects. The authors offer clear explanations of "how" their engaged research was conducted to illustrate explicit pathways for practitioners. This book also includes short narratives where authors involved with this research reflect on their experiences and the lessons they have learned while immersed in community and policy related work.
Contents
Series Foreword - Edward P. St. John Foreword - Tony Chambers Acknowledgments PART ONE. Introduction to Engaged Research and Practice 1. Engagement for the Common Good. Situating the National Forum's Work, Betty Overton 2. Scholarship and Activism on Behalf of Higher Education's Public Good Mission. An Organizational Context. John C. Burkhardt PART TWO. Engaging the Community Level 3. Conflating Community Means With Organizational Ends. Strengthening Reciprocity in a Multisector Higher Education Access Partnership, Elizabeth Hudson 4. Community Agency and College-Going Culture. The Use of Participatory Action Research, Esmeralda Hernandez-Hamed 5. Collaborative Approaches to Community Change. The Complexities of Power, Collaboration, and Social Change, Penny A. Pasque Refl ective Narrative. Finding Voice in Communidad, Estefanía López Refl ective Narrative. Making Herstory. Inside and Outside the Walls of Academia, Lena M. Khader Refl ective Narrative. The Education Of A Fontanero, Jessica L. Cañas PART THREE. Engaging the Institutional Level 6. Challenges to Diversity. Engaged Administrative Leadership for Transformation in Contested Domains, Cassie L. Barnhardt 7. Access Points to the American Dream. Immigrant Students in Community Colleges, Kyle Southern, Teresita Wisell, and Jill Casner-Lotto 8. Organizational Transformation for Catalytic Social Change, Lara Kovacheff -Badke Refl ective Narrative. A View From the Hyphen Bridging. Theory and Practice, Will Cherrin Refl ective Narrative. A Journey of Social Consciousness and Action From Teaching Assistantship and Service-Learning Experiences, Megan B. Lebre Refl ective Narrative. The Impact of Research Involvement on My Own Understanding of Educational Equity, Briana Akani PART FOUR. Engaging Policy Discussions at the State and National Levels 9. Undocumented Student Access to Higher Education. Focused Efforts at the Federal and Institutional Levels, Kimberly A. Reyes, Aurora Kamimura, and Kyle Southern 10. "The Problem With Our Students . . . Is That Their Families Don't Value Education", Magdalena Martinez 11. Linking State Priorities With Local Strategies. Examining the Role of Communities in Postsecondary Access and Success in Michigan, Nathan J. Daun-Barnett Refl ective Narrative. Ashley Smith's Journey, Ashley Smith Refl ective Narrative. Growing, Learning, and Bringing Back, Amicia Gomez Bowman Refl ective Narrative. Undocumented Students, Chengchen Zhu PART FIVE Concluding Thoughts on Engaged Research and Practice 12. Refl ections. Lessons Learned and Next Steps, Betty Overton Contributors Index