COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & the Ed.D.: A critique of the social

service industry and technocratic forms of engagement

Lina Dostilio, Ed.D.,

Duquesne University

dostilioL@duq.edu

412.396.5893

Setting the landscape

Narrowing the perspective

Focusing on the point

Community Engagement

“… mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.”

(Carnegie Foundation, 2006)

Purposes of Community Engagement

(Carnegie Foundation, 2008)

To “enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity;

enhance curriculum, teaching and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic

responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good.” (Carnegie

Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching)

New Insight?

Troubling or Confusing?

What purposes in CPED? From where do you want your students to

come? (Recruitment) What do you want your students to know?

(Equity, Ethics, and Social Justice) What kinds of leaders do you wish to

produce? (Collaboration, Communication, Work with diverse communities and partnerships)

Where do you want their learning to occur? (In the field, in situ)

3 Paradigmatic Reasons Engagement Efforts Fail

1. We diagnose and treat rather than celebrate and collaborate.

2. We aren’t part of the communities we hope to engage.

3. We forget it’s not about us.

A Tale of Clipboards: Diagnose and Treat

Engagement is different from consultation, service, or treatment. It depends upon co-learning and co-labor.

Becoming or Staying a Part of…

“We are not your laboratory, your playground for ideas. Come home to my house tonight. Listen to my babies. Talk to my neighbors. Sit up on my porch. Come play in this broken down park over here. Come to worship with us. Then you’ll know what this is.”

Decentering the University

See also Saltmarsh, Clayton, & Hartley (2009) Democratic Engagement White Paper for original framework

See also Saltmarsh, Clayton, & Hartley (2009) Democratic Engagement White Paper for original framework

Quick start steps… for programs

① Attract civically oriented faculty

② Make the environment favorable: RPT

③ Share projects/ partnerships between and among faculty

④ Participating in the life of the community leads to diverse activities

⑤ Include collaborators in the life of the program (side-by-side classes, orientation, retreat, evaluations)

Quick start steps… for faculty

① Find the analog to my Center on your campus.

② Look at your pre-existing concerns and seek the pre-existing coalitions that address those concerns

③ Integrate teaching, research, and advocacy

④ Seek multi-disciplinary partners

⑤ Embrace place

Lina Dostilio, Ed.D.,

Duquesne University

dostilioL@duq.edu

412.396.5893