The pandemic has shown how important schools are as networks of support for children and families. Our project, "Learning Through Disruption," also shows that schools have a particularly vital role in addressing the needs of high poverty communities, both directly and indirectly. Yet this work goes largely unrecognised and underfunded.…

The goal of this article is to describe a university-community partnership sponsored by a university office of civic engagement. University-community partnerships are common, but many collaborations are fraught with challenges because of power inequities or differing goals and ways of operating. Aware of the potential pitfalls, the…

This article describes community-university partnership building, course development/management, and evaluation outcomes related to an intensive community-based research project that was integrated in two sections of an undergraduate course on community practice. Pre- and posttest data were collected from 60 BSW students who were enrolled in…

This article describes an early-stage collaborative partnership between a local community foundation and a regional campus of a major university to increase dialogue on the strategic importance and practical execution of advanced social media best practices for small- to medium-sized businesses. Started through a grant won by the author, an…

Education is a complex social practice. In the United Kingdom context, schooling is further nested within the complex social practices of community governance, quasi-market public choice, and religion. This essay explores the shifting definitions of community and education in the context of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015, which places…

Military-connected youths experience stressful life events, including deployments and multiple school transitions, that make them vulnerable to bullying. Social workers have highlighted the power of grassroots school community initiatives that address risk issues among youths while empowering the community (see http://www.thecommunityguide.org).…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the concept of sustainability imaginaries--unifying core assumptions on what sustainability entails held by stakeholders--set within a large suburban Canadian university. The study aims to expand the field of research into imaginaries by focusing on imaginaries within an institution as opposed to a societal or…

Collaboration among state legislators, Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) and Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) faculty, community leaders, teachers and school administrators is currently taking place in Connecticut to make it a physically active state through PASS (Physically Active Schools Systems). PASS is a comprehensive,…

Building on a long-term university/community research partnership, this article examines how different ways of conceptualizing, interpreting, and producing murals impacted how an urban community saw itself. Using a participatory action research design, university researchers worked alongside community researchers to ethnographically document the…

The relevance and effectiveness of traditional, course- and clinical-experience-based models of teacher preparation have been called into question, and institutions of teacher education must respond to the changing landscape of educational policy, which increasingly emphasizes that candidates must be prepared for challenges faced in complex,…

The question of how students' sense of membership and connectedness to their school can be supported through school practices concerns educational contexts internationally. According to the Programme of International Student Achievement test, students' experiences of school belonging have decreased and polarized in many of the participating…

This dissertation study explores the perceptions of principals as literacy leaders and the enactment of these perceptions in high-need elementary schools. Literacy leadership, as perceived by principals, was analyzed based on interview data from six participants. Individual cases were studied for the unique characterizations each participant…

This literature review provides an overview of the research on Grow Your Own (GYO) educator programs as a strategy for states and district to employ to help recruit and retain teachers of color. It emphasizes equitable approaches and critical perspectives that combine the powerful roles of "homegrown" teachers, culturally-relevant…

As part of an ethnographic study of one rural school-community relationship, this paper explores how school and community leaders conceive of the purpose of schooling in their community, delineates the educational policies and practices that support this purpose, and offers insight into the implications of such a purpose. Adding to the rural…

As stated by Joyce L. Epstein (2011: 4) school and family partnerships framework is "a better approach" to the involvement of all subjects of the pedagogical process, i.e. pupils, parents and teachers than its two extreme options, i.e. "waiting for involvement or dictating it." The fact that school-family partnerships play a…