ABSTRACT
What practices can researchers use to gain a more nuanced understanding of educational issues in the community and be part of the solution to those issues?Engaged Research and Practice is about two prevailing and complementary ideas that have surfaced in the higher education arena: engaged research and higher education for the public good. Engaged research is scholarship that not only attempts to open up new knowledge, but it does so with a sense that the new knowledge, insight and directions have a direct relationship to needs and problems within our communities, institutions, and policy arenas. Engaged, actionable, or participatory research and scholarship attempts to tackle the identified issues of our communities and society. This handbook offers important insights and tangible examples of how higher education leaders may work directly with communities and in policy settings to understand the deeper meanings often lost in conversations about educational opportunity. Each chapter addresses the ways in which faculty, community and administrative leaders may connect research and practice through unique research projects. The authors offer clear explanations of "how" their engaged research was conducted to illustrate explicit pathways for practitioners. This book also includes short narratives where authors involved with this research reflect on their experiences and the lessons they have learned while immersed in community and policy related work.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part One|34 pages
Introduction to Engaged Research and Practice
chapter 2|14 pages
Scholarship and Activism on behalf of Higher Education's Public Good Mission
part Two|72 pages
Engaging the Community Level
chapter 3|20 pages
Conflating Community Means with Organizational Ends
chapter 4|18 pages
Community Agency and College-Going Culture
chapter 5|20 pages
Collaborative Approaches to Community Change
part Three|81 pages
Engaging the Institutional Level
chapter 6|25 pages
Challenges to Diversity
chapter |5 pages
Reflective Narrative
chapter |2 pages
Reflective Narrative
part Four|82 pages
Engaging Policy Discussions at the State and National Levels
chapter 9|24 pages
Undocumented Student Access to Higher Education
chapter 11|27 pages
Linking State Priorities with Local Strategies
part Five|9 pages
Concluding Thoughts on Engaged Research and Practice