Purpose: This paper aims to examine the broad concept of university-community partnerships as it applies to creating sustainability initiatives. The benefits of university-community partnerships are increasingly recognized, and this paper offers direct insights from community stakeholders on the principles, functions and activities they see as…

Purpose: In this study, we trace the work of refugee student-family mentors (mentors) in an Arizona school district who work across school-family boundaries. Utilizing boundary spanning theory, we examine how education leaders--teachers, school principals, assistant principals, and district administrators--work with the mentors. We document the…

Many studies and reports, both governmental and academic, plus legislation, have suggested and some mandated the establishment of threat assessment teams to protect campuses. These teams have proliferated across university, college and community college campuses nationally. Despite these efforts, targeted violence continues in our communities and…

Service is a fundamental value for the teaching of Pacific-heritage learners. This article describes educators' perspectives of the value of service, one of the values foundational to Tapasa. Findings from interviews, talanoa, and teaching observations show that service is demonstrated and nurtured differently by Pacific and non-Pacific educators,…

This article presents an overview of the creation and consolidation of an undergraduate certificate in Spanish translation offered at the University of Texas at Arlington. The certificate is a 15 credit-hour program oriented towards community translation and service-learning. It also offers a curricular model that could be beneficial for other…

Service-learning (SL) integrates academic curricula and practical experiences to deliver social services to communities. By participating in a SL program, students' prosocial behavior can be nurtured once they are appropriately motivated and supported. This study investigates students' different motivations to join SL programs, the enjoyableness…

There has been growing attention to spirituality, religiosity, and the Black Church in relation to African Americans' mental health. As such, scholars are increasingly recognizing the influence Black churches have in the lives of African Americans and call for collaborative partnerships between mental health professionals and predominantly Black…

This book presents and theorises research findings into why and how school principals play a critical role in engaging parents and their school communities to enhance student learning and wellbeing. It highlights the imperative of parent engagement as evidenced by clear, consistent findings from research over the last fifty years and government…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to reflect upon one vitally important, but widely unexamined, aspect of Historically Black Theological Institutions (HBTIs): the experiences of its Black presidents and their use of critical spirituality (Dantley, 2005) to overcome personal and professional obstacles, challenge assumptions of…

While Massachusetts has received accolades for its high scores on the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) and Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests, absolute results from standardized tests tend to correlate strongly with family income and parental education. The Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education…

Colleges and universities are being increasingly recognized as key contributors to the well-being of the places in which they are located. However, in spite of the promise and potential of place-based engagement, there is little agreement about what place and place-building means or how these concepts can be operationalized in within the context…

The Kettering Foundation is a nonprofit, operating foundation rooted in the American tradition of cooperative research. The foundation seeks to identify and address the challenges to making democracy work as it should through interrelated program areas that focus on citizens, communities, and institutions. Each issue of this annual newsletter…

This article explores shared space at the University of Minnesota's Robert J. Jones Urban Research and Outreach Engagement Center (UROC), located four miles off campus in a community strong in assets, but facing inequality, disinvestment and racism. UROC's mission promotes university-community collaboration to solve critical urban challenges. We…

Given the current political context in the United States, the increased explicit and implicit othering of marginalized communities, and the related societal fracturing--often along ideological lines--this article calls for educators to support and participate in school-community partnerships explicitly framed through a lens of social justice to…

At many universities, there is a growing realization that the university owes a social responsibility to the community. Society invests in its citizens through the university, and the university empowers its students to realize their potential, both as competent professionals and as responsible citizens. This requires the cultivation of attributes…