Collaboratory’s Research Roundup is a quarterly digest that shares a recap of current research in the field of higher education community engagement as it relates to partnership development, assessment, evaluation, and practice. We’ve picked several recent resources to feature here that interested us and our daily work, and that we think also have broader sector relevance.
The resources in this installment share some new publications in the assessment world, and also share some key emerging community-based initiatives related to community engagement and tracking/monitoring, evaluation, assessment, and/or research.
Trends in Assessment: Ideas, Opportunities, and Issues for Higher Education
Just released at the Assessment Institute in October, this compilation of articles put together by Stephen Hundley and Susan Kahn provides an overview of assessment concepts and approaches and how they apply to various programming efforts. Get the book.
Two chapters of interest to our Collaboratory stakeholders:
- Lots of Assessment, Little Improvements: How to Fix the Broken System (Keston Fulcher and Caroline Prendergrast)
- Assessing Community Engagement (Collaboratory Administrator Kristin Norris and Anne Weiss)
Resource Development and the Community Engagement Professional: Building and Sustaining Engaged Institutions
Dr. David Weerts frames the challenge community engagement professionals face of “leading from the middle”, and provides suggestions for positioning engagement as a key strategy for institutional sustainability and resource development. Access the article.
Assessing Research Trends related to Sustainable Development Goals: Local and Global Issues
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all United Nations members in 2015, and commits to 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The SDGs call for all countries to work together to end extreme poverty while improving health and education, reducing inequality, and spurring economic growth (among other goals). In this recent article, Salvia et al. review SDG implementation globally and identify gaps in research that higher education can work to address. Community Engagement initiatives are a key strategy through which the SDGs can be achieved and should be considered in conjunction with such efforts. Access the article.
Eight Myths of US Philanthropy
A call in the Stanford Social Innovation Review to reframe philanthropy as a shared, collective contribution to the wellbeing of communities, vs. as large gifts by wealthy individuals. Beck highlights common misconceptions in today’s society – such that women are less philanthropic than men, millennials are disengaged, and that small gifts don’t matter. Access the article.
Share your Resources!
The articles provided above don’t even begin to scratch the surface of the newest information out there to provide insights on community-university partnerships. If we did not include a resource you think we should know about and share, contact us at [email protected]!
