ABSTRACT
Academe-based conversadons on service-learning and community engagement invariably turn to laments about the trials of faculty members who seek rewards and recognition for their efforts in burgeoning field, particularly through the key areas of promotion and tenure. This chapter summarizes research related to community engagement work in the professoriate, current trends in promotion and tenure systems supporting such work, and findings from the examination of actual cases that were advanced for promotion and tenure decisions. More direct evidence regarding support for community engagement through promotion and tenure systems is provided by an analysis of the first set of Carnegie classified community-engaged institutions. The compelling issues of rewarding service-learning and community engagement are bound to broader issues related to institutional accountability and relevancy; the context of the larger civic and community engagement movement; the nature of knowledge and how it is constructed, legitimized, and shared; and the accelerating demands on the professoriate.
