In this article, the author reflects on ways that their folklore-studies approach to the college writing classroom enables Virginia Commonwealth University's diverse student population, and especially historically marginalized groups, to create and appreciate cultural texts. Illustrated is how a "material culture" course theme can convey…

Co-design is fundamental to humanitarian engineering and increasingly recognised as such in engineering curricula. However, it is challenging to teach, learn, and assess. In this paper, we describe the development and validation of a scenario-based instrument to distinguish novice and expert approaches to co-design in the context of humanitarian…

The public impact of higher education is often associated with the research and engagement enterprises of an institution, but through its support of career readiness skills and high-impact learning experiences, general education also has the potential to impact an institution's public communities and constituency. This article reflects on general…

Recent incidents of school-based violence have resulted in the widespread implementation of school safety strategies across the United States. While research on these strategies has grown over the past decade, there is little understanding about their collective influence on indicators of school violence. Using data from the 2007-2008 School…

In the summer of 2014, students from universities in the contiguous United States (Lower 48) and Inupiat youth from Alaska carried out a pilot project as participants/co-researchers in a process called Intergenerational Dialog, Exchange, and Action (IDEA). This action-oriented, community-based, and participatory research method was first developed…

The Performance Assessment for Leaders (PAL) was developed by a team of nationally recognized experts in response to a Massachusetts requirement to determine and evaluate the leadership abilities of candidates seeking initial school principal licensure. This article describes and evaluates research conducted on all aspects of a 2014-2015 statewide…

Offering examples from her own experiences, the author advises community-engaged scholars (and those mentors and institutions that support them) to always question assumptions with respect to the communities in which they are engaged. She notes that as they work to unfold research programs, they should be sure to listen carefully to the…

Not yet citizens, adolescents are encouraged through civic education to consider an active role in the future political life of their societies. This study seeks to understand the mediating role of political self-efficacy and political interest in the association between previous civic experience and Asian adolescents' expected participation in…

The purpose of this research is to describe and analyze the involvement process of informal sector workers as learning society in "Kampung Inggris" Pare Kediri. Informal sector workers play an enormous role in learning society activities, both in course institutions and in community activities, especially informal sector workers with…

In this paper, we investigate mentor perspectives of their roles as de facto "teacher educators." Drawing upon three years of qualitative data, we argue that community voices and knowledge should be reflected in decisions regarding what and how children are taught. We assert that, by broadening the definition of "teacher…

The purpose of this article is to provide an educational, theoretical, and methodological framework for using a special kind of action research, namely PALAR (participatory action learning and action research). This integrated methodology of lifelong action learning (AL) and participatory action research (PAR) has been developed over the past…

Education reformers must resist the tendency to use "community engagement" as a means for getting stakeholders to rubber-stamp a predetermined agenda. The tokenism of key grassroots stakeholders and the field of community engagement must be avoided. To do so, leaders and their institutions must continually reflect on how they include…

For people living in rural communities, opportunities to meet STEM professionals and visit the science centers, museums, zoos, and aquariums usually found in urban areas are often limited because of geographical isolation, socioeconomic disadvantage, and in many cases, language barriers. To address this issue, two University of Washington (UW)…

The Three Tier system of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) which was put in place with 73rd amendment in the constitution of India, is a major initiative for democratic decentralization. PRIs are acting successfully and gradually becoming more powerful and resourceful. Now most of the Panchayets, including block and village level, are having…

Too often youth from vulnerable communities see themselves talked about in academic research, but are rarely involved as co-researchers or co-authors of research. The purpose of this article is to share our reflections on engaging youth, their experiences and their perspectives on the multi-levels of impact of participatory action research…