DEFINING PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
Campus defines public engagement as:
- Public engagement involves faculty drawing on their expertise to address or respond to societal problems, concerns, issues, or interests to contribute to the public good.
- Public engagement often occurs in collaboration with public or private communities at the local, state, national, or international level.
- For the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.
- To the extent that they encapsulate the key concepts outlined here, a variety of other terms, such as “civic scholarship”, “community partnerships”, “innovation and entrepreneurship engagement”, “outreach”, “public-facing scholarship”, “public service”, “social innovation”, and “technology transfer”, may be considered public engagement in the context of research, teaching, or service.
DIMENSIONS OF PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
PUBLIC: Collaborators who are external to the university (local, state, national, or international). They are reciprocal co-creators of inquiry (identifying issue), solution design (research/program), beneficiary of solutions/programs, co-author of scholarly products.
COMMUNITY: A group with shared commonalities: geography, identity, affiliation or interest, circumstance, profession or practice, faith, family/kin.
RECIPROCITY: Reciprocity occurs when there is a flow of knowledge, benefits, and information in both directions between the university and its community partners.
SCHOLARLY: Based on existing scholarship, best practices, understandings and generative of new
understandings and scholarly products for academic and public audiences. Scholarly engagement is community-driven (responsive), mutually beneficial, for the public good, collaborative, transformative.
ENGAGED ACTIVITIES
ENGAGED RESEARCH: The Publicly Engaged Research Option guide defines engaged research as research that addresses societal problems and contributes to the public good. Its methods and processes as well as products will vary across disciplines. It:
- Is conducted in collaboration with public organizations, partners, or communities.
- Creates mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources.
- Generates outcomes for all partners, with a focus on societal outcomes.
ENGAGED TEACHING: Engaged teaching is organized around sharing knowledge with various public and campus audiences through either formal or informal arrangements. Types of engaged teaching vary by relationship among the teacher, the learner, and the learning context. Engaged teaching may be for-credit or not-for-credit, guided by a teacher or self-directed.
ENGAGED SERVICE AND PRACTICE: Engaged service is associated with the use of university expertise to address specific issues (ad hoc or long-term) identified by individuals, organizations, or communities. This type of engagement is not primarily driven by a research question, though a research question may be of secondary interest in the activity.