Although a large body of literature discusses the advancement of community engagement in higher education, a less substantial body of scholarship explores how engagement is promoted and institutionalized within universities. In this exploratory study, using a discourse analysis of official reports posted on the websites of three university cases,…

With the continued growth in online education, higher education institutions have moved community engagement further into virtual spaces through e-service learning courses (Faulconer, 2021). These courses have a history of being client-based, rather than critical or transformational (Strait & Nordyke, 2015). I argue that this conception of…

Purpose: This study aims to delve into the evolution, trends and implications of scientific production related to service learning (SL) and community engagement for sustainability in higher education institutions (HEIs). Because HEIs play a crucial role in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs), experiential learning approaches are…

This chapter highlights community building as a pedagogical foundation for effective integration of service-learning and community engagement practices in higher education.

Purpose: The purpose of this empirical research paper is to investigate the self-perceived role of the community partner of a higher education service-learning and community engagement module. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach was followed by distributing a questionnaire to the community partners of a community engagement module…

Service-learning models serve as noteworthy curriculum paradigms that can help students engage with their communities while continuously learning. This article recounts the implementation of a service-learning model within a student initiative aimed to help combat vaccine hesitancy and promote the uptake of vaccinations within the Rhode Island…

Interfaith America's 2023 Landscape Analysis explores the purpose, range of desired outcomes, promising models, challenges, and opportunities of bridgebuilding efforts across U.S. higher education. This article articulates the importance of bridgebuilding for the sector and summarizes key findings from the Landscape Analysis. It highlights…

Higher education institutions pursue three distinct yet interrelated missions of education, knowledge production, and community engagement. Until the last decades of the twentieth century, the third mission, also known as community engagement, has received little attention. Although the third mission generally aims to contribute to the…

Service learning and community engagement (SLCE) have become near ubiquitous across United States (U.S.) higher education. While much research has demonstrated positive student learning outcomes of SLCE, there has been unequal consideration towards understanding the experiences of communities involved. Because community voices and perspectives…

Community-Based Research (CBR) presents a wide range of benefits in higher education to students, community partners, and universities. Yet on our campus (and many others), CBR remains less common than other high-impact practices (HIPs) such as service learning and undergraduate research due to lack of effective institutionalization. Moreover,…

This theoretical paper anchors service learning (S-L) in three broad sociological theories. From there, discussions on the actual implementation of S-L based on these theories are explained to build an integrated S-L sociological framework. Four S-L modalities of community engagement are identified--namely transactional, transitional,…

Higher education institutions are increasingly required to provide a measured response to perceptions that challenge institutions' value proposition as assets to their communities. This article focuses on best practices in the campus' efforts to create a pathway to demonstrate community impact. The ability of systematic tracking of partnership and…

Background: Social responsibility and democratic citizenship are essential outcomes of a college education. Yet limited research has examined how college experiences may relate to students' moral and prosocial development, qualities that ground responsibility and citizenship. Purpose: This research sought to identify the college experiences,…

As community-based global learning (CBGL) programs become more common on college/university campuses and utilize the UN's Sustainable Development Goals to guide programmatic outcomes, open-access evaluation instruments that both benchmark and effectively measure programmatic enhancements over time are needed. The 147-item Community Engagement and…

High-impact practices (HIPs) are educationally purposeful activities that college students experience in and out of the classroom which are found to be positively related to several learning outcomes including: better gain of academic knowledge and artistic skills, recognition of community issues and real-world problems, career success and…