Past Communities of Practice
Fall 2021:
Beyond the Rhetoric: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Lived Out On Campus
Tuesdays, 11:30 -1:00 pm: 10/5, 10/19, 11/2, 11/16, 11/30, and 12/7
Megan Boone Valkenburg, Wilkes University
Mercedes Franco, Queensborough Community College
In this CoP we will practice structured dialogue and radical listening to support participants’ engagement in unpracticed (a.k.a. “difficult”) conversations around issues of identity, justice, and DEI. Our sessions will include interactive activities and resources intended to assist participants as they identify workplace policies, structures or practices that lead to inequities and as they engage in the development of DEI personal statements and action plans. This CoP is intended to serve as a support network as participants grapple with the topic of DEI in the educational setting.
Community Engaged Learning: Opportunities and Strategies for Success(faculty only)
Wednesdays, 10-11:30am: 10/13, 10/27, 11/10, 11/17, and 12/1
Bill Ball, Nazareth College
Vippy Yee, Penn State-Brandywine
In this participant-driven community of practice we will engage with issues that arise from conducting community engaged learning from a faculty member role. We will cover incentives, opportunities, obstacles and pitfalls distinctive to different types of faculty positions. We will also focus on building solid and productive connections to campus-community engagement centers, other staff and academic units, and, of course, community partners. Opportunities for scholarship and other forms of communicating work with the outside world, including student authorship, will be explored. The backbone of this COP will be the drafting of a personal plan of action by each participant around these topics.
Community Building in a Fractured World: A Civics of Interdependence
Fridays, 12:30 - 2:00 pm: 10/22, 10/29, 11/19, 12/3, 12/7
Samantha Brandauer, Dickinson College
Eric Hartman, Haverford College
We often do not understand and embrace our interdependence well enough. Beyond us as individuals, global histories and contemporary international flows affect all of us in interdependent ways all around the world. This Community of Practice will give participants skills and tools to shift our thinking and actions towards building just, inclusive, sustainable communities through the lens of interdependence. We will make connections between personal inquiries into a place-based civics of interdependence, highlighting opportunities for global thinking and action, locally, along with connections to the Sustainable Development Goals, cultural humility, and global engagement. Participants outcomes will include:
+ Self-reflection and engagement on civic commitment and action
+ Understanding of and capacity to apply open-access tools on local-global, ethical community engagement, and sustainable development goals, featuring opportunities to integrate with courses or co-curricular activities
+ Orientation and opportunity to develop locally-rooted additions to the Global Solidarity, Local Actions Toolkit.
Summer 2021:
Storytelling To Seek Wholeness, Wellness, And Just Relationships
(5 sessions; 1st CoP session offered on a Saturday & the others on Fridays)
June 12, June 18, June 25, July 9, July 30 | 9-10:30 am ET
In this CoP, we will engage in the practice of storytelling and structured dialogue to do identity work, build critical analysis around systems of oppression, and support one another in the learning process. Topics we will focus on include: race, gender, socioeconomic class, and other social identities and systems.
Becoming Indigenous To Place: Strengthening Place-based Community Engagement
(6 sessions offered on Tuesdays)
June 1, June 8, June 15, June 29, July 6, July 13 | 3-4:30 pm ET
Is it possible to become indigenous to a place? What are the barriers? How might “belonging” to a place improve community engagement? This six-session Community of Practice (CoP) will start by exploring Robin Wall Kimmerer’s essay “In the Footsteps of Nanabozho: Becoming Indigenous to Place” in order to interrogate the idea of “place-based” community engagement. Over the remaining weeks, we will consider the implications for different stakeholders in the work of community engagement: students, faculty, community partners, the institution. Our time will be filled with provocative and rich discussions, sharing of best practices, and activities intended to help us reflect on our own sense of place and belonging.
Preparing & Advancing Faculty Capacity for Engaged Scholarship
(5 sessions offered on Thursdays with a 6th CoP optional debrief)
May 27, June 10, June 24, July 8, July 22 | 1-2:30 pm ET
This community of practice will explore various aspects of developing, recruiting, and implementing professional development practices for community-engaged learning (service-learning) faculty. We will use the unique positionality & culture of our respective institutions, Campus Compact suggested competencies in Engaged Faculty Development, principles of adult & professional learning, and values present in ethical scholarship & practice to guide our conversations. Areas of focus will include philosophy and best practices, program modalities and curricular content, and competencies of engaged scholars. Participants will be encouraged to create an end product to bring back to their institutions for personal or institutional consideration.
Faculty Only: Community Engaged Scholarship: Opportunities, Challenges, and Strategies for Success
(5 sessions offered on Tuesdays)
June 1, June 8, June 15, June 22, June 29 | 10-11:30 am ET
We will examine changing cultures of community-engaged scholarship with an eye to supporting and encouraging the participants in this cohort. The intertwined crises of climate, health, race, democracy, and economy are posing new opportunities and new challenges for scholars to step in and step up. This CoP makes a space for publicly-engaged scholars to connect around their work, explore challenges and solutions, identify new avenues of support, and perhaps more, as determined by participants. Participants will have the opportunity to develop an individualized plan of action that incorporates the research, strategies, tools, and new relationships cultivated in the sessions. The sessions will be customized to the needs of the participants but topics may include: finding and collaborating with community partners; mentoring students in community engagement; aspects of practice; cultivating institutional advocates and support; and crafting products and portfolios that make the most of their engaged scholarship.
Storytelling To Seek Wholeness, Wellness, And Just Relationships
(5 sessions; 1st CoP session offered on a Saturday & the others on Fridays)
June 12, June 18, June 25, July 9, July 30 | 9-10:30 am ET
In this CoP, we will engage in the practice of storytelling and structured dialogue to do identity work, build critical analysis around systems of oppression, and support one another in the learning process. Topics we will focus on include: race, gender, socioeconomic class, and other social identities and systems.
Becoming Indigenous To Place: Strengthening Place-based Community Engagement
(6 sessions offered on Tuesdays)
June 1, June 8, June 15, June 29, July 6, July 13 | 3-4:30 pm ET
Is it possible to become indigenous to a place? What are the barriers? How might “belonging” to a place improve community engagement? This six-session Community of Practice (CoP) will start by exploring Robin Wall Kimmerer’s essay “In the Footsteps of Nanabozho: Becoming Indigenous to Place” in order to interrogate the idea of “place-based” community engagement. Over the remaining weeks, we will consider the implications for different stakeholders in the work of community engagement: students, faculty, community partners, the institution. Our time will be filled with provocative and rich discussions, sharing of best practices, and activities intended to help us reflect on our own sense of place and belonging.
Preparing & Advancing Faculty Capacity for Engaged Scholarship
(5 sessions offered on Thursdays with a 6th CoP optional debrief)
May 27, June 10, June 24, July 8, July 22 | 1-2:30 pm ET
This community of practice will explore various aspects of developing, recruiting, and implementing professional development practices for community-engaged learning (service-learning) faculty. We will use the unique positionality & culture of our respective institutions, Campus Compact suggested competencies in Engaged Faculty Development, principles of adult & professional learning, and values present in ethical scholarship & practice to guide our conversations. Areas of focus will include philosophy and best practices, program modalities and curricular content, and competencies of engaged scholars. Participants will be encouraged to create an end product to bring back to their institutions for personal or institutional consideration.
Faculty Only: Community Engaged Scholarship: Opportunities, Challenges, and Strategies for Success
(5 sessions offered on Tuesdays)
June 1, June 8, June 15, June 22, June 29 | 10-11:30 am ET
We will examine changing cultures of community-engaged scholarship with an eye to supporting and encouraging the participants in this cohort. The intertwined crises of climate, health, race, democracy, and economy are posing new opportunities and new challenges for scholars to step in and step up. This CoP makes a space for publicly-engaged scholars to connect around their work, explore challenges and solutions, identify new avenues of support, and perhaps more, as determined by participants. Participants will have the opportunity to develop an individualized plan of action that incorporates the research, strategies, tools, and new relationships cultivated in the sessions. The sessions will be customized to the needs of the participants but topics may include: finding and collaborating with community partners; mentoring students in community engagement; aspects of practice; cultivating institutional advocates and support; and crafting products and portfolios that make the most of their engaged scholarship.
Spring 2021:
Exploring the College Environment, Social Media, and Pedagogy Supporting Digital Civic Engagement
February 26, March 12, March 26, April 9, April 23 | 2:00 – 4:00 PM
The modern era has enabled the use of technology to foster communities. College students and colleges themselves use social media to build community and narrate their point of view to the world. This community of practice will explore the utility of various social media platforms and how they inform community-building in digital spaces. We will also identify effective ways to leverage digital technologies to increase participation in critical discussions, cultivate inclusive environments, foster learning experiences, and strengthen civic engagement.
Civic Engagement as Social Innovation
February 16, March 2, March 16, March 30, April 13 | 10:00 – 11:30 AM
As social innovation continually plays an enormous role in addressing social needs and restructuring societies, we believe that people can be empowered to drive change through civic engagement. This five-week Community of Practice (CoP) will provide various avenues that will encourage participants to think through ideas and generate solutions to social trends and issues. Through collaborative learning and discussions, this CoP will further allow participants to assess their level of civic mindedness and share valuable perspectives and insights. As life-long learners, we hope to work together in this practice to enhance our collective professional development, share best practices and also deepen our understanding of civic engagement as a key component of social innovation.
Establishing, Maintaining, and Celebrating Place-Based Relationships
February 18, March 4, March 18, April 1, April 15, April 29 | 3:00 – 4:30 PM
Throughout six sessions together, we will explore in-depth best practices in establishing, maintaining, and celebrating place-based relationships. Participants will reflect on their institution’s “value-add” to community partners, as well as practice communicating these details across various constituencies. We will discuss our responsibilities in preparing students to approach community-based work with an antiracist lens and consider how this may affect our relationships with our partners. We will share relationship challenges and explore, as a collective, how to mediate ways to grow and nurture ourselves and our partners. As a group, we will share best practices, as well as consider less-traditional forms of interaction with community partners. Finally, we will explore the importance of celebrating our relationships, and model this through a closing celebration of our new relationships formed as a CoP.
Community Engaged Scholarship: Challenges, Opportunities, and Strategies for Success (faculty only)
February 17, March 3, March 17, April 7, April 21 | Noon – 1:30 PM
In this faculty, participant-driven, community of practice, we will discuss changing cultures of engagement and barriers to community engaged scholarship in higher education. There will be a focus on strategies and tools to successfully incorporate scholarship and praxis into faculty work. This includes reflecting on opportunities for involving students and communities/community partners in engaged research and scholarship, publishing engaged scholarship, and workshopping the sharing of participants’ own community engaged scholarship priorities.
Exploring the College Environment, Social Media, and Pedagogy Supporting Digital Civic Engagement
February 26, March 12, March 26, April 9, April 23 | 2:00 – 4:00 PM
The modern era has enabled the use of technology to foster communities. College students and colleges themselves use social media to build community and narrate their point of view to the world. This community of practice will explore the utility of various social media platforms and how they inform community-building in digital spaces. We will also identify effective ways to leverage digital technologies to increase participation in critical discussions, cultivate inclusive environments, foster learning experiences, and strengthen civic engagement.
Civic Engagement as Social Innovation
February 16, March 2, March 16, March 30, April 13 | 10:00 – 11:30 AM
As social innovation continually plays an enormous role in addressing social needs and restructuring societies, we believe that people can be empowered to drive change through civic engagement. This five-week Community of Practice (CoP) will provide various avenues that will encourage participants to think through ideas and generate solutions to social trends and issues. Through collaborative learning and discussions, this CoP will further allow participants to assess their level of civic mindedness and share valuable perspectives and insights. As life-long learners, we hope to work together in this practice to enhance our collective professional development, share best practices and also deepen our understanding of civic engagement as a key component of social innovation.
Establishing, Maintaining, and Celebrating Place-Based Relationships
February 18, March 4, March 18, April 1, April 15, April 29 | 3:00 – 4:30 PM
Throughout six sessions together, we will explore in-depth best practices in establishing, maintaining, and celebrating place-based relationships. Participants will reflect on their institution’s “value-add” to community partners, as well as practice communicating these details across various constituencies. We will discuss our responsibilities in preparing students to approach community-based work with an antiracist lens and consider how this may affect our relationships with our partners. We will share relationship challenges and explore, as a collective, how to mediate ways to grow and nurture ourselves and our partners. As a group, we will share best practices, as well as consider less-traditional forms of interaction with community partners. Finally, we will explore the importance of celebrating our relationships, and model this through a closing celebration of our new relationships formed as a CoP.
Community Engaged Scholarship: Challenges, Opportunities, and Strategies for Success (faculty only)
February 17, March 3, March 17, April 7, April 21 | Noon – 1:30 PM
In this faculty, participant-driven, community of practice, we will discuss changing cultures of engagement and barriers to community engaged scholarship in higher education. There will be a focus on strategies and tools to successfully incorporate scholarship and praxis into faculty work. This includes reflecting on opportunities for involving students and communities/community partners in engaged research and scholarship, publishing engaged scholarship, and workshopping the sharing of participants’ own community engaged scholarship priorities.