Community Engagement and Faculty Advancement | Community Engaged Learning, Teaching and Scholarship

Community engagement is an overarching commitment that can inform and enrich all three categories of faculty activity: service, research, and teaching. Faculty members who embody the ideal of community engagement integrate it into their teaching and their research/scholarly/creative activities as well as those activities traditionally categorized as "service."

Community Engaged Scholarship

Community engaged scholarship includes discovering, applying or synthesizing knowledge, skills or ideas in ways that shed light on social, civic or ethical problems or contribute to the well-being of communities and individuals. Generally, scholarly activities categorized as "community engaged" must not only meet the scholarly standards of particular disciplines but also involve groups or organizations outside the university as partners, stakeholders and beneficiaries. Community partners collaborate with engaged scholars by helping define the goals, scope and methods of a particular research or creative project.

Community Engaged Teaching

Community engaged teaching includes service learning and other forms of problem-based, active and experiential learning. Community engaged teaching aims to help students acquire, use, or apply knowledge, ideas and skills in ways that shed light on social, civic or ethical problems or contribute to the well-being of communities and individuals. Community engaged teaching also involves groups and organizations outside the university as partners, stakeholders and beneficiaries.

Community Engaged Service

Community engaged service includes personal or professional outreach or involvement, especially when it takes place in partnership with groups and organizations outside the university and harnesses a faculty member's skills or expertise to contribute to the well-being of communities and individuals.

Example #1

Dr. Patricia Dorn's research on the epidemiology and control of the parasite which causes Chagas disease involves extensive collaboration with laboratories and universities in Central America and Mexico. It has resulted in several successful parasite control projects in Guatemalan villages led by faculty and student researchers and volunteers. It has also resulted in extensive published research and thriving international partnerships.

Example #2

Dr. Erin Dupuis' collaborative faculty-student research on computer literacy as a variable in self-efficacy among homeless men led to a grant to establish a permanent computer lab at Ozanam Inn, the largest all-male homeless shelter in New Orleans. Loyola service learning students from Dr. Dupuis' courses (as well as other courses) sustain the lab by tutoring the Inn's clients in computer skills. This research led to a published paper and a refereed conference presentation.